“Summarizing is easy as pie!”


Reading to Learn Lesson Design

By: Noelle Jones


Rational: Summarization is an important part of comprehending text. In order to become better skillful readers, students must be able to find key points and main ideas throughout a story. This lesson will help students learn how to find the key points and separate the main ideas in a story in order to summarize a text after observing how the teacher models how to delete trivial information and pick out the important points.

Materials: Pencil, paper, highlighter, black sharpees, chalk, chalkboard, passage example on Smartboard (students will have an individual printed copy of the passage as well), classroom copies of “The Big Oil Spill” article from National Wildlife Federation, and classroom copies of “A Disastrous Oil Spill” article from Time for Kids.


1. The teacher will say, “Today we are going to learn about the importance of summarization. What do you think it means to summarize? (The teacher should allow enough time for students to answer these questions). You’re correct! Summarizing means that we can pick out the important ideas of a story and retell them in our own words. When you summarize, you are simply retelling the story and highlighting the main points discussed in the text. Only major ideas should be mentioned in a summary and the less important, trivial details should be left out of a summary.


2. The teacher will say: “Now I am going to show you a passage example on the Smartboard. I want you to read the passage silently to yourself as I read the passage aloud (Each student will have a printed copy of the passage.). As I am reading the passage, I want you to highlight the main ideas in the story and cross out the minor or unimportant details in the story (The teacher will pass out highlighters and black sharpees for students to use during the passage example). The teacher will model how to delete trivial information and pick out the important ideas. As a class, the teacher will ask the questions: What did you highlight in this passage? What ideas were important? What information was not important to highlight? Did you highlight or cross out more of the passage with your sharpee?” (The teacher will call upon several students in order for students to get a better understanding of how to summarize a text).


3. Say: “Why do you believe summarization is so important for reading? Have you ever summarized a text before? (The teacher will call upon several students to answer the question). Great answers! Summarization helps us to better understand what we have just read. Today, we are going to practice summarizing a text by reading, ‘Math Madness,’ written by TFK Kid Reporter Claire Duncan. This is an article that focuses on why and how students learn math skills. The MathAlive! Center that is mentioned in the article promotes hands-on, interactive activities and computer-based lessons instead of more traditional approaches to learning.


4. Say: “I want each of you to pay close attention as you read the story silently to yourselves. As you read the story, remember to cross out any information that can be considered unnecessary with your black sharpee. Use your highlighter in order to show the main ideas of the text. This will help you be able to quickly write out a summary. After you have finished reading the story, I want you to summarize what you read in the text in 10 sentences or less. Remember to only write about the key points or main ideas throughout the story. Don’t write down any of the minor details that you crossed out but stick to what the article is mainly talking about. Please write your summaries in complete sentences. Remember to write your summaries in your own words and do not copy the text word for word (The teacher will pass out the class copies of “Math Madness”. The teacher will give students 15-20 minutes to read and summarize the article).


5. Say: “Now that you all have been given some time to read the story and summarize the main ideas of the article, I will call upon several of you to tell me what you wrote down. I will write the main ideas and key points on the whiteboard as you read them aloud (The teacher will call upon several students to give at least 10 main ideas about what was read). Visitors and students won’t find textbooks at MathAlive! because most work stations are interactive. Math skills learned here will also help visitors virtually control the NASA robot on a mission outside of the Space Station. Designing is also a key part of the experience. Visitors can design and build bridges, create a custom skateboard or develop their own video games. Great job! These are all great summary points!”


6. Say: “Now that you have had practice summarizing a text together, I am going to pass out a different article called, “Can Animals be Nice?” article from National Geographic for Kids. I would like for you to write at least 5 main ideas that you read in this article. What are some things that we should remember about summarizing a piece of text? (The teacher will call upon students to answer the question). Awesome answers! Remember that you should only write the important details and main ideas in a story when summarizing. You should also make sure that you include any key words you find in the text. After you have finished summarizing the article, I will collect your papers (The teacher will take up the student’s papers with at least 5 summary points or more and read them in order to assess that students understand how to summarize a piece of text. The teacher will use a checklist to make sure that students have understood how to highlight the main ideas and delete the minor ideas of a text). Great work today! J


Summarizing checklist

Student Name:

Did the student…



Read the article all the way through?

Pick out the most important information from the article based on methods used in class?

Delete trivial information?

Comprehend the information from the article?

Write a short paragraph summarizing the most important parts of the article read?





 “Math Madness” article http://www.timeforkids.com/news/math-madness/33301

“Can Animals be Nice?” article http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/can- animals-be-nice/

Casey, April “Five Step Summary” can be found on the Reading Genie website at:


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