Olivia James Creative Lesson Designs

Rationale: It is so important that you learn how to read. While you read you must also learn how to comprehend what you are reading. It is also important that you learn to summarize so you can be a successful reader.  Students must learn the difference in important information and unimportant information. In this lesson students will learn just that. They will learn to be good summarizers and learn what they need to know and what they do not need to know. Students will need to find an umbrella term for something that happens in the text.

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Materials:

• white board/overhead camera or smart board

• access to internet for each student (either computers or iPads)

• poster paper and markers for each student or group of students 

• article by Dashaka Mora: https://www.dogonews.com/2018/8/23/vietnams-cau-vang-bridge-is-like-none-other

• Alabama Virtual Library: http://www.avl.lib.al.us/

 

Procedures:

1. Teacher says: “Today we are going to learn to cross a bridge and learn to summarize! Does anyone know what summarize means? (wait for response) Yes! Summarize means to make a long story shorter by picking out the important parts.” Teacher will make a concept map with the words ‘main idea’ in the main bubble of the circle. Say as you are writing: “the main idea is what the article is mostly about.” and the words ‘details’ written coming out from it say “Details are the little things that make the main idea possible and help explain what it is”. This should be written on a white board or smart board so they all of the students can see it. This will remind students what they are supposed to be thinking about while reading.

2. Teacher says: “You have to remember that summarizing is not copying what the author is saying. You have to come up with the idea in your own words so that you can prove that you learned something and did not just copy them. That is called plagiarizing. Let’s read an article and we can come up with some ideas and practice this!”

3. Teacher says: “We are all going to read this article together and decide what the main idea is and what the details to the main idea are and we are going to write them down in our chart on the board.”

4. Teacher says: “There are a few words in this article that we probably have never head before.  These words help us better understand how cool the bridge we are going to read about today is. Words like these make the article seem stronger. The first word that we are going to learn is the word ‘faux’ this mean fake. You could say you have a faux fur coat, it is not actually from an animal it is made out of something else. Our second word is evoke, this means to bring something into your mind. An example of this is when you taste peppermint and you think of Christmas. The peppermint evokes your thoughts of Christmas. Think of these words while you are reading and how they work with these sentences in your article. If there are any words that you do not understand while you are reading please raise your hand and we can talk about what they mean”

5. Teacher says: “Now we are going to actually read the article!” Teacher completes a book talk to get the students engaged: “This article is very interesting because it is about a bridge all the way in Vietnam, that is very far away. It is a one of a kind bridge. What do you think it looks like? How could a bridge really look any different? After reading this we need to think of an umbrella word or words that describe this entire article. So be thinking!” 

6. The article is https://www.dogonews.com/2018/8/23/vietnams-cau-vang-bridge-is-like-none-other.  Teacher says “What is the main idea of the story?” (wait for answer). Choose the best answer that the class comes up with. (Cau Vang bridge is like nothing else in the world). Then have the students come up with the details of that article and what makes it important. Off to the side have them come up with three details that are not important to the article. Did we come up with an umbrella word? (wait for responses).

7. When you are finished make sure to give a brief summary of what they decided to summarize to show them an example of how they could explain it to the class. Give class the assessment for this article (attached below) to ensure they understood what happened in the article.

8. Teacher says: Great! Now that we have practiced doing this as a class we are going to have a little fun and make one of these maps on our own with an article that we find interesting.” Give the students an option to use Alabama Virtual Library and find an article that they want to read. Pass out the poster paper while they are researching. They can either be in groups of two or on their own depending on the age of the class or the amount of internet access the teacher has. 

9. Once the students have chosen and article say: “Now we are all going to be fun and creative with our concept maps! On your poster paper make a circle and write the main idea of what you read. Then in the circles around the outside write the details you think are important, have at least three of these. Also, make sure that you add three details that were not important in your article on the side in a box. When you are all finished decorate it with markers with things that your article was about! Make sure it is accurate but also make sure it is creative!” 

10. The students will them share with the class what their article was about and give a good summary. 

Summary Checklist:

Did I come up with a clear main idea?

Was everything I said my own and not copied from the author?

Did I come up with three important facts?

Did I come up with three unimportant facts?

Assessments: 

• I will read all of their articles and grade them based on what they did on their posters and said in their presentations. Make sure that they followed all of the directions and they give a clear understanding of what summarization is. 

• Teacher could also use this quick assessment to make sure students understand more about their comprehnsion of what some of the words mean.

1. To plagiarize means to…

2. The main idea of the story is…

3. An example of an unimportant detail in a story about giraffes would be…

4. Write a sentence using the word faux ____________. 

5. Write a sentence using the word evoke _____________.

• Assessment for Bridge Article:

1. What other tourist attractions are located in Bà Nà Hills in Vietnam?

2. How long is the Cau Vang bridge and how long did it take to build?

3. Are bridges condsidered works of art?

4. What is the job title of someone who builds bridges?

5. What is the statement piece of the Cau Vang bridge?

6. What continent is Vietnam on?

Sources: 

News Article by Dashaka Mora: https://www.dogonews.com/2018/8/23/vietnams-cau-vang-bridge-is-like-none-other

Other Lesson Similar: Katie Osborn, Super Sweet Summarizers: http://keo0015.wixsite.com/miss-katies-lessons/news__events