Summarize to Comprehend

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• After reading a book or other piece, do you feel satisfied that you've understood it, or are you frustrated?

There are simple steps to help you understand what you read!

Pausing at the end of each paragraph you read to reflect on what happened is one strategy to help you understand, or comprehend, the text.

When you do this, you ask yourself:

• What happened?
• What was the paragraph mainly about?
• What were the most important things that happened?
• What is the most important information I learned?

This comprehension strategy works well, especially if you can write down a brief 1-2 sentence summary after asking yourself those questions.

A summary is just writing down the most important ideas or events in the order they happened.

Read the paragraph below:

Jake is going on a trip. He and Mom take a taxi to the airport. "It's my first plane trip," he tells the taxi driver. "That's great!" the taxi driver says. Jake rolls his suitcase onto the plane. "It's my first plane trip," he tells the pilot." Welcome aboard," the pilot says.

• Can you give a quick summary of this paragraph?

Great job!

A summary of this paragraph might be:

• Jake and his Mom are going on a trip. It will be Jake's first plane trip.

or

• Jake is going on his very first plane ride with his Mom. He brought his suitcase onto the plane.

Now, take this short quiz on summarizing. You can have someone read the paragraphs and answers to you if you need some extra help.

When you are ready, move on to the Got It? section!