Reading to Learn

Reading to Learn Design: Keeping My Shiny Teeth Clean with Summarization

Rationale: A student isn't reading if they do not understand the message of the text; they are just decoding words. The goal is to teach readers how to read to learn because this is an essential skill for life. In this lesson, students will learn to use the the strategy of summarization. Summarization shows wether a student has fully grasped the major concepts of a reading. This lesson will help students to eliminate pointless information in order to identify the important points.We will use the all about point message by discovering the main points of the text.

Materials: Smartboard, markers/highlighters, paper, pencils, copies of National Geographic Articles: "Mint Candy" and "OJ After Brushing Teeth"(1 per student), summary checklist (1 per student).

Procedures:

Say: Have you ever read an exciting book and wanted to tell your friends about it? Do you read them the whole book or just tell them about the main points? (wait for students to answer). Good job! We don’t tell them everything, we only tell them the main points. This is called summarization. When you tell someone a summary, it shows that you know what you have read.
Say: There are some good rules to follow when we summarize. First, we remove unimportant information. Second, we delete repeated information. You will do this by using an umbrella term that covers all the predicates in the section. Lastly, we have to find or make a statement that covers all of the information that the writer is saying in the text. We sometimes call this a topic sentence because this covers all of the information that the writer is saying about the topic. This can be challenging because there is not always a topic sentence in the passage, so the reader may have to create one. We will practice summarization later.
Say: Before we practice using summarization, we are going to review some vocabulary that is in the article we will read. While reading, you may come across some tricky words. For example, the word “anesthetic” is used. In this context anesthetics is a medicine that dulls your pain but doesn't make you fall asleep. So menthol is an aesthetic because it puts your hot receptors to sleep making you have a cool and refreshing feeling in your mouth. Which of these would be an example of an aesthetic: an oil clove that is sometimes given by dentists to help soothe toothaches and sore gums, or a strong medicine that puts you to sleep during a serious surgery? (Ask class). Yes the answer is the oil clove, because it reduces your pain without putting you to sleep! Everyone come up with a way to finish this sentence: The doctor gave me an anesthetic for my pounding headaches and it… Possible answers: made the headache go away, reduced my pain.
Say: Now that we have learned a new word, let’s try summarizing the article. We are going to read about the effects of mint candy. Do you think mint candy is good for your teeth? You may have lots of mint candies or have mint in your toothpastes. Watch me as I summarize the first paragraph. I will underline the main ideas, and cross out the unimportant things. I will read the first sentence and think to myself, is this important? This is important because it explains what menthol is, which is the anesthetic in mint. Then I read the second sentence, and this addresses that menthol is an anesthetic and compares it to relatable things for students to understand. The third sentence explains what anesthetics are so this is important for context. The fourth sentence we can cross out because it points out that other essential oils may have that effect. The fifth sentence we can cross out because it gives an example of another essential oil that is an anesthetic. The last sentence we can cross out because it is just a small joke so it is not necessary for you to remember. I can now come up with a topic sentence. I would write something like, “Menthol is the anesthetic in mint.”
Say: Let’s try summarizing the second paragraph together. I am going to put it on the projector, and you will tell me what to underline and cross out. (Put paragraph on the board). Can anyone tell me what is happening in this paragraph? What should I underline? (Wait for answers). Great! I will underline “That’s because the menthol in your candy is just a very mild anesthetic that acts on nerve endings in your mouth” and “Some of these nerve endings act as hot receptors, while others detect things that are cold.” and “Since mint oils have the ability to put your mouth’s hot receptors to sleep by making them less sensitive to heat, the signals normally sent to the brain by your cold receptors start to stand out a lot more in comparison.”. What should we cross-out? (Wait for answers?) Great! We can cross out “The brain then interprets these signals as a cold sensation. (Talk about being in mint condition!)” Because it further addresses that in another sentence and “So the next time you hear people in commercials singing about the “cool and refreshing” taste of their mint candies, you’ll know they’re not kidding!” and you can remove this because it is just a joke and not necessary for comprehension. Can we come up with a topic sentence? I would write something like, “Menthol is an anesthetic in mint that puts our hot receptors to sleep, giving us a cool and refreshing feeling in our mouth.”
Say: Now that you have watched me summarize and we have worked together as a class, it is time for you to show me what you know. I want you to summarize this new article, “OJ after Brushing Teeth”. I want you to remember the rules that we used. Underline the important things and cross out the unimportant things. Use the checklist to make sure your summary meets the requirements. Get your neighbor to fill out the checklist for yours and you do it for them. This will give your partner the change to improve their summary before they turn it in to me. Summarizing helps you understand the passage.

Assessment:

I will ask the student comprehension questions. I will use the checklist below to determine if the student is using summarization correctly.

Comprehension Questions:

What does the secret chemical in toothpaste do to your tastebuds?

What tastes does the secret chemical in toothpaste not turn off?

Why do you only taste certain parts of orange juice after brushing your teeth?

Does it take a long time for you to gain these taste buds back after brushing your teeth?

Assessment checklist:

Student Name: ______________________________

1. Did the student underline important ideas?

__________ yes __________no

2. Did the student cross out trivial ideas?

__________yes __________no

3. Did the student cross out repeated ideas?

__________yes _________no

4. Did the student come up with a topic sentence?

__________yes _________no

5. Does the topic sentence capture the main idea of text?

__________yes _________no

References:

“Mint Candy” http://discoverykids.com/articles/mint-candy/

“OJ After Teeth Brushing” http://discoverykids.com/articles/o-j-after-teeth-brushing/

Muller, Lauren.““Killer” Reading Instincts- Summarization” http://laurenmuller96.wixsite.com/teacherwebpage/beginning-reading

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