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When Plant Becomes Predator:

A Summarization

Reading to Learn Lesson Design

Created By: Lauren Bruce, lauren.bruce6@hotmail.com

education, teaching, literacy

Rationale

Once children have learned to read accurately and fluently, they transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." In order for students to be most successful at extracting messages from a text, they need to be taught comprehension strategies explicitly. One of the most effective reading comprehension strategies is practicing summarization. Students who are able to summarize a text demonstrate that they understood it. In this lesson, students will be taught how to use the about-point method, which will help guide students to creating an accurate summarization by first deleting trivia and retaining main ideas, then substituting subordinate terms for items and events, and finally, composing a topic sentence for each paragraph within an article.

Materials

  • classroom set of “Bye, Bye, Fly” passage, found on page 12 at link below

  • paper and pencils for each student

Procedure

   1. Say: “When someone asks you how your day went, what do you say? Do you tell them how many times you breathed in or breathed out? Do you tell them how many times you blinked? Do you tell them every small thing that happened every second of every minute of every hour all day long? [allow students time to answer] No way! When someone asks how my day went, I give them just the highlights: where I went, what I did when I got there, and anything out of the ordinary that happened. Really, I give them a summary. Who can tell me what a summary is or what it means to summarize?” [allow students time to answer]

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   2. “A summary is a shortened version of events. To keep it short and sweet, a summary includes all the important information and none of the nonessential details. There are many kinds of stories and summaries we can do; today we will summarize a sequence of events by using a method I call about-point. To use this method, you must ask yourself two questions: ‘What is the text about?’ and ‘What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?’ " [write these on the board] "Once you form your answers, you can use them to create a topic sentence.”

 

   3. “Before we read the passage, there is a word I want to go over that you may not know. The word is nutrients.  Nutrients are special substances that living things need to grow and stay alive. For example, I drink water as often as possible because it provides the nutrients I need, and it makes me less thirsty. So, are nutrients good or bad for you? [allow students time to answer] Correct! Nutrients are great for you. On your own paper, write down a sentence that correctly uses the word nutrients.

 

   4. [Pass out copies of passage] “Take a look at this passage called ‘Bye, Bye, Fly.’ Everyone please read the passage silently to yourself.” [After all students have read the passage, read the first paragraph aloud] The first paragraph says:

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In a marsh somewhere in North Carolina, a hungry fly is looking for a meal. A plant called the Venus flytrap seems like a good bet. Its leaves, which grow in pairs like a clam’s shell, shine with a sweet juice. So the fly lands on a leaf. Then it takes a few steps toward the juice.

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          a. The first question I ask myself is ‘What is this about?’ I know the characters are a fly and a Venus flytrap, but which one does the paragraph focus more on? [allow students time to answer] Correct! It is the fly, so I would answer that this paragraph is about a fly looking for food. Why didn’t I include that the fly was in North Carolina? [allow students time to answer aloud] I didn’t include North Carolina because it is nonessential – it isn’t important! The passage never mentions North Carolina again, so neither do I.

 

          b. The next question is ‘What is the author trying to tell us?’ Thinking about the passage as a whole, the author is kind of telling us how a Venus flytrap lives. So, I would say that in this paragraph, the author is trying to tell us how/why a fly is attracted to a Venus flytrap in the first place. Now, I will combine my two answers into one topic sentence: When a fly gets hungry, it sees a shiny, juicy-looking plant to land on.” [write this on board for students to refer to during independent practice]

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   5. “Now that you know how to create a topic sentence, everyone please read the next two paragraphs closely and generate your own unique topic sentences. Be sure to write these on your own paper. Once you have finished your topic sentences, arrange them in order with mine and ensure they each relate to one another. Ask yourself, ‘Would this make sense to someone who didn’t read the passage?’ "

 

   6. [Once students have finished, ask the following comprehension questions:

  1. Where does the Venus flytrap grow?

  2. Why does the Venus flytrap attract insects?

  3. If you were a fly caught inside a Venus flytrap, how would you get away?

  4. Look at the last picture and read the sentence that goes with it. What will happen next to the insect in this picture?

  5. How is the Venus flytrap different from most plants?]

Assessment

To assess students’ summarization skills, collect each student’s topic sentences and answers to the comprehension questions.

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