Rationale: Being able to read fluently means that you are able to fully and correctly comprehend the text that you have read. Summarization is one of the most important skills to help show full comprehension of the text. The “about-point” method is one way that we can ask ourselves two questions to summarize the text. Question one is “what is the text about”. This question is very surface level and requires basic knowledge of the text. The second question is “what is the main point that the author is trying to make about the topic?”. This question requires the student to recognize the smaller details of the text. These two questions help the students come up with a topic sentence summarizing the text where the answer to question one is the subject and the answer to question two is the predicate.
Materials
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Comprehension quiz (one per student)
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Summarization checklist (one per student for teacher to evaluate)
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Lined paper (one per student- for summary paragraph)
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Pencils (one per student)
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Highlighters (one per student)
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Copies of the Dolphins on Duty text (one per student)
Procedures:
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Say “When we read a text, it is important that we are able to summarize! Summarizing is when we recall the important details that an author makes, throughout their piece, after we read a text. Sometimes this is hard, so we use different summarization strategies to make this easier! Today, we are going to read a text and then practice a summarization strategy to help us remember what the text was about.”
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Say “An example of a summarization strategy is called the about-point strategy. When we us this strategy, we ask ourselves two questions. The first question is- ‘what is the text about?’. Once we answer that question, we will answer the question ‘what is the main point that the author is trying to make?’. The second question should be a broad ‘umbrella topic’ that combines all of the important points that the author makes within the text. Once we have answered these two questions, we can combine these two answers to come up with a topic sentence of the text.
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Say "Before we read this text, I am going to introduce a vocabulary word from the text so you can understand the article better. Raise your hand if you know what a mammal is. Great! A mammal a warm-blooded animal with a backbone that feeds its young with milk produced by the mother and has skin usually more or less covered with hair. Does anyone have any examples? (Have students write their examples on the board) Good job class! Elephants, bears, cats, and squirrels are all examples of mammals.”
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(Book Talk) “Do you guys like spies? Me too! Today we are going to get to read about a special kind of spy that works with the United States Navy. Let’s read the article to find out what our friend is spying on!” Say “We are going to practice this strategy on an article about dolphins. Raise your hand if you have ever seen a dolphin! What are some things that you know about dolphins? This text will teach us about a special dolphin who is a spy.” *pass out articles to allow each student to have their own article*
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Say “Let’s read the first part of the article together! In April, a fishing boat was bobbing along in the Arctic Ocean. As it sailed near the coast ofNorway, a country in Europe, a fisherman on the boat spotted a beluga whale.The whale was wearing clips that hold a camera. Why would a whale need a camera? Could the animal be a spy?The answer just might be yes! The whale also had clips on its harness with the words “St. Petersburg.” That’s the name of a city in Russia. Officials say this means the whale was likely trained by the Russian military as a spy.”
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So, after reading, we know that this paragraph is about dolphins! What are some of the important points that the author is trying to make? There was a dolphin spotted by a fisherman. The dolphin had a weird looking clip on him. Turns out the clip is a camera and the dolphin is a spy. When we combine all of these ideas, I can make a topic sentence ‘While on the Arctic Ocean, a fisherman came across a dolphin with a camera clip that turns out to be a spy dolphin.”
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“Now I want you to use this ‘about point strategy on the text paragraph titled ‘The Best of the Best’ “The Navy program started in 1959. In the early years, the Navy tested out more than a dozen animals, including sharks, sea turtles, and birds. Today just two species are used: bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions.“The Navy’s dolphins and sea lions perform missions that the Navy cannot yet accomplish in any other way,” says Mark Xitco. He’s the director of the program.” What is this text about? Yes! Missions for the Navy. Do you know what the Navy is? Yes! It is a branch of the military that protects our country from the sea. What are the main points that the author is trying to make about the Navy? Yes, they used many other animals before the dolphins. What else? Yes, dolphins and sea lions are the most useful for what they need! How can we combine these main points to make a topic sentence? Yes, I think that is great! The US Navy uses dolphins and sea lions to perform acts they cannot.”
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Say “Now I want you to finish reading the article using this about-point strategy to make your own topic sentence. One for each paragraph. Once you finish doing this for each paragraph, you can combine your topic sentences into a paragraph, and you will have a good understanding and summary of the article. Make sure you are writing in your own words and we will have a quiz afterwards.”
Assessment: collect the student’s summary paragraphs and evaluate them based on the following
___ Summary is organized into a short paragraph (4-5 sentences)
___ Information was collected from each of the paragraphs
___ Summary was in complete sentences
___ trivial details were excluded from the summary
___ Information included in the summary was important
Comprehension Quiz:
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What are these dolphins used for?
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Why do they only use dolphins and sea lions?
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What does echolocation mean?
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How are the dolphins able to find mines?
References:
Culligan, Tricia. “Dolphins on Duty.” Scholastic News Edition 4, 2 Sept. 2019, https://sn4.scholastic.com/issues/2019-20/090219/dolphins-on-duty.html#On%20Level.
Callie Anton, “Lets Summarize with Butterflies,” https://cma0077.wixsite.com/my-site/reading-to-learn
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jennifer A. Villalovos, https://sn4.scholastic.com/issues/2019-20/090219/dolphins-on-duty.html#On%20Level