Creating Summaries Using short stories “Thank You M’am” by Langston Hughes and “Charles” by Shirley Jackson

Practicum lesson developed for: Miss Reiman’s 7th grade language arts class

Romig Middle School, 2015

ED617

 

Objective: The week of the 23rd, we will be reading two short stories: Thank You, M'am by Langston Hughes and Charles by Shirley Jackson.

 

The focus is on character and plot development.  Both of these would make good targets for summaries. I like to make the kids summarize so that they recognize summary when they accidently start doing it rather than answering a critical thinking question.

 

Seventh Grade Reading standards for Literature (Common Core):

                   2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the                      text. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization,                    and analysis of relevant content.

                   a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition,                            classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/ e!ect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia                           when useful to aiding comprehension.

 

Assessments of student understanding:

Scattergories, Venn Diagram (Critical thinking vs summary), Creation of summary, Create folding paper charts for summary writing

 

Essential Understandings: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Differentiate between a summary and a critical thinking question

• Create objective summaries of text using specific principals.

• Find the central theme(s) of a text

 

 

Plan of Attack:

• Hook: Scattergories (What are the elements of a good story?) (5 minutes)

• Split class into a few teams, with no more than 4 people per team. Give them 20 seconds to come up with a good team name, write names on board.

• Have them write down as many elements of a good story as they can in 2 minutes.

  Go around the room, each team gets to read one of their elements, if YOU have the same element, cross it off your list. If the element is unique to your team, you get a point.

• Use Scattergory information to make a Venn diagram (2-4 minutes)

  • On the one circle place elements of a story, on the other place which of those things are also included in a summary

    WHAT are the elements of a summary?

    Characters

    Themes

    Questions

    Problems

• Make folding paper graphic (6 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Make a cascading “flip book” 3 pieces of paper, stacked vertically and stapled at the top. (Have different colors available.)

  • On each flap write one of the following questions

    Identify the Work

    Characters?

    Problems?

    Themes

    Select a Verb

    Finish Your Thought

  • Take a passage from “Yes M’am” or “Charles” reading. (Depending on which one was read first) and using the example graphic,  go through the steps and make a summary. Using the “Sum it Up”                            

• Pass out the “Writing Effective Summary worksheet” as a guide (Transfer information to folding chart)

•  

• Exit ticket, When would you use a summary, and when would you write out your own opinion?

  Summaries are a low fat or diet version of a story, movie, play, etc.

 

• Additional Research and Background information   (from “Classroom Instruction that Works” and “Teach Like a Champion”)

  • Rule based

  • Take out information that is not important to understanding

  • Take out repeat words

  • Replace list of words with one that describes them all

  • Connecting new material to old is vital for understanding (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012

  • Types of summaries

 

• Decide on the values of a teacher centric format of instructing students to create comparisions or more student driven. Both have value, but only if they are properly structured. (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012, p. 129

 

• “There is one suitable  percentage of students following a direction given in your classroom: 100% (Lemov, 2010, p. 167).”

  “When summarizing is unsuccessful it’s often because the teacher fails to stress the difference between retelling and summarizing (Lemov, 2010).”

 

• Find topic sentence, or create one

• Summary based

• Framework based

• Conversation

• Problem-solution

• Argumentation

• Definition Frame

• Topic Restriction Illustration

• Narrative Frame

• Forms of Reciprocal teaching (A framework to create summaries) (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012, p. 89\)

• Summarizer

• Questioner

• Clarifier

• Predictor