Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics. The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students’ academic vocabulary. My words are color coded ‘pink’ for literature/’blue’ for reading strategies/’orange’ for informational text/'yellow' for writing/’green’ for all other words)
Gain student interest and bring students to the same point in learning
Introduce the vocabulary
I have taught this summarizing strategy in 2 other lessons. I encourage you to take a look at Frame the Story with Informational Text and Make a Newspaper with Summaries to see other ways that students can practice this kind of summarizing. They typically need multiple opportunities to practice to get proficient at summarizing.
Discuss how the book is organized and the author's purpose
Explain the strategy - identifying key details
Demonstrate the strategy
Show how to make the project
Hand out worksheets and assign paragraphs to students.
Review how to summarize
Check over their worksheets for completion.
As students examine text to find support and key details for the main idea, they are using 'close reading' to comprehend vocabulary. This 'close reading' is a shift in the Common Core away from literal reading with answers directly in the text toward comprehensive reading with answers inferred and determined by examination of text structure and ideas verified by the reader. By creating a summary of these details, (RI.2.2) students are demonstrating the ability to use the organization and details in the text to compose a main idea that explains what they've read.
Students share their ideas
Students create a project
Helping students realize the organization of a text - that paragraphs or sections fit into a whole text, is an important shift in the Common Core Standards. (RI.2.6)
Scaffolding and Special Education: This lesson could be scaffolded up or down, depending on student ability.
For students with academic challenges, it would be best if they work in a group or with the teacher. The text is at 2nd grade level and writing summaries is a difficult skill so they may need the help. The group vocabulary review and sharing would be great for them to hear other students' ideas.
For students with greater academic ability, there should be an expectation of deeper level thinking and higher level vocabulary. When my students read over their summary as they finish, I will ask them if they can think of more descriptive words or can they use words from the whiteboard that we reviewed to make it sound more 'like a 3rd grader'.