Literacy Designs

Procedures:

 

1.     Begin by explaining to children the meaning and importance of summarization: “Summarization means to figure out the main idea of a text. When we read a text, we could spend all day trying to remember all the words and all the details. Good readers don’t try to remember everything. They use summarization strategies to remember only the important points and main idea of the text. This allows them to reduce a text that may have hundreds or thousands of words to just the important details that help them understand the story.”

2.     Say: “Let’s go over some rules about summarization. First, we need to delete any unimportant information. Next, we need to read through and delete any repeated information. Then, select or come up with a topic sentence to begin our summary.”

3.     Say: “Later, I am going to show you how I’d follow these steps of summarization with a paragraph on submarines, which is the article you are going to be reading today. Do you know what submarines are? Who invented Submarines? What submarines are used for. These are some of the questions you will be learning to answer today.”

4.     Say: “Let’s look at an important vocabulary word you’ll be reading from the article: Vessel. A Vessel is a craft for traveling on water, now usually one larger than an ordinary rowboat; a ship or boat. Example Sentence: An example of a vessel is a cruise ship. Example question: Is a submarine a large vessel that can go underwater? Students complete sentence: A cruise ship is a large ________. (answer: vessel)

1.     Say: “Here is a paragraph from the article.”

 

A submarine is a special vessel or ship that can go underwater. Inside is has huge tanks that hold water. These are called, ballasts. The sub comes equipped with a power source. These can be an engine, nuclear power, batteries or a combination of the three. To find its way through the dark oceans, submarines use sonar equipment. This puts out a sound wave. When a sound wave hits an object, it bounces back a signal to the submarine. Other equipment inside the submarine provide clean water and air for the crew members.

 

"This paragraph explains what Submarines are. Submarines are large ships that can go underwater. Submarines are also called Subs for short. They are equipped with a power source. Subs also use sonar equipment to see in the dark.”

 

1.     Say: “Now I want you to use the summarizing rules we discussed on a paragraph.”

 

In order for a submarine to stay submerged (underwater) it has special compartments called, ballasts. These huge tanks fill up with water when the sub wants to sink. This is because with more water it becomes heavier and will sink. When the submarine wants to rise, the water in the ballasts is let out. This makes the vessel lighter so it rises. A sub also has a propeller on the back of it. This pushes it at various speeds.

 

"What information is unnecessary?  Yes, the third sentence can be deleted. The last two sentences can also be deleted. What are we left with? In order for a submarine to stay submerged (underwater) it has special compartments called, ballasts. These huge tanks fill up with water when the sub wants to sink. When the submarine wants to rise, the water in the ballasts is let out. This makes the vessel lighter so it rises.

 

 “Now I’d like you to finish reading the article and use your summarizing rules to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have a good summary of the article, which will help you remember important facts about submarines. Don’t summarize examples or trivia; they are written only to help you understand the main ideas. You are writing a short version of the article in your own words, including only the important ideas to remember. And to make sure you remember; we will have a quiz after everyone finishes writing.”