Reading Comprehension: Summarizing What Was Read

Reading Comprehension: Summarizing what was read

Miss Rumphius

Standards:

Common Core:

• RL 3-2. Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
• SL 3-2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Objective:

TSW use reading summarization strategies to determine the major elements of a story, using paraphrasing, and determining between important and nonimportant details. TSW collaborate with a group to create a summary with a beginning, middle, and end.

Description of text:

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Clooney

Alice Rumphius wants to do three things – travel to faraway places, live by the sea, and make the world a more beautiful place. Her granddaughter recounts how Miss Rumphius travels, resides by the ocean, and then works to make the world a better place in a small but far-reaching manner. Great example of how small actions can make a large impact.

Materials:

• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Clooney
• Notecards
• Beginning – middle – end worksheet
• Pencils
• Paper

Procedure:

1. Activating prior knowledge – TTW ask the class the 5 'W' elements of a story: who, what, where, when, and why.
2. TTW introduce the word 'summary' and ask if anyone knows what the word means.
   1. TTW explain that to summarize means to put something in your own words in a shortened form.
3. TTW explain how to summarize.
   1. When we summarize we only include the most important parts of a story and leave out details that are not important.
   2. A summary will include the most important story elements (who, what) and also include the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
   3. We often summarize when we tell someone about a book that we read or a movie that we saw. For example:
4. TTW explain how summarizing helps us as readers.
   1. Summarizing allows us to focus on the most important elements of a story. Especially as we get in to chapter books, we need to realize the most important aspects that the author is trying to tell us.
   2. Summarizing in your head or on a piece of paper is a great way to make sure we comprehend, or understand, what we just read. If you can't summarize it, maybe you need to reread.
5. TTW have the students sit in a circle and introduce the book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.
   1. Today we are going to read Miss Rumphius, and then we are going to all work together to form a summary of the story. Make sure to pay attention to the story elements so that it will be easier to write a summary after the story.
   2. TTW read Miss Rumphius.
      1. Prompt 1: Who is the main character?
      2. Prompt 2: What is Alice going to do when she grows up? (live by the sea, travel to faraway places, and make the world more beautiful)
      3. Prompt 3: If I want to just summarize this page, I would say that Miss Rumphius travels to a tropical island, meets the Bapa Raja, and he gives her a shell that said “You shall always remain in my heart.” on it. I'm not sure that those are the most important parts quite yet. I think that people keeping monkeys as pets, her taking a walk on the beach, and Miss Ruphius drinking coconut water are nonimportant details, so they wouldn't go in to my summary. (Teacher modeling)
      4. Prompt 4: Can someone give me a summary of just this page? What were the important details? What were the nonimportant details? (Student modeling)
6. TTW introduce the jig saw activity and pass out the jigsaw cards.
7. TSW break into groups and each group will come up with a sentence summarizing their respective section.
   1. Group 1 – beginning, Group 2 – middle, Group 3 – end. There are 9 students total, so there will be 3 in each group.
   2. After the students have created their summary, they will join their 'whole book' summary group to create a summary of all of their parts.
8. TTW hand out the beginning – middle – end worksheets.
   1. Your group will now need to determine if the summaries that you have made individually fit into the whole summary. If some important details are left out, include them. If there are extra details that don't fit into the summary, take them out. Edit the summaries as your group sees fit.
9. The group will need to determine if their summary is appropriate as is, or if it needs to be changed to put in important details or take out nonimportant details.
10. Each group will then share their summary and we will compare them as a class. (Reflection)
    1. Are they different, or did each group keep theirs the same?
    2. Did each group include story elements such as who and what?
    3. When the students joined their whole book group – were any main ideas left out that they needed to add?
    4. What do you think makes a good summary?

Continued Independent Practice:

1. TSW read their differentiated books (below grade level, grade level, and above grade level).
2. TSW make a story element cube while they are reading the book at the independent work station.
   1. TSW cover a tissue box with construction paper and label the sides: Characters, Setting, Problem, and Solution. The student then decorates the box with words and pictures.
3. TSW complete a beginning-middle-end summary of their respective book.

APA Citation:

Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius. New York, NY: Puffin Books.