lesson for teaching nonfiction summarizing

Learn About Light: Helping Students to Find Important Ideas

In order for students to write summaries, they need to be able to find the important ideas in a text. Many of our readers have trouble with this. They look at seductive details, copy and delete ideas, or work only from the first few paragraphs of a text.

These lessons will show students how to figure out what is important in text. Students will sort ideas from a text, first putting them in the order in which they appear, and then pulling out the ones that are not important. They are left with a list of the most important ideas from the text, the perfect starting point for a summary.

2 Model Lesson for “What Is Light?”

Using a very short text, the teacher introduces how to sort ideas as important or less important.

3 Text: “What Is Light?” A short text for the lesson4 Ideas from “What Is

Light?”A list of ideas from the text

5 “What’s Important?” This page shows students rules for figuring out what ideas are important.

6-7 “Learn About Light” lesson

In this lesson, students will read a text with their partners, sort ideas, figure out what is important, and write a summary.

8 Before Reading page Use this page to introduce the tough vocabulary to students. Directions for students are also included.

9-10 “Learn About Light” text

Reading level: 3-4

11-12 Ideas from “Learn About Light”

13 Summarizing page Use this page for student summaries

Emily Kissner 2011 1

Model Lesson for “What is Light?”

1. Copy the ideas from the text onto sentence strips. (Alternatively, you could photocopy them on a transparency.)

2. Arrange the ideas in random order on the chalkboard or a pocket chart

3. Model reading aloud the text, “What is Light?”4. Tell students, “We’re going to find the important ideas

from the text. First, though, we need to put the ideas in order.” Call on students to arrange the ideas in order. **If students cannot do this, work on this skill before you go on to important ideas!

5. Tell students, “Let’s think about the most important ideas from this text.”

6. Read the “What’s Important?” page with students. It’s helpful for each student to have a copy of this page.

7. “Let’s think about which ideas are most important, and take away ideas that are less important. Can anyone find an idea that is not very important?”

8. Call on students to remove less important ideas. Remind them to go back to the criteria in “What’s Important?”

9. After the less important ideas are removed, you will have a list of the important ideas from the text in order.

10. You can stop here, or use this list to model writing a summary. Remind students that they will need to put ideas in their own words as they summarize.


What is Light?

Have you ever watched sunlight coming in through a window? You have seen an amazing form of energy! Light is really a kind of energy that can travel through space. Pretty neat!

Light travels in straight linesLight can do many things. But there are some things

that light cannot do. For example, light always travels in straight lines. It does not go around corners. A shadow is formed when something blocks the path of light.


Have you ever watched sunlight coming in through a window?

You’ve seen an amazing form of energy!

Light is a kind of energy

Light travels through space

Pretty neat!

Light can do many things

There are some things light can’t do

Light travels in straight lines

Light doesn’t go around corners

When something blocks light’s path, a shadow is formed


What’s Important?

To figure out if an idea is important, ask these questions:

Does it relate to a key word or main topic from the text?

Is the idea repeated? o Authors usually repeat really important ideas

Does the idea relate to a heading? o Headings usually include important ideas

Does the idea explain the meaning of a key word or main topic?o It’s important to understand what key words

and main topics mean in order to understand the main ideas

Is it an example, transition, or seductive detail?o Examples usually help to explain main ideas,

but are not the most important ideas in a text. Transitions connect ideas, but don’t add information. Seductive details are details that are interesting or unusual, but don’t relate to main ideas. These are not important.


Learn About Light Lesson

1. Before the lesson, make a copy of the text for each student. Also, copy the important ideas onto cardstock, cut them out, and put them in envelopes. (Hint: It helps to put numbers on the back of each set so that they don’t get mixed up.) Each pair of students will need a set.

2. Use the “Before Reading” page to help students with the pronunciation of the difficult words from the text. Have students create a prediction for what the text will be about.

3. Discuss the steps for reading the text.4. Pair up students to read the text.5. After students read, they will begin sorting the

ideas in the order in which they appear from the text.

6. Then, students will use the “What’s Important?” page to decide which ideas are important, and which are not. Encourage students to talk and share their ideas. This is a fuzzy process.

7. After students sort their cards, discuss their responses. There may be some disagreement! But students should be able to sort out the fluffy transitions (“Read on!”) from the important ideas (“Light passes through transparent items”). In all, students should have about 8-10 important ideas, reflecting


the definitions of transparent, translucent, and opaque.

8. Hand out the summary sheets. Tell students, “Now, we’re going to use our important ideas to write a summary of this text. Remember to put ideas into your own words.” You may want to model an opening sentence—for example, “In the text ‘Learn About Light’, the author explains what happens when light hits objects.”

9. The students now have a clear starting point for their summaries. Applaud their progress!

10. In the next lessons, wean students away from the physical sorting of ideas. Encourage them to use the “What’s Important?” chart to help them highlight important ideas for summaries.


Before Reading: Learn About Light!

transparent opaque translucent

objects absorb refraction

Based on these words, what do you think the article will be about?

Directions for reading the text

1. Read the text with your partner.

2. Arrange the ideas from the text in order.

3. Use your “What’s Important?” page to figure out which ideas are

important, and which are less important. Take away the ideas that

are less important.

4. Listen as your class talks about the important ideas.

5. Work with your partner to write a summary of the text.

6. Reflect: What did you learn about important ideas? How can this

help you with summarizing?


Learn About Light

If you have ever played with a flashlight, you know that light travels in a straight line. On a dark walk in the woods, you might notice that the flashlight’s beam goes from the flashlight in a straight line.

But what happens when the beam of light hits an object? That depends on what it hits. Scientists have studied how different items react to light. Read on to find out what happens!

Transparent: Light shines straight throughSuppose that you shine your flashlight at a window.

What will happen? The light will pass straight through. We call items like this transparent. Transparent items are clear. We can see through them.

It’s important for some items to be transparent. Windshields need to be transparent so that drivers can see. If you wear glasses, your lenses need to be transparent.

But not everything is transparent. What else can happen to the beam of light?

Opaque: Light is absorbedWhen you shine your light at a wall, the light does not

pass through. Instead, the light is absorbed. The wall is opaque. Items that are opaque do not allow light to pass through.

We have many items that are opaque. At your house, it’s important for the walls to be opaque. You would not want people to be able to see into your bedroom! What else can you think of that is opaque?

Are there any items that are neither transparent nor opaque? There are! What do we call these items?

Translucent: Light is refractedImagine shining your flashlight at a frosted window. The

light passes through. But you cannot see through the window. We call this kind of object translucent. This means


that some light can pass through, but you cannot see clearly through the item.

What’s happening in a translucent object? Translucent objects redirect the light. The beam of light bounces around before passing through. This is called refraction.

It can be convenient to have translucent items. Often, the glass in a bathroom or shower stall is translucent. This translucent glass lets the light shine through, but is not transparent.

The next time you have a flashlight, do some experimenting! What can you find that is transparent? Opaque? Translucent? It can be fun to learn more about light.


Light travels in a straight line.

Read on to find out what happens!

Light passes through transparent items.

Transparent items are clear.

Windshields are transparent.

Glasses are transparent.

Light does not pass through opaque items.

A wall is opaque.

We have many items that are opaque.

Opaque items absorb the light.

Light passes through translucent items.


We can’t see clearly through translucent items.

Translucent items refract light.

It can be convenient to have translucent items.

Windows can be translucent so that you can’t see

through.

The next time you have a flashlight, do some

experimenting.

It’s fun to learn about light!


Summary: Learn About Light!


Emily Kissner

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling: Skills for Better Reading, Writing, and Test-Taking

A guide for how to teach the related skills of summarizing, paraphrasing, and retelling. Rubrics for scoring summaries and ready-made activities included.

The Forest AND the Trees: Helping Readers to Identify Details in Texts and Tests

This book looks at how to help students identify details to find important ideas, make inferences, and answer open-ended response questions.


http://www.heinemann.com/products/E01195.aspx










lesson for teaching nonfiction summarizing

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