Procedure​

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1.  Say: Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that you loved so much and wanted to tell your friends about it? When you explained the book or movie to them, did you tell them every single detail, or did you only mention the most important parts? If you have ever shortened a story like this by telling a friend the most important parts of a book or movie, you have practiced summarization! Summarization is a strategy that expert readers use to comprehend a book or article by only telling the most important parts through a summary. Summaries are important because you can’t remember everything, so you should know how to reduce what you read to remember the most important points that the author made about a topic.

 

2.  Say: One way we can summarize is by using a strategy called about-point. When we use about-point, you will ask yourself 2 different questions about your reading. You will answer an easy question, “What is the text about?” and a tough question, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” [Write these two questions on the white board for students to have as reference.] When you answer the tough question, it will help you to identify an “umbrella” term that covers the important parts that the author has written. The answer to both of these questions will help you make a topic sentence.    

 

3.  Say: Later in this lesson, I will model how to practice the about-point strategy with a paragraph in an article called “Sloth.” You will read this article today while you practice summarization. Have you ever seen a Sloth in real life? According to the article, they sleep for up to 20 hours a day! They are very slow animals, and they have a very interesting way of moving and interacting in life! In a few minutes, we will read the article to learn more about the Sloth.

 

4.  Say: You need to know what the word resemble means to understand the paragraph that we will read together. Let’s look at resemble. To resemble means to have quality or features in common. Resemble does not mean something is the opposite, it means they are similar or look alike. You wouldn’t say that you resemble a spider because you are nothing like a spider. However, you could say that you resemble your siblings because you probably share some qualities with them. Which one of these uses resemble correctly? “My dog and cat resemble each other because they both sleep all day.” or “A dolphin swims and a cheetah runs, they resemble each other.” Right, the first sentence is correct because the cat and dog have qualities that are alike. The second sentence in incorrect because running and swimming are opposites of each other, no quality is alike there. Try finishing this sentence: A puppy resembles … [Possible answers: a baby, a grown dog, a kitten, etc.

 

5.  Say: Now that we understand the word resemble, we will look at a paragraph from the article together: “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, but what important points does the author make? Sloths live in tropical forests in Central and South America.  Sloths are related to armadillos and anteaters. I can form a topic sentence by joining these two points: Sloths live in Central and South American and are related to armadillos and anteaters.

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6.  Say: It’s your turn to try about-point! Read this 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!”

 

7.  What is this paragraph about? Correct, sloths. What are the main points that the author makes about sloths? Yes! There are two different types of sloths. What is another point that the author makes? Right, one type has 2 claws toes and the other has 3 claws. To make a topic sentence, you will put these points together! Let’s try: Sloths…? Sloths have two different species; they are either 2 clawed or 3 clawed.

 

8.  Now, I want you to finish reading the article and write a topic sentence for each paragraph using about-point. This will allow you to have a strong summary of the whole article once you are finished. Your summary will help you remember the most important facts about sloths. Remember to answer both questions in about-point to help you form a topic sentence. You can look at the board for the questions if you need help. Don’t forget to only pick out the most important points that the author is making in each paragraph, and to summarize in your own words. When you are finished, staple your topic sentence page to the article and turn it in to me. 

 

9.  I will review each student’s topic sentence page to determine if they successfully summarized the paragraphs of the article. I will use the assessment checklist to record student grades. The students will also take a brief comprehension quiz.

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Checklist:

Student Name: ________________

1. ____ Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph

2. ____ Deleted unimportant or repetitive information

3. ____ Significantly reduced the text from original to form summary

4. ____ Identified important points

5. ____ Successfully conjoined the important points to form a topic sentence

 

Quiz:

1. How long do sloths sleep?

2. Where do sloths live?

3. What animals are sloths related to?

4. How many types of sloths are there?

5. What is the difference between the types of sloths?

6. What grows in the sloth’s fur?

7. Why do scientist believe sloths are so slow?

8. What happens when a sloth is caught by a predator?