Reading to Learn: Swinging into Summarization with Sloths

  

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Rationale: An effective strategy for comprehending texts is summarization. About-point is a strategy in which two critical questions are asked. The first question is “What is the text about?” The answer to this question identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. The second question that we must ask is “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” This is a more difficult question. Usually, the author makes several points, so the reader must come up with a term that covers all the main points, the umbrella term. This main point becomes the predicate of the topic sentence. The main point becomes the predicate of the topic sentence. The students will read the article “Sloth” from National Geographic Kids. Students will use the about-point method to summarize the text.

 

Materials:

1. Pencil and paper for each student

2. Individual copies of “Sloth” article from https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ 

3. Summarization Checklist

4. Comprehension Quiz

 

Procedures:

1. Discuss with students the importance of using summarization to help them understand what they read. Say: “Summarization helps us to understand and remember what we read. It would be impossible to remember all the details and words that we read! Don’t worry, great readers do not try to remember everything! They use summarization strategies to remember the main ideas of the text they are reading. So instead of cramming all the words into our brain, we shrink the information into a more manageable size, making it easier for us to remember.

2. Say: “One of the most effective strategies that we can use to summarize is called about-point. You ask yourself an easy question, “What is the text about?” Next, you ask yourself a tougher question, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” For this question, we need to think of an umbrella term, a word that would cover all of the important points the writer is making.”

3. Say: “Now, I am going to show you how to use the about-point strategy. Let’s use a paragraph about sloths which is from the article you all will be reading today. Did you know that sloths move around very slowly? Why do they move so slowly? I wonder if there are any advantages to moving so slowly? Let’s read and find out! We will be learning the answers to these questions in class today.”

4. Say: “When you are reading, you will come across the vocabulary word, resemble. Resemble means to look like or to be similar. The opposite of the word resemble is to differ. To differ means to not be the same, like night differs from day. Have you heard the word, resemble, before? Here is an example, “Sugar and salt resemble each other.” Using the word resemble helps us to understand that someone could mistake sugar for salt because they look alike; they resemble. Would jam resemble or differ from jelly? Do you resemble a family member? Finish this sentence: I resemble my….”

5. Say: ‘Here is a paragraph from the article:

 

Sloths live in the tropical forests of Central and South America. With their long arms and shaggy fur, they resemble monkeys, but they are actually related to armadillos and anteaters. They can be 2 to 2.5 feet (0.6 to 0.8 meters) long and, depending on species, weigh from 8 to 17 pounds (3.6 to 7.7 kilograms).

 

This paragraph is about sloths and important information on where they live and how they look, and we need to identify the important points the writer is making. Sloths live in Central and South America. They have long arms and shaggy fur. We can put these two points together to form a topic sentence. Sloths are animals with long arms and shaggy fur and can be found in the tropical forests of Central and South America.”

 

6. Say: “Now, I want you to use about-point on a paragraph:

 

There are two main species of sloth, identified by whether they have two or three claws on their front feet. The two species are quite similar in appearance, with roundish heads, sad-looking eyes, tiny ears, and stubby tails. Two-toed sloths are slightly bigger and tend to spend more time hanging upside-down than their three-toed cousins, who will often sit upright in the fork of a tree branch. Three-toed sloths have facial coloring that makes them look like they're always smiling. They also have two extra neck vertebrae that allow them to turn their heads almost all the way around!

 

Say: “First read the paragraph. What is this paragraph about? This paragraph is about the two species of sloths, and we need to identify the important points the writer is making. What are the main points the author is making about sloths? You are right! There are two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths. Another important point is that each species has physical characteristics that make them different. How could we combine those ideas into one sentence beginning with ‘Two-toed sloths….’? Two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths each have physical characteristics that make them different.

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7. Say: “Please finish reading the article and use the about-point strategy to make a sentence for the remaining paragraph. After you are finished, you will end up with a great summary of the article which will help you remember important information about sloths. When you are summarizing, make sure to not use examples or trivia because that information only helps with understanding the main ideas. You will be writing a summary of the article in your own words, using only important ideas to remember. You will be having a quiz after everyone is finished with their summaries.

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Assessment: Collect each student’s summary of the article, and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist:

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___ Student underlined important ideas.

___ Did not underline trivia.

___ Summary used 1+ complete sentences.

___ Identified topic accurately.

___ Included key details.

___ Omitted trivia.

___ Captured main idea of text.

 

Comprehension Quiz:

1. Why do you think sloths live in the tropical forests?

2. What other animals remind you of the sloths and why?

3. What animals do you think would be predators of the sloth?

4. What other animals do you think algae would grow on besides the sloth?

5. Do you think a sloth would make a good pet?

6. What do you think the sloth uses its toes for?

7. Why do scientists think sloths developed their slow-motion lifestyle?

8. How do you think a sloth sleeps in the tree?

 

 

References:

Sloths https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/sloth

 

Myia Hatchett, Summarizing with Sloths.  https://myiahatchett17.wixsite.com/readinglessons/reading-to-learn

 

Caroline Dean, Surprise! Let’s Summarize https://deancaroline4.wixsite.com/teachingfluency/reading-to-learn

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Reading Genie Awakenings Index Link: https://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/awakenings/