Download Summarizing

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Grade 6: My Inheritance
Mini-lesson: Summarizing
Step 2
Explanation of Cognitive Strategy
Review the following information about Summarizing: (Use summarizing poster.)
What
Summarizing is identifying and retelling important details in your own words. (Duffy,
2003)
Summarizing is shrinking what you are reading into chunks of information you can
handle. (Zwiers, 2004)
Summarizing is taking the information down to the bare bones.
Summarizing is providing a lot of information in as few words as possible.
Why
I summarize when I read because my brain cannot remember all the details and
summaries help me remember what I have read. This helps me apply what I read to real
life. (Block, 2004)
When
I summarize when I need to share with others something I have read, when I am studying
for a test, or when I am reporting an event that has occurred.
How
Here’s how I do it.
As I read,
 I ask myself: “What are all these sentences talking about?”
 I think about the details and ask myself these questions:
“Is this detail important or is it just interesting?”
“Should I remember it?”
“Can I describe the main topic without it?”
 If the author gives examples and listings of information, I can collapse the
information into categories or classifications by asking myself these
questions:
“What are all of these examples?” “What is a good word that describes all
of this?” What label can I use?” “What can we call these?”
 Then I organize this information into summary by asking myself these
questions:
“What big idea should I mention first?”
“What other big ideas should I include?”
“What key words should I use?”
Copyright © 2007 by [email protected]. All rights reserved.
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Application of Cognitive Strategy
Now let’s apply this strategy to Step 2 in the webquest. The task is to summarize what you have
learned so far about genes, heredity, and traits.
You have already completed the first steps in writing summary—determining important
information. You have this information about genes, heredity, and traits in your graphic
organizers from Step 1. Now think about the information and details in the graphic organizers
and ask yourself these questions:
“Is this detail important or is it just interesting?”
“Should I remember it?”
“Can I describe the main topic without it?”
For example, the information about genes comes from this website:
http://www.genetics.gsk.com/kids/genes02.htm
We all know that there are more than just two hair colors. This means that there can
be more than just two forms of a gene. These different forms of a gene are called
"alleles." Some alleles are dominant, which means they'll "take over" the other gene
no matter what. Others are recessive, which means that there have to be two of
them for the trait to be "expressed" (that means visible). There are different alleles
for black hair, blonde hair, red hair, brown hair - and lots of shades in between!
The allele for red hair is recessive - which means that if you have red hair (naturally,
of course!), you got a gene for red hair from each of your parents. If you have one
gene for brown hair (which is dominant) and one for red hair, what color hair do you
think you'll have? If you guessed brown - you're right and you're ready to learn even
more!
The summary needs to contain the most important information about genes. From this passage,
you may have included more information and details in your graphic organizer than you need to
include in the summary. For example, your graphic organizer may have this information:
 Different forms of genes are called alleles.
 There are different alleles. Some are dominant and take over the other genes.
Some are recessive—it takes two of them for a trait to be inherited.
 Red hair has a recessive allele which means that both parents must have a red
hair gene to pass it on to children.
Now we need to collapse or shrink this information to include it in a summary. Let’s think about
the most important idea about genes that is represented in these bullets and write it in one
statement for the summary. One possible statement can be the following:
Different forms of genes called alleles can be dominant or recessive.
Apply these steps as you write your summary about genes, heredity, and traits.
Copyright © 2007 by [email protected]. All rights reserved.
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References
Block, C.C. (2004). Teaching comprehension: The comprehension process
approach. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Duffy, G.G. (2003). Explaining reading: A resource for teaching concepts, skills, and strategies.
New York: The Guilford Press.
Zwiers, J. (2004). Building reading comprehension habits in grades 6-12: A tool of classroom
activities. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Copyright © 2007 by [email protected]. All rights reserved.