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Learning to Read

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Rationale: We want our students to become comprehensive readers. A comprehensive reader is a reader who can summarize the information they read in a text. Summarization is a strategy taught by readers so they can write down the important information of what they read and the key details. This can be done by determining what is important in a text and what is less important. The about-point method is used to summarize the text by asking what it is about and what the main point the writer is trying to say. The “about” becomes the subject of the sentence and the “point” becomes the predicate. In this lesson students will be able to summarize readings by using the about-point method to show comprehension. They will also take a quiz to show their comprehension.

 

Materials:

1.  Pencils (one for each student)

2. Paper (one for each student)

3. Whiteboard to Write Sentence (Enzymes can help animals and plants...)

4. Summarization Checklist (for students and teacher)

5. Comprehension Quiz (one for each student)

6. Copies of “Meat-Eating Plants” (one for each student)

 

 

Procedure:

1. Say: “Today we’re going to be learning how to summarize the main idea of a text! Does anyone know what the word summarize means? (wait for students to answer). You’re right! Summarizing is when we rewrite the main ideas of the story in our own words. If a text is too long, we can use summarization to help explain the story to someone else. It can also help us remember key details about what we just read. Today we are going to learn how to take out key details in the text and putting them into sentences so we can learn how to summarize it!”

2. Say: “When it comes to summarization there is a strategy, we can use called the about-point method. The ‘about’ part of this method is asking what the text is about. We can identify the topic of the text and that becomes the subject of the sentence. The ‘point’ part of this method is asking what is the main point the author is writing? Since the author can make a lot of points, we must put all those points into one category and that will be the predicate of our sentence.

3. Now we are going to practice the about-point method using an article about meat-eating plants! Does anyone know anything about meat-eating plants? (let students answer). I know that meat-eating plants can eat insects and grow mostly in wet areas. In this article we are going to learn about different kinds of meat-eating plants and what they do!” (hand out articles to students).

4. Say: “Today we’re going to read an article about meat-eating plants and all the different ways they trap insects and get nutrition. These plants are so cool, we’re gonna read this article to find out about all these plants! Before we read, we’re going to go over a word most of you might not know. This word is ‘enzyme’. The word ‘enzyme’ means something that animals, and sometimes plants, produce in order to break down food in their stomachs. Animals use enzymes after they eat something. Let’s see the word enzyme in a sentence: “Once the trap door closes on the victim, digestive enzymes similar to those in the human stomach slowly consume the insect.” Okay let’s finish this sentence: In order to digest food, animals’ stomachs, use…” (call on students to answer question then explain.) What kind of animals or plants use digestive enzymes? (Call on students and let them answer question.) You guys have some great answers! One more question I have for everyone, why do animals and plants use enzymes? (Wait for student responses.) Right, so they can digest food! Now we're going to make a sentence using our new word. (Write this on the board): Enzymes can help animals and plants ________________________________. (Call on different students to create their own sentences.) Great job guys!"

5. Say: “Okay, now we’re going to summarize a paragraph together. Let’s read this paragraph from the article about meat-eating plants.”

 

“Especially the carnivores, or meat eaters, that use the sneakiest of tricks to trap their insect dinners. Take bladderworts, for example. They appear so small and delicate growing in a quiet pond. But these are the fastest-known killers of the plant kingdom, able to suck in unsuspecting mosquito larvae in 1/50 of a second using a trap door!”

 

“Hmm let’s see, what is this paragraph about? This paragraph is talking about how carnivores and how they trap their food. It isn’t too important to note that bladderworts are small and delicate and the speed at which they can suck in insects, so we can leave that out. Now let’s look at what the main point is. I’d say that carnivores use sneaky tricks to trap their insect dinners. Also, Bladderworts are the fastest-known killers of the plant kingdom. After reading and recognizing these main ideas I can put them together to make a topic sentence. Carnivores trap insects for dinner and bladderworts are the fastest killers in the plant kingdom.

 

  6. “Now it’s your turn to try the about-point method using this paragraph from our reading”

 

“Carnivorous plants grow in places with soil that doesn't offer much food value. "You and I could take a vitamin pill," says Van Cleef. ‘But these amazing plants have had to evolve over thousands of years, developing insect traps to get their nutritional needs met. Just look at all they've done in the fight to survive.’”

 

“What is this paragraph about? (wait for students to respond). Yes, it is about where carnivorous plants live and how they get nutrients. What are some main points from this paragraph? (wait for students to respond). Right! It talks about carnivorous plants growing in soil with low nutrition, how these plants have evolved to eat insects to get nutrition, and how they fight to survive. How can we make this into one sentence? (wait for student response). Good job! I would say carnivorous plants get their nutrition by eating insects because their soil barely has nutrients.”

 

  7. Say: “Now I want you to read the rest of the article and make an about-point topic sentence for each paragraph. Once you’re done you should have the whole article summarized, which will help you remember key details about meat-eating plants. Remember to not include trivia and points that aren’t key details! Your summary should be a short version of the article full of meaningful points in your own words. Once you’re all finished summarizing, we’re going to take a quiz to see if we remember the key points about meat-eating plants!” (give out quiz to each student).

 

Assessment: Collect each students summary and evaluate it using the checklist provided below:

 

___ Summary uses more than 1 sentence.

___ Student used key details and important information from the article.

___ Summary is shorter than article and concise.

___ Ignored trivia and examples in summary

___ Summary is in paragraph form.

___ Sentences brought ideas from each paragraph in article together.

___ Used point-about method to summarize.

 

Quiz:

 

1. How do carnivorous plants get nutrition and what in their environment doesn’t give them nutrition?

2. How did pitcher plants get their name?

3. Why are bladderworts sneaky and how do they trap insects?

4. In what areas are carnivorous plants found and what parts of the world?

5. Can you explain why a pitcher plant can’t eat a human?

6. What are a few different ways plants can “catch a bite”?

 

 

References:

 

Bruce Murray, The Reading Genie, http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

 

Catherine Harrison, “Slithering to Summarization”, https://catharrison0035.wixsite.com/my-site-2/reading-to-learn

 

Lily Stewart, “Summarizing with Dr. Suess”, https://lcs0050.wixsite.com/lessons/reading-to-learn

 

Alex Scott, “Meat-Eating Plants”, https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/meat-eating-plants

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