SQ3R Science Summary

Name: Meghan Anderson

Time Allotted: 70 minutes
Grade Level: Middle School
Subject: English Language Arts
Materials Required:
Pre-write/Post-write Prompt (double sided half sheet printed off)
Copies of the Environmental Science Articles
Copies of the Essay Rubric
Handout of the SQ3R method

Michigan Content Expectations
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.2
Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text
distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

Objective(s):
The student will determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text, and will demonstrate proficiency
by scoring at least a 2/3 on the Central Idea or Conclusion portion of the essay rubric.
(Comprehension)

The student will summarize the text without relying on prior knowledge and opinions, and will
demonstrate proficiency by earning a combined score of a 5/6 on the Prior Knowledge and Opinion
and Summary portion of the essay rubric. (Comprehension)

Student Friendly Objectives:
I will find and write about the central ideas or conclusions of a science text.

I will write a focused summary of the science text without including my opinions or previous knowledge
about the topic.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Assessment:
Formative:
Begin class by prewriting the method of determining the central idea and conclusions of the
text.
During the Guided Practice the teacher will check on students progress with learning about
summarizing and finding the main point as they work in groups, and will document their progress on a
formative assessment checklist.

Summative:
At the end of the lesson (and into the homework) students will write an essay summary of the
article. This essay will be scored on the three-point rubric titled Science Article Summary Essay
Rubric.
Students will also demonstrate proficiency by completing the post-write during the Closure
of the lesson. This will be compared with the pre-write to demonstrate learning progress.



Science Article Summary Essay Rubric
Name:


Total Score:


3- 2- 1-
Central Idea or
Conclusion
The writing
determined the central
idea or conclusion of the
text accurately and
clearly.
The central idea or
conclusion are
determined somewhat
clearly and almost
entirely accurately.
The central idea or
conclusion determined
are unclear
and/or inaccurate.
Prior Knowledge and
Opinions
The writing avoided
prior knowledge and
opinion.
The writing somewhat
used either prior
knowledge or opinions.
The student relied upon
either prior knowledge
or opinion.
Summary The writing summarized
all of the key points and
included supporting
details.
The writing summarized
most of the key points
and included some
supporting details.
The writing did not
summarize the key
points and did not
include enough details.
Conventions The writing was turned
in on time, used
correct grammar and
mechanics, and was the
appropriate length.
The writing contained
two of the three
conventions requirements
of: correct grammar and
mechanics, appropriate
length, and turned in on
time.
The writing contained
one or none of the three
conventions requirements
of: correct grammar and
mechanics, appropriate
length, and turned in on
time.
















_________________________________________________________________________________

Instructional Procedure:

1. Anticipatory Set: (Prewrite) (8 minutes)
a. Greet students, and have soft music playing in the background.
b. As soon as students enter the room, have them begin their prewrite.
c. Prompt:
i. What are some steps for finding the main idea or conclusion of an article?
ii. How do you write a summary?
d. After students have finished the prewrite, discuss their ideas.
i. Using the students ideas (that the teacher will write on the board) inductively
generate the process of finding the summary and main idea by creating an outline
on the board.
ii. Then tell them many of the reading strategies possible to find the main idea and
summarize.

2. State Purpose and Objective of Lesson: (2 minutes)
a. Chorally read the posted objectives and discuss the outline of the class.
b. Tell the students what you want them to learn (direct)
c. Tell them why its important to them (explicit)

3. Modeling: (SQ3R) (15 minutes)
a. Teach about finding the main point and summarizing by using the SQ3R method. Model
SQ3R.
b. Information about SQ3R
i. Survey: Have the reader preview the text to get a general sense of what its about,
making note of subject headings, indentations, underlining, and boldface or other
means of placing emphasis on certain parts of the text. Ask the writer how this
text is like or unlike others shes read before and have them make guesses about
what she will read based on the title, headings, subject matter, assignments, and
the like
ii. Question: based on the survey, have the writer ask questions (and write those
down) that she feels the text will answer. Help model some of these qustions if
the writer is stuck.
iii. Read: Have the reader read the text (reading aloud will give you an idea if her
difficulties are a matter of vocabulary), searching for answers raised in the
previous step.
iv. Recite: In this step, the writer reads aloud or writes down the answers to the
previous questions. You might try to answer some of her questions as well and
then compare your responses to hers.
v. Review: Have the writer reread certain portions of the text in order to reach clarity
on the answers to the questions raised. (SQ3R summary from Reading in the
Writing Center Chapter 8).


4. Guided Practice: (Group SQ3R) (30 minutes)
a. The students will work in groups of three to perform SQ3R on an environmental science
article on wetlands
b. The students will outline an essay from this group SQ3R.
c. The teacher will formatively assess students by checking off their completed outlines.

5. Independent Practice: (Independent SQ3R and Essay) (5 minutes)
a. The students will independently complete the SQ3R strategy on a different article.
b. The students will independently write the essay detailed in the rubric.
i. This will probably have to be assigned as homework and may even flow into a
second lesson.

6. Differentiated Consideration (0 minutes)
a. If students are still struggling with finding the main idea and summarizing after
the Guided Practice, the teacher will tutor those students while the others move
on to the Independent Practice. These students will still have to write the essay as
homework in order to demonstrate proficiency, but will receive additional help
here.
b. For students who are excelling and are interested in learning more about the topic,
send them to http://www.sciencedaily.com/ to read more articles.

7. Closure: (10 minutes)
a. Reinforce/Restate the objectives, which will entail reiterating the expectations from the
rubric.
b. The student will do a post-write of the same prompt as the prewrite, and will staple it to
the prewrite and turn it in as they leave.
c. The teacher will remind the students to turn in their Environmental Science Outdoor
Safety Contract tomorrow.

8. References:

Articles for SQ3R:
Expertsvar. (2014, January 21). Constructed wetlands save frogs, birds threatened with
extinction. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140121092911.htm.
South Dakota State University. (2014, September 6). Ecologist stresses importance of wetlands,
grasslands in midwest. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140906092953.htm.
Texas Tech University. (2014, February 11). Macro-portrait of future bird and wetland scenarios
under climate change. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140211153549.htm