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Monday 22 March 2021

Summary Writing: Getting to the Point

SUMMARY: Short account of the central ideas of a text


OOW
2021

LESSON PLAN: Summary Writing

 LESSON PLAN

Teacher’s Name: Mr. O. O. Worrell                            Year Level: 5th Year English

Unit / Lesson Plan Topic: Summary Writing                                          Date: 2021

Agenda:

What is a Summary? Why do we summarize?

Summarizing Expository Text

OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to summarize informational text

Summarize information in text, maintaining meaning and logical order.

Summary Content Standards: Writing summaries of reading materials:

a. Include the main ideas and most significant details

b. Use the student’s own words, except for quotations

c. Reflect underlying meaning, not just the superficial details.

Synopsis of Lesson Objectives: When asked to summarize passages from expository texts, students will be able to use a scaffolding technique to correctly identify main ideas and other essential information to include in a concise manner. Students will be able to determine what information should be excluded and the rationale for this. Additionally, with the completion of the lesson, students will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of a majority of summaries in terms of brevity (conciseness) and main ideas presented.

Materials Used: Computer, Internet, Google Classroom, Personal blog, Pinterest app, English exercise books and pens.

Activities:

1. Cut out, print or copy and paste into Word document a relatively brief article from a newspaper or magazine (Internet articles acceptable from valid sources (i.e. NationNews, Time, Newsweek, New York Times, etc.) which you will read, annotating and highlighting important information from the article.

2. Staple or glue the article on a blank page in your exercise books and write a summary of what you have read. Alternatively, type your summary as a Word document under the article. Include the main idea and other important/relevant information. (Responses should be a few sentences, 100 words maximum).

Evaluation:  Assignments:

a. Worksheet: “Summarizing Test”                                      Points: 30

Note: Completion of summaries gets full credit. Future summaries will be graded.

b. Homework- Find article and summarize                            Points: 20

c. Completion of “Summarizing Test” worksheet           Points: 40

Note: Completion of HW gets full credit. In addition to the summary, students will answer multiple-choice questions, and create extended responses.

Lesson Plan Commentary/Reflection:

This lesson is designed in order that students begin to grasp the concept of summarizing expository texts, understand how to find main ideas and include important points into summaries. They will understand the importance of brevity and conciseness in summaries, how to exclude unnecessary details and how to scaffold their learning, understanding that summarizing needs to start as a step-by-step process. 
 
The homework is designed so that students not only take their summarizing skills and apply them, but also interact with expository texts about today’s topics and events. This should familiarize students with where to find current event articles and get them to interact with sources. Summarizing is an extremely important skill and will not be overlooked or skimmed through briefly. The class should continually revisit summarizing in every writing or reading assignment so the skills are kept fresh in their minds and eventually ingrained in their brains. My hope is that this lesson will be a sufficient introduction but that following lessons will touch on this lifelong skill.

Summarizing Expository Text
A summary: a short restatement of the main idea and important details in a piece of writing or another work.
Steps in Summarizing:

1. Read the selection carefully, more than once. Before you begin to write, make sure you understand what the selection says.

2. Highlight or make a list of the most important information in the first paragraph, including the main idea.

3. Try to rewrite one or two sentences that include all of the important information in the paragraph.
Use your own words.
Do not include your own opinion.
Do not change the author’s meaning.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each subsequent paragraph, keeping them in the same order in which the information appears in the reading selection.

5. Copy your summary sentences into a paragraph, keeping them in the same order in which the information appears in the reading selection.

6. Read your paragraph. Can someone who has not read the selection understand the main points? Summary should be no more than one-fourth to one-third the length of the original passage. 

SUMMARIZING A TEXT ABOUT THE RAINFOREST

Title of Passage: (Rainforests and why they are important)

Paragraph 1: Biological diversity
Tropical rainforests are thought to contain around 50% of all the Earth’s species of plants and animals, though they cover only about 6% of the land surface. (8,000 years ago, they covered about double the current area.) Rainforests are a priceless and economically vital source of food and medicine, wood and water, building and craft materials and much, much more.

Paragraph 2: Cultural diversity
In rainforests, biological and cultural diversity often mirror one another. For example, hundreds of different languages are spoken in ‘biological hotspots’ like New Guinea and the Amazon Basin. It should not be surprising that the people who understand rainforests best are those whose cultures were shaped by them, the indigenous peoples of the tropical rainforests. Rainforest destruction is being driven by an economic world view which originated externally in Western capitalist cultures. Unfortunately, ecosystem destruction has gathered pace over the last 200 years, with the advent of ‘consumer culture’ and breath-taking population growth.


Paragraph 3: Climate stability
Rainforests also play a vital role in the planet’s water and carbon cycles and in regulating climate. Yet today, rainforest destruction releases more CO2 than all the world’s cars, planes and ships put together. Earth systems scientists like James Lovelock believe that rainforest conservation is vital to stabilising CO2 emissions and combating dangerous climate change.






OOW
2021