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Summarizing: James and the Giant Peach
Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...
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Beacons of Light
Students research Internet sites for lighthouses. In this lighthouses lesson, students learn facts about lighthouses in the United States. Students complete a related worksheet and share their information with the class.
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Swoosh-Remember That
Students use a six step process to write a summary of a provided paragraph. The steps include: delete unimportant information, delete repeated information, substitute easy terms for a list of items, add a series of events with an easy...
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Tell Me All About It!
Students discuss the importance of comprehension and the use of summarization. Through guided practice, they follow three rules in finding and highlighting important information, while crossing out information that is not needed. Using...
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That Sums It All Up!
Students review the concept of silent reading. They listen to a story and create a story map of what they hear. Then, they read their own story and map it the same way. This time, they use this story map to write a summary of what they...
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In Your Own Words...
Students discuss the importance of comprehension and the use of summarization. Through guided practice, they summarize given paragraphs. Independently, they read an article and highlight information that they believe is very important....
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Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
Students create and write mini books. For this Dr. Seuss lesson, students bring in their favorite Dr. Seuss book, share why it is their favorite with the class and write a paragraph explaining why they like it. Students create mini...
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Summarizing is Fun with Flat Stanley!
Students read the book "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown. Through modeling and guided practice, as a class, they complete a story map and 1-paragraph summary of the first chapter in the book. Then, in groups, they follow the same procedure...
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So You Want to be President?
Learners review the meaning of a summary and why they are important. They silently read the book, So You Want To Be President thinking about the main points in the story. When finished, each child summarizes a page from the book which...
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Red, White, and Blue Holidays Timeline
Fifth graders create a time line listing six national holidays in chronological order of occurrence. In this historical events lesson, 5th graders research holidays and write a paragraph summarizing each one. They then place each holiday...
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Say W-W-W-W-Wh-at?
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. As a class they read a paragraph and answer the five W's. Students then read an online paragraph, and complete a chart online, then in small groups write a short summary.
Orange County Department of Education
Integrity and a Boy Called Slow
Fifth graders identify the character trait of integrity in the main character, Slow, in "A Boy Called Slow." They participate in a discussion to determine what steps the main character took to earn his new name. Students write an essay...
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Houdini Report
Students write a biography after thy have found facts from the Houdini website. They complete a report using the organizational trait. Students use the internet to complete their fact sheets on Houdini. They discuss organization and...
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From Graphic Organizer to Comparison
Fifth graders brainstorm a variety of topics for writing. As a class, learners create four types of graphic organizers on selected topics. They discuss how to use graphic organizer in constructing a written paragraph.
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Ten Cents a Word
Students recognize the importance of summarizing in this lesson. They "sum up" an article about monarch butterflies. Students practice writing summaries of the article charging themselves 10 cents/word. They try to write the least...
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Coral Reef Ecology
Students explore coral life cycles. In this coral ecosystems lesson plan, students view videos explaining the life cycle of coral, including examples of sexual and asexual reproduction. Students read a related article cooperatively in...
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Buildings, Buildings Everywhere
Students gain awareness of shapes in architecture by creating a painting of their school and writing a reflective summary of their study of architecture.
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Exploring the History of Canyon De Chelly: The Navajos
Students are introduced to the novel Sing Down The Moon written by Scott O'Dell. Throughout the book, after each chapter is read, class discussions and journal writing is incorporated into the unit.
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Rain Forests
Students watch a PowerPoint presentation about the layers of the rainforest. They create a paper rainforest in the classroom. They take notes from the presentation and write a paragraph to include in a layer book. They create a...
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Reading to Learn What's The Point
Students explore the benefits of summarizing in this lesson. The students define summarization and review the six step process. They listen as the teachers reads "Land of the Rings" and then write an individual summary using the six...
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Presidents: Final Project
Students use their outlines created in previous lessons to begin writing their reports about a president they have researched.
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Morning Girl
Fifth graders read the novel "Morning Girl" by Michael Dorris. Using the text, they compare and contrast the two cultures, Arawak and Taino in the novel and research the landing of Columbus in San Salvador. They create a family tree...
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Let's Go Fact Fishing!
Learners work in pairs to research animals in the ocean. They use the Internet, encyclopedias, and resource books to complete an information sheet with a photo of the animal and three facts. They present their mini-reports to the class.
For the Teachers
Main Idea Outline
Find the main idea in an informational text with a versatile lesson. Three levels of differentiation help you implement the strategy in any age or class level, based on the ability and objectives of your learners.