Using the About-Point to Handle the Main Idea

 

By: DeAngelo Johnson

 

Rationale: Summarization is one of the two most powerful strategies for comprehending text. An effective method of summarizing is called about-point, which asks two critical questions about the text: a) What is the text about? This is usually an easy question, and it identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. b) What is the main point the writer is making about that topic? This is a harder question. Since the author usually makes several points, the reader must “superordinate” the points, i.e., find an umbrella term that covers all the main points the author is making. The main point becomes the predicate of the topic sentence.

 

Materials: 

• Individual copies of an article written for kids on abuse from KidsHealth.org (URL below).

• Pencil 

•  Paper 

• Summarization checklist (below)

• Comprehension quiz (below)

Procedures: 

1. Explain to children why summarization is important: (Say) “When we read a text, we would spend all day trying to remember all the words and all the details. Good readers don’t try to remember everything. They use summarization strategies to remember only the important points the author is making about the topic. In that way, they reduce a text that may have hundreds or thousands of words to a compact gist that is easy to remember.”

 

2. Say: “The best way to summarize is called about-point. In about-point, you ask yourself an easy question and a tough question, and you use your answers to make a topic sentence. The easy question is ‘What is the text about?’ The tough question is ‘What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?’ To answer this question, you have to think of an umbrella term for all the important points the writer is telling you.”

 

3. Say: “In a few minutes, I’m going to show you how I’d do about-point with a paragraph on how to handle abuse, which is the article you are going to be reading today. Do you know of anyone that has been abused? Are they hurting? How can we help them? Can they learn to defend themselves? These are some of the questions you will be learning to answer today.”

 

4. Say: “Let’s talk about an important vocabulary word you’ll be reading: encourage. Encourage means to give support or hope to someone. As a student body we like to encourage each other on a daily basis. When have you ever encouraged someone or needed encouragement from someone? Finish the sentence: The teammates encouraged each other to…”

 

 

5. Here is a paragraph from the article:

 

Grown-ups are usually there to help and encourage kids, right? They take care of kids, help them learn how to do things, show them the right way to behave, and encourage the good things that kids do. Most adults treat kids well. But some adults hurt kids rather than help them. Another word for hurting someone is "abuse."

 

This paragraph is about adults, but what important points is the author making? There are many different types of adults. Most adults treat kids well and the way they are supposed to be treated. However, some adults hurt kids rather than help them. Putting these points together, I can make a topic sentence: The majority of adults treat kids well but, there are also some adults that hurt kids. 

 

6.  Say: “Now I want you to use about-point on a paragraph:

 

Child abuse (say: ah-BYOOS) can affect all kinds of kids, no matter where they live, how much money their families have, or who they live with. A kid can be abused by a parent, a stepparent, family member, a babysitter, teacher, coach, or a bigger kid.

Child abuse can happen anywhere — at home, school, childcare, or even in a church or other religious building.

 

What is this paragraph about? Yes, child abuse. What are the main points the author is making about child abuse? Correct, it can affect all kinds of kids. Yes, another point is that child abuse can happen anywhere. How can we combine those ideas into one sentence: Child abuse can happen to any kid and anywhere. 

 

 

7. Say:“Now I’d like you to finish reading the article and use about-point to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have made a good summary of the article, which will help you remember important facts about sleepwalking. Don’t summarize examples or trivia; they are written only to help you understand the main ideas. You are writing a short version of the article in your own words, including only the important ideas to remember. And to make sure you remember, we will have a quiz after everyone finishes writing.”

 

 

 

Assessment: Collect each student’s summary of the article, and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist:

 

__ Collected important information

__ Ignored trivia and examples in summary.

__ Significantly reduced the text from the original

__ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph

__ Sentences organized coherently into essay form.

 

Quiz:

1. Do all adults have the best intentions with kids?

2. What factors lead up to child abuse? Who can they affect?

3. How do you stay aware of child abuse?

4. Are there anyways to report child abuse? How?

5. Does child abuse just affect the child physically?

6. How could you keep someone from being hurt?

7. Where does child abuse take place?

 

 

Reference:

D’Arcy Lyness, PhD (reviewer), How to Handle Abusehttps://kidshealth.org/en/kids/handle-abuse.html?WT.ac=ctg#catemotion

Bruce Murray, PhD, Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea https://murraba.wixsite.com/reading-lessons/rl

 

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