Lesson Plan Franklin Pierce College Nathan LaMontagne ED225 Curriculum II ED257 Field Experience III Summarizing Text

t 10/12/05 I. Pre-Teaching/Planning Phase A. Summarizing Text This lesson plan focuses on exercising students developing ability to summarize a piece of writing. Specifically, it involves the use of the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How strategy as a framework for finding the main points of a fairy tale entitled King Grisly-beard. The activities in this lesson plan revolve around the process of delineating key information from the storys text without being distracted by nonessential details in the story. B. Curriculum Frameworks LA - 1.1.6.4 - Provide accurate summaries of materials they read. LA - 1.1.6.13 - Read to acquire information for different purposes such as preparing a research project or gaining a general impression of the material presented in an article. LA - 5.5.6.8 - Use a variety of organizational structures such as cause and effect patterns, summaries, time lines, note taking, outlining, highlighting, paraphrasing, flow charts, and Venn diagrams (graphs that use circles to represent connections and interactions). C. Certification Standards 610.01.8 - The teacher demonstrates proficient oral, written and nonverbal communication and promotes the development of these skills in students. 612.04.B.4 - Design instruction for reading and language, mathematics, science, social studies, physical and mental health, physical education, and the arts. 612.04.C.2 - Implement a language program which integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening. D. Intended Audience The intended audience for this lesson is that of 5th grade students, age 10-11. An ideal group size would be around 25 students. E. Estimated Time Frame This lesson should take approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour to administer. F. Prior Knowledge Students should have had experience reading short stories and age-appropriate 1

Lesson Plan Franklin Pierce College novels, as well as have had been exposed to guided discussions of such material. Additionally, students should also have a general idea of what a summary is, as well as an understanding of essential story elements such as plot, genre, setting and character traits. G. Stated Objectives By the end of this lesson, students will be able to apply the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How strategy in summarizing a piece of writing. They will also be able to describe how the use of this strategy helps maintain the focus on the main points of a text, rather than on non-essential details. Students will also, by way of guided discussion and prompting by the instructor, be able to verbally synthesize main points into complete sentences. H. Evaluation/Outcomes Assessment The objectives of this lesson plan will be measured by both a formal and informal means. Formally, the information written by students on the Find the Key Information Worksheet will serve as an indicator of their ability to use the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How strategy to delineate key information about a piece of text. Informally, the teacher will assess students absorption of the material by way of observation, and by gauging the degree of student involvement in this activity. He or she may also choose to take notes on student performance for later review. I. Sponge Activity Should this activity finish early, the teacher can facilitate a verbal discussion of the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How strategy with a well-known story such as The 3 Little Pigs. Through talking about this story in terms of this strategy, the students will further their ability to use this approach to summarizing. J. Alternate Plan As an alternative approach to this lesson, the same objectives could be met by using a different piece of writing as a focal point. A magazine article or play, for instance, could be used just as easily as the story of King Grisly-beard. K. Modifications for diverse learners To accommodate learning disabled students, the Find the Key Information Worksheet could be modified so that the student would only need to come up with information for 3 out of the 6 categories. Additionally, grouping them with students of higher ability during the activity could aid these students, as would increasing their individual level of guidance and prompting by the teacher as he or she circulates the room. For students who are excelling in this exercise, the teacher might challenge them to 2

Lesson Plan Franklin Pierce College fill out another of the Find the Key Information Worksheets using the story of their choice, such as a novel that they have read. II. Teaching Phase: Lesson Steps A. Materials The materials needed for this lesson are as follows: * What is a Summary? handout (attached) 1 per student * King Grisly-beard story (attached) approximately 1 for every 3 students * Find the Key Information Worksheet (attached) 1 per student * Blackboard and/or overhead projector, corresponding writing utensils * Pencils B. Anticipatory Set To gain student interest, the teacher will say something to the effect of, Today, well be learning a new strategy for creating summaries. Often, its easy to get distracted by the details of a story when writing a condensed description of it, but using the strategy we are about to discuss, youll always know what to focus on when summarizing text. C. Introduction The teacher will introduce this lesson by asking the following question to the class: In your own words, what is a summary? He or she will then call on a few students to answer this question, activating any prior student knowledge and guiding their thinking toward the idea of summarization. Explaining the importance of getting crystal clear on what a summary is before attempting to create one, the teacher will hand out the What is a Summary? handout. As a class, this handout will be read and discussed. The teacher may delegate the reading of this handout among students to read before the class. As it is read, the teacher will want to check for student understanding by asking relevant questions pertaining to the handouts text. D. Development To begin this lesson, the teacher will read the story of King Grisly-beard to the students. Before doing so, he or she will ask students to try to think about the main points of the story as they listen, keeping an ear out for main characters, events and settings. Upon finishing the story, the teacher will introduce the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How format, describing its use as a strategy for finding the main points of a piece of writing. Each area of this format, he or she will explain, relates to an essential aspect of the story, and can be used as a framework for writing an effective summary. 3

Lesson Plan Franklin Pierce College

The Find the Key Information Worksheet will then be passed out to each student, who will then cluster into groups of 3 or 4. The teacher will then instruct each group to brainstorm what they remember about the story, using the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How format as organized on the worksheet. This activity will exercise students ability to isolate key information about the text. A copy of King Grislybeard will be given to each group as a reference. The teacher will circulate the room, group to group, offering any needed support and prompting students thinking as necessary. This will continue for 10 to 15 minutes, or as long as it takes for groups to finish the worksheet. Upon students completion of the Find the Key Information Worksheet, the teacher will compile the collected information on the board or overhead. To do this, he or she will create 6 columns with the headings of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, respectively. Creating dialogue with the class through asking what they came up with, the teacher will write down their output in each column. Discussing the key elements of the story, he or she will guide students toward the best information to write down in each column. For instance, if a non-essential piece of information is given, the teacher will discuss with the students why it is as such, directing focus on a more appropriate detail to put in the column. Once all of the information is entered into the columns, and a consensus is made in regards to what is the best key information to use, the final task will be to create a paragraph or two out of it a summary. To do this, the teacher will take suggestions from the class about sentences that could express this compiled information in complete sentences. As a group, the class will build this summary sentence by sentence, making sure to include all of the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How information. The teacher will write each sentence, as it is determined through guided conversation, on the overhead projector or board. This lesson will culminate in a summary built out of main points as determined by the group, using the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How strategy. E. Guided Practice As a guided practice exercise, the teacher can facilitate a story-writing exercise, in which students volunteer information for each category of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. As the teacher compiles these key points by column-building as outlined in this lesson plans Development section, the task for the class will be to construct a short story built from it. This activity will exemplify the importance of key information. F. Independent Practice As an independent practice exercise, students can individually come up with a madeup set of information for each category of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.

Lesson Plan Franklin Pierce College Exchanging this information with that of a partners, they can write a story using it. G. Closure To close this lesson, the teacher will read aloud the summary that the students have written, noting how a story that was 2 pages long can be expressed as a condensed presentation that is only about 2 paragraphs long. Checking for understanding, he or she might ask some key follow-up questions, such as, Can you see how the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How format can help us build better summaries? and What did you learn about summaries today? III. Reflective Phase: How did you do? A. Strengths In Lesson I believe that the strengths of this lesson are its collaborative nature and variation of activities. Additionally, I feel that there was a strong directed focus on the stated objectives that lent itself toward a smooth flow of instruction. B. Weaknesses In Delivery Or In Lesson Itself In terms of improving this lesson, I think it would be beneficial to work on a betterorchestrated group work session. Particularly, by assigning jobs within the groups might add to their collaborative dynamic. For example, one person could be assigned to be the timekeeper, while another would be the scribe, and another the spokesperson from the group.

What is a Summary?
A summary is a condensed presentation of a piece of writing. You could summarize just about any piece of text a story, a newspaper article, or even an entire book. Summaries are generally short in length, and to the point they communicate to the reader the essential information about a piece of writing. In a summary, details are generally not really important unless they support the main points of the text. In a summary, main points are most important, and unnecessary details are left out. Being able to recognize these main points in a piece of text is the key skill of summarizing.

Remember, good summaries are not a retelling of a story, but a brief and condensed outline of it.

King Grisly-Beard
Written by The Brothers Grimm A great king of a land far away in the East had a daughter who was very beautiful, but so proud and haughty* and conceited, that none of the princes who came to ask for her hand in marriage was good enough for her. All she ever did was make fun of them. Once upon a time the king held a great feast and invited all her suitors. They all sat in a row, ranged according to their rank kings and princes and dukes and earls and counts and barons and knights. When the princess came in, as she passed by them, she had something spiteful to say to each one. The first was too fat: 'He's as round as a tub,' she said. The next was too tall: 'What a maypole*!' she said. The next was too short: 'What a dumpling!' she said. The fourth was too pale, and she called him 'Wallface.' The fifth was too red, so she called him 'Coxcomb*.' The sixth was not straight enough; so she said he was like a green stick that had been laid to dry over a baker's oven. She had some joke to crack about every one. But she laughed most of all at a good king who was there. 'Look at him,' she said; 'his beard is like an old mop; he shall be called Grisly-beard.' So the king got the nickname of Grisly-beard. But the old king was very angry when he saw how his daughter behaved and how badly she treated all his guests. He vowed that, willing or unwilling, she would marry the first man that came to the door. Two days later a traveling fiddler came by the castle. He began to play under the window and begged for money and when the king heard him, he said, 'Let him come in.' So, they brought the dirty-looking fellow in and, when he had sung before the king and the princess, he begged for a gift. The king said, 'You have sung so well that I will give you my daughter to take as your wife.' The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, 'I have sworn to give you to the first man who came to the door, and I will keep my word.' Words and tears were to no avail; the parson was sent for, and she was married to the fiddler. When this was over, the king said, 'Now get ready to leave you must not stay here you must travel with your husband.' So the fiddler left the castle, and took the princess with him. Soon they came to a great wood. 'Pray,' she said, 'whose is this wood?' 'It belongs to King Grisly-beard,' he answered; 'hadst thou taken him, all would have been thine.' 'Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!' she sighed; 'would that I had married King Grisly-beard!' Next they came to some fine meadows. 'Whose are these beautiful green meadows?' she

said. 'They belong to King Grisly-beard, hadst thou taken him, they would all have been thine.' 'Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!' she said; 'would that I had married King Grisly-beard!' Then they came to a great city. 'Whose is this noble city?' she said. 'It belongs to King Grisly-beard; hadst thou taken him, it would all have been thine.' 'Ah! wretch that I am!' she sighed; 'why did I not marry King Grisly-beard?' 'That is no business of mine,' said the fiddler, 'why should you wish for another husband? Am I not good enough for you?' At last they came to a small cottage. 'What a paltry place!' she said; 'to whom does that little dirty hole belong?' The fiddler said, 'That is your and my house, where we are to live.' 'Where are your servants?' she cried. 'What do we want with servants?' he said; 'you must do for yourself whatever is to be done. Now make the fire, and put on water and cook my supper, for I am very tired.' But the princess knew nothing of making fires and cooking, and the fiddler was forced to help her. When they had eaten a very scanty meal they went to bed; but the fiddler called her up very early in the morning to clean the house. They lived like that for two days and when they had eaten up all there was in the cottage, the man said, 'Wife, we can't go on thus, spending money and earning nothing. You must learn to weave baskets.' Then the fiddler went out and cut willows, and brought them home, and she began to weave; but it made her fingers very sore. 'I see this work won't do,' he said, 'try and spin; perhaps you will do that better.' So she sat down and tried to spin; but the threads cut her tender fingers until the blood ran. 'See now,' said the fiddler, 'you are good for nothing; you can do no work. What a bargain I have got! However, I'll try and set up a trade in pots and pans, and you shall stand in the market and sell them.' 'Alas!' she sighed, 'if any of my father's court should pass by and see me standing in the market, how they will laugh at me!' But her husband did not care about that, and said she would have to work if she did not want to die of hunger. At first the trade went well because many people, seeing such a beautiful woman, went to buy her wares and paid their money without even thinking of taking away the goods. They lived on this as long as it lasted and then her husband bought a fresh lot of pots and pans, and she sat herself down with it in the corner of the market. However, soon a drunken soldier soon came by and rode his horse against her stall and broke all her goods into a thousand pieces. She began to cry, and did not know what to do. 'Ah! what will become of me?' she said; 'what will my husband say?' So she ran home and told him everything. 'Who would have thought you would have been so silly,' he said, 'as to put an earthenware stall in the corner of the market, where everybody passes? But let us have no more crying; I see you are not fit for this sort of work, so I have been to the king's palace, and asked if they did not want a kitchen-maid; and they say they will take you, and there you will have plenty to eat.' So the princess became a kitchen-maid and helped the cook to do all the dirtiest work. She was allowed to carry home some of the meat that was left over, and they lived on that. She had not been there long before she heard that the king's eldest son was passing by, on his way to get married. She went to one of the windows and looked out. Everything was ready and all the pomp and brightness of the court was there. Seeing it, she grieved bitterly

for the pride and folly that had brought her so low. The servants gave her some of the rich meats and she put them into her basket to take home. All of a sudden, as she was leaving, in came the king's son in his golden clothes. When he saw such a beautiful woman at the door, he took her by the hand and said she should be his partner in the dance. She trembled with fear because she saw that it was King Grisly-beard, who was making fun of her. However, he kept hold of her, and led her into the hall. As she entered, the cover of the basket came off, and the meats in it fell out. Everybody laughed and jeered at her and she was so ashamed that she wished she were a thousand feet deep in the earth. She sprang over to the door so that she could run away but on the steps King Grisly-beard overtook her, brought her back and said: 'Fear me not! I am the fiddler who has lived with you in the hut. I brought you there because I truly loved you. I am also the soldier that overset your stall. I have done all this only to cure you of your silly pride, and to show you the folly of your ill-treatment of me. Now it is all over: you have learnt wisdom, and it is time to hold our marriage feast.' Then the chamberlains came and brought her the most beautiful robes. Her father and his whole court were already there, and they welcomed her home. Joy was in every face and every heart. The feast was grand; they danced and sang; everyone was merry; and I only wish that you and I had been there. Text adapted from Short Stories at East of the Web http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/KingGris.shtml Vocabulary Words: Haughty: Overly proud Coxcomb: the fleshy red crest on the head of domestic fowl, such as roosters Maypole: a vertical pole or post decorated with streamers that is held by dancers

Name: Date:

Find the Key Information

Story: King Grisly-Beard Author(s): The Brothers Grimm Think about the story of King Grisly-Beard. In the boxes below, write down what you remember about it, using the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How format. This sheet is just a place to put your ideas down, and it wont be graded. Do your best to write down what you remember! Who? Who were the people in this story?

What? What happened in this story?

When? When did this story occur?

Where? Where did this story happen?

Why? Why did the character(s) act as he/she/they did?

How? How did things happen in this story?