Design for Learning

Instructor: L. Donahoo
Lesson Title: Learning to Summarize
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts

Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher:

4th Grade/ Ms. Philpot
Date: 4-19-16
Estimated Time: 45 mins.

Standards Connection: 2.) Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the
text; summarize the text. [RL.4.2]
Learning Objective(s): On a graphic organizer will summarize a text using only the main ideas
and important details with 100% accuracy.
Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language: Today you are going to summarize
information from a passage using a flip chart. You will be able to show me that a summary
should only include the main idea and its supporting details.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s): Students will re-read the story Flying In Circles and from
that information students will decide which of the information in the passage is most important.
Then they will complete a flip chart that contains the five key components that a summary that a
fiction passage should include.
Engagement:
Good afternoon class! Ive noticed that the majority of your mornings consist of reading, which
is great! After all we use reading in everyday life dont we? The students will nod their heads in
agreement. Yes, reading is extremely important and learning new techniques in reading is a great
way to help you improve and grow. To this day my reading is still improving, Im still learning
new ways to remember information and apply that information. One thing that I have to
remember is that not all information I read is important or necessary. I have had to learn to find
important information in things that I am reading or its too overwhelming for me. My
highlighter is my best friend, because no matter what Im reading I have to have my highlighter
to visually show me the information thats the most important. If youre reading a book with a
character whos name is only mentioned once in the story, do you think that character will be
important to the story as a whole? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her hand raised.
Probably not, and the same would go for anything else in a story or text. If its a very short
passage obviously this would be different and everything in the story might only be mentioned
once. If someone asked you to tell him or her about the new movie you just saw, would you tell
him or her every single detail that happened? The teacher will call on a student to answer. No,
because that would take forever and its too much information. Instead of overwhelming your
friend with so much information, what could you do instead? The teacher will call on a student to
answer. Yes, you can tell them the main things that happened in the movie. Do you guys think
the same concept applies to reading? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her hand
raised. Yes its definitely the same idea in this case too much information is not a good thing. But
how do we figure out these main things that we are looking for? We are about to find out!
(Transition to teaching)
Learning Design:
I. Teaching:

Who can tell me what its called when you shorten information from a passage by using important
information? Please raise your hand if you know the answer. The teacher will call on a student
who is quietly raising their hand. Its called summarizing! When you are asked to summarize
something you have read, does that mean you should include the main points of a story or all of
the details? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her hand raised. Yes, details should be
included, but only if they are important details that support the main idea. The main events and
important details that support the main idea are what should be included in your summary. As
youre reading a story you have to focus and pay attention to the information youre reading.
When you read, look for the main idea and the most important information or concept in your
reading. When I say main idea what does that even mean? The teacher will call on a student
who has his/her hand raised. The main idea of a paragraph or larger text is the most important
information in that text and the main focus of the reading. Although the main idea may or may
not be clearly given to you, it might be implied. Also, as youre reading, you must remember that
not everything in the text you are reading is equally important as other information that is clearly
more important. Im going to read a very short story and I want you to think about the main idea
of this story as I read. The teacher will read the short story First Snow as an example and project
it onto the board. After reading that, what can we say is the main idea? The teacher will call on
students with their hand raised. Yes, the main idea in this short story is that school is out because
of the snow and the kids get to play in it. Well someone tell me, after you find the main idea is
that all that you have to have for the summary? The teacher will call on a student who has
his/her hand raised. Not for a larger text, like a book. Why do you think that isnt enough
information? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her hand raised. Its not enough
information because it doesnt explain the main idea enough to understand why its important or
contain any details that might be important to the story as a whole. If I asked you to summarize
what happened in the movie Frozen and you told me that love unfreezes a frozen heart, would
that be enough information for me to know the main things that happened in that movie? The
teacher will call on a few students to answer. No it would not! I need to know the important
information such as the characters and events. Those things are extremely important! When
summarizing, you must use these basic signal words to decide the most important information
that will be needed for the summary, (especially in a non-fiction text): Who? What? Where?
When? Why? And how? The who of the text is the subject of the story, the what is their
action, the where is the location of the story, the when is the time it takes place, the why
is the reason behind all of these things and the how is the process of the actions in the story. Last
week when I read My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, you were given a worksheet that asked
you to summarize what I had read. When I walked around I noticed that most of you only had
about 1 or 2 sentences written down. Do you think that one or two sentences is enough to
summarize an entire story, or that story in particular? The teacher will call on a student who has
his/her hand raised. It can be if you are summarizing a smaller text. A sentence would be
appropriate if you were summarizing a paragraph, but not a whole book. At the same time you
dont want to confuse retelling, for summarizing. You arent retelling the same words that were
already used in the story that you read. You can use words from the reading, but you are
shortening and condensing what you have read. Have you ever heard of the Midas touch? The
teacher will call on a student if anyone has his/her hand raised. The legend of King Midas was
that everything he touched turned to gold. Today we are going to use the MIDAS touch to turn
our summaries into gold! The teacher will use a PowerPoint to show this. M- stands for the
main idea. How do we find the main idea? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her
hand raised. Yes, you use topic sentences and the basic signal words that we discussed and find
the answer to them in the text. I- stands for Identify supporting details. What are these details
supporting? The teacher will call on a student to answer. Yes, these details support the main
idea. D- stands for Disregard unimportant information. As we said before, not all information

that you read is important for the main focus and main idea of the text and that is what we want
to look for. A- stands for Analyze redundant information. What does redundant mean? The
teacher will call on a student who has their hand raised. Redundant means something that is
repeated numerous times. Do you think that something that is redundant in something that you
are reading means that that might be important information? The teacher will call on a student
with his/her hand raised. Yes, its most definitely important if its redundant in the reading. Lastly
S- stands for Simplify, categorize, and label important information. You can do this in your notes
or to the side of what youre reading if its just on a worksheet and not a book. Why do you think
this will help us when writing a good summary? The teacher will call on a student who has
his/her hand raised to answer. There are obviously different ways to summarize the different types
of texts because fiction and non-fiction text contain different information. We are going to focus
on fiction text today. Weve already talked about the signal words that we need to look for when
writing a summary: who, what, where, when, why and how. And we discussed the MIDAS touch
so always keep those in mind. But to simplify all of those remember that you have the summary
in your hands! The teacher will project a picture of a hand with in information needed when
summarizing a fiction text. This hand has something on each finger that is important when
summarizing a fiction text: Somebody, Wanted, But, So and Then. Who is the somebody in a
story? The teacher will call on a student. Yes the somebody is the main character. Wanted
is next, this means exactly what it sounds like. This is where you will say what the character
wanted or wanted to do. But comes after wanted, because this is what is getting in the way of
what the main character wants. Now that the problem has been stated, what comes after that?
The teacher will call on a student with their hands raised. Yes a solution, which is the so part
of these 5 steps. After that is the end of the story, which is the then. Does anyone have any
questions about this process? The teacher will answer any questions the students might have
before moving on. Now lets try this on an actual short story! Pay attention and look at the
board Im going to read a very short story and project it onto the board for you. The teacher will
read the short story called Found and will project it onto the board. After reading that can I
conclude that the main character or the someone is Robby? The teacher will call on a student
to answer. Yes, Robby is the only character mentioned and this will not always be the case, but
yes he is the main character. Robby wanted to keep the money that he found to buy toys. Is
that using enough information to tell what he wanted? The teacher will call on a student who has
his/her hand raised. Yes, thats enough information for summarizing this short story. Remember
all we want is the important information that helps support the main idea of the story. Okay, what
was the but of this story? What happened or what did he think that changed this actions or his
thinking from the beginning? The teacher will call on a student to answer. Exactly, but he saw
there was a drivers in the wallet and realized that person would be sad about loosing their
wallet. Could we make that even shorter? The teacher will call on a student to answer the
question. Yes, we can definitely make this shorter. How about but he saw the persons name in
the wallet and knew they would want it back. The teacher will move on to the next step. So he
decided to be a good citizen. Then he returned the wallet. Lets put all of this together to
make our summary: Robby found a wallet and wanted to keep the money to buy toys. But he saw
the owners name inside of it and wanted to be a good citizen and returned it. For passages that
are longer than the one we just read you can leave the original sentences we wrote for each of the
steps. In this case it was easy to shorten the sentences because we werent given much
information on the subject. Does anyone have any questions? The teacher will answer any
questions students may have related to the topic before moving on.
II. Opportunity for Practice:
Great job so far class! Before you summarize a passage on your own, I want you to fill out this
hand that I am about to hand out. Yes, Im handing out a handout with a hand on it. Ha! Each

finger represents a key idea that you look for when summarizing. Each finger should include the
one word key idea and the question you should ask yourself when looking for that key idea. You
will be able to use this when you answer these questions when you write your own summary. The
teacher will circulate the room as the students work on this (Teach Like a Champion).
III. Assessment:
Teacher will pass out a passage that she will read together with the class as they follow along.
Im going to read this story aloud, but I want you to follow along and take notes as we go. Also, I
like to highlight or underline information that I think is important when Im reading something
thats particularly long. The teacher will read Flying in Circles and the students will follow
along. Now that I have read its your turn to write the summary on your own! You can re-read
the text and write on this, take notes, whatever your will help you write the summary of this story.
I am going to pass out a flip chart for each of you, its already put together and all you have to do
is fill it out under the flips. You will identify the somebody, the wanted, the but, the so
and the then of the story. Make sure your name is on your paper and raise your hand if you
have any questions. Remember this is individual work! I want you to show me that you
understand how to summarize.
IV. Closure:
Such a great job today class! When you are asked to summarize a text, what should you include?
The teacher will call on a student who has his/her hand raised. Yes, you should include the main
idea and supporting details. What can you use to find the main idea of a text? The teacher will
call on a student who has his/her hand raised. Thats right, you can find the main idea by looking
at the topic sentence and/or using basic signal words. What should you not include in your
summary? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her hand raised. Exactly, dont include
unimportant information and dont repeat the same information already included in your
summary. What were the five things that we discussed several times today which you need to find
when writing the summary of a fiction text? The teacher will call on a student who has his/her
hand raised. Yes, everyone hold out their hand each time we say one well point to that finger.
Okay staring with your thumb we have the Somebody, Wanted, But, So and Then. The teacher
will project this onto the board to clarify for the students. Does anyone have any questions? The
teacher will answer any questions students may have related to the topic before moving on to
something else.
Materials and Resources:
First Snow
Found
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/teachers_corner/lesson
_plans/summarizingStory.jsp
PowerPoint- (with passages, acronyms and notes)
http://www.short-story-time.com/flying-in-circles.html
Flying In Circles
http://www.notsowimpyteacher.com/2014/06/monday-made-it.html
http://freeology.com/wp-content/files/hand.pdf
Flipchart
Paper
Computer
Projector

Power Point

Visuals From PowerPoint

Worksheet

Practice

For

Flying in Circles
by Don Nelson

Toby dreamed of flying fast and high through the sky.

Unfortunately, the other young
butterflies made fun of him because
he had just one wing. It took Toby a
long time to get anywhere because
he could only fly in circles, and so he
always came in last in the treasurehunt races.
One day Tobys mom saw him sitting
alone under a large flower. She said,
Why arent you out playing with your friends? Its such a
beautiful day.
Toby replied, Oh, Mom, you know the other kids dont want to
play with me because I cant keep up with them.
She looked at her son and smiled. Do you know anyone who
doesnt make fun of you?
Oh sure. Theres my friend Hermie. Hes an ant. He walks with a
limp, so none of the other ants will play with him. Tobys mom
said, Why dont you go find Hermie and see if he wants to play
with you today.
Toby flew in lots of small circles until he reached his friends
anthill home. Hey Hermie, Toby yelled out. Do you want to play
down by the willow pond?
Hermie looked at his friend with sad eyes and said, No. Thats
way too far for me to walk with my bad leg. Toby had a great
idea. Hey, you dont weigh very much. How about I give you a ride
on my back. Just hop on and hold on tight.
It was a funny sight to see an ant with a crooked leg sitting on
the back of a butterfly that could only fly in circles.
Stop, Toby, stop! yelled the little ant. You have to land right
now. Im getting dizzy. Im afraid Ill fall off your back.
Toby made a looping emergency landing onto
a small tree branch. Hermies face had

turned green from the wild ride.Im sorry, Hermie. Im so used

to flying in circles, I never get dizzy."
Ill be okay, the little ant said. I just need to sit here for a few
minutes.
Toby said, I have an idea how we can get down to the willow pond.
You can help me fly in a straight line, just like the other
butterflies.
The ant got excited. If we fly in a straight line, I wont get
airsick.
Yeah, and the others kids wont make fun of us anymore.
Hermie began rubbing his bad leg, trying to imagine how he could
help his friend fly in a straight line. Wait right here, Toby said.
I saw something that will help us fly straight.
Toby flew off into the tall grass and returned with a birds tailfeather and a piece of string. He tied the feather onto Hermies
good front leg using the string.
The ant jumped onto Tobys back and hollered, Yippee! Lets head
for the pond. Toby lifted off in his normal circular pattern as
Hermie waved his feather wing up and down in the air. The
movement was just enough to allow him to fly in a straight line for
the first time in his life. Toby hollered, Wow, this is so cool.
Look how fast we are flying and Im not half as tired as usual.
Toby began making a slow left turn over the willow pond where a
bunch of butterflies were playing. Hey, lets buzz them, Hermie
yelled. Wont they be surprised?
Okay, said Toby. Hold on tight. One ant-assisted buzz coming
up.
The flying duo swooped down over the waters surface, then did
two large loop-de-loops followed by an upside-down and
backwards half-roll.
The butterflies stopped playing. With their tiny mouths open,
they watched in amazement. Yippee, cried Hermie. That was
fun. I didnt know we could do that.

Neither did I, said Toby. Just think of all the neat things we
can do if we practice hard. Toby and Hermie worked on their
flying tricks every day, and when they grew up, they joined an
Animal Circus. Soon, they became the finest butterfly-and-ant
acrobatic team in the world. Sometimes Toby would fly in circles
just for fun to let Hermie rest. But best of all, no one ever
laughed at them ever again.

Assessment

Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):

For students who might have trouble re-reading this passage, I would bring them to the back of
the room at my table and re-read it to them. I would also go over the 5 steps with these students
asking them questions about the text in a way that would help them find them on their own.
Data Analysis: After teaching this lesson and analyzing the data from the assessment I have
come to the conclusion that the students knew the material that was taught. All but two students
were able to complete their assessments. The other 18 students in the class completed their
assignment, but only 70% of the class received a100% accuracy on the assessment.
Reflection:
Even though I felt as if the students knew the material, unfortunately I dont think that they fully
understood it. I definitely think that a huge reason for this is the fact that I had so many examples
and graphic organizers. If I would have given the students more time to work on a summary
together as a class I think that it would have been more successful.

Samford University
Design for Learning