Materials:

• Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. Enough for teacher and students.

• Large sheets of paper for all of the students (butcher paper is also useful)

• Writing utensils: Markers, pencils, etc.

• Checklists

• Display board

 

Procedures:

• Model and review how to read siliently. Say: “How do you read silently? Is it easy? Good! We read silently by reading the words in our heads without saying anything. Does it help us and our neighbors to read silently with to ourselves? It helps us and our neighbors remember what we have read! Today, I want us to learn how to read silently to ourselves without reading aloud and see what we can remember afterwards!”

• Now, discuss with your students what you need to do in order to summarize after you have read. Say: “Who can tell me what we can do to summarize? We always read silently and then we try to remember what was really important in the story. When we read, we have to remember what the important information was that we read and always get rid of the unimportant information.

• Now, introduce a new book with a good booktalk or opening to catch the readers attention. Introduce the book Flat Stanley and have them read the book silently to themselves and say, “when you are finished reading, put your books down and go over silently what you have read in your head so that I know you are finished”.

• Now say, “I want to show you on our display board how we are going to summarize what we have read. I will start by thinking about what I read. What was really important?” Now have some of the students volunteer to write down on your paper on the display board what they think is important and then go back over each one and see if we can narrow it down to just a few important facts and eliminate what is not as important. Model how to write the important facts into sentences.

•  Then give the students their own opportunity to write down on their paper what they think is important and then on another piece what is not as important. Once the students are finished then give the students the opportunity to share their summarizations.

 

Assessment

Now, allow the students to share and see if their summaries change. Once the students are finished with their summaries and have had time to share with others, allow them to turn them in. Now, use the checklist to see if they have eliminated the unimportant things and summarized the most important things.

Example:Did the students eliminate the unimportant things?Did the student summarize the most important things?Did the student highlight the main points and idea?