APLNG 500
Lesson Plans - Format
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General Information
Lesson Title: Summarizing for an Annotated Bibliography
Class/Student Information: This is for an ESL 15 class, freshman writers in a large public
university in the northeastern United States
Length of Class: 50 minutes
Overall Instructional Goal:
Students will discuss and practice good summarizing skills.
Students will relate those skills to their Annotated Bibliography assignment
Learning Objectives & How to Measure Each:
Students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of several short summaries
Students will complete a summary of a short text.
Students will compare their experiences in completing the task
Justification for Lesson:
Summarizing is an essential skill for both understanding research and
Materials:
Powerpoint
Model AB entry
2 articles for summarizing
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THE PLAN
(describe the activities & class arrangement)
Orientation ( 10 min.)
The teacher will welcome the class back from break and
introduce the topic of today’s lesson: summarizing.
The teacher will ask students to consider why we are doing
this and if they find it difficult, but discussion may be left
until after
The teacher will explain we will watch a short video
segment from the documentary Supersize Me. It introduces
the topic of obesity in America.
While watching the video students will think about how
they would summarize it.
After the video is complete. Students will evaluate several
short summaries and discuss what strengths/weaknesses
each may have
WHY
(provide brief justification for each activity
and choice for class arrangement)
This video segment is interesting and will
be the theme of today’s class, a sample
problem, obesity. After the break, it is
important to start class with something
interesting.
The sample summaries will reflect the
points of the presentation so that students
are preparared to share that information on
their own.
“Okay guys, I hope that was enough time, but we need to keep moving, so now we will have a class
discussion. Based on what you just did, what can you say about what makes a summary good or bad?
Does anyone have any examples of a poor summary?”
Presentation ( 5 min.)
This format should allow students to
The teacher will ask students to share examples of bad
express the key characteristics of good
summaries first and see if they can define some of the
summaries themselves. As the information
“rules”. Good ideas can be written on the board (in what
is not overly complex, and its more
space exists). Then the teacher will ask students to discuss important to practice these skills, its best to
the good example(s).
keep this portion short and interactive.
The teacher will finish by briefly emphasizing the 4 key
concepts before beginning the activity 1) main ideas, 2)
neutral, 3) relevant information 4) and using own words
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“Okay everyone, I think you understand those principles. It’s easy to recognize good summaries and the
concepts aren’t so difficult, but they require a lot of practice. So we are going to spend the rest of the
class practicing summarizing with your partners.
Engagement(20-25 min.)
.Students need a chance to practice the skill
The teacher will explain that pairs of students will read an
and then reflect on what they found
Op-Ed article about opinions and write a summary.
difficult or helpful in accomplishing it.
While reading, they should underline important
They will also get a chance to see how
information and then transfer those points to a note card,
other students accomplished the same task.
when they write the summary, they have to flip over their
article so they can no longer see it. After writing they
summary, they will compare with another group.
Partners will read a short article, underline main ideas and
important points, discuss what they think is essential and
then write a short summary together. (10 minutes)
After completion, they will switch with the pair across
from them and evaluate their summary. After a chance to
compare they will discuss in groups
THE PLAN
(describe the activities & class arrangement)
WHY
(provide brief justification for each activity
and choice for class arrangement)
“Okay, I think that has been enough time, lets discuss the activity. Did you find your summaries were
similar? Was there anything difficult about this?”
Assessment/Evaluation ( 10
min.)
In a whole class discussion, students will discuss what they
found while doing the task.
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This will be a chance for students to share
their experiences and what they have
learned.
“So this was a good exercise in practicing summarizing. Remember, it gets harder when we are working
with larger texts, but the key characteristics remain the same.”
Expansion/Homework ( 10 min.)
The teacher will review to AB assignment, mentioning
SAR and the rubric and then remind them that next class
will be a peer review. They should review their own
entries in preparation
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Ask students to apply what they
practiced to their own work and prepare
them for the next class
Sample Summaries of Super-Size Me
1)
The video shows how everything is bigger in America such as the biggest houses, cars, food, and
people and America is now the fattest nation in the world. In Mississippi, 1 in 4 people are obese.
This is because people each out at places like McDonalds, which they pay for not just for their wallets
but with their waste-lines.
2)
According to the documentary Super-Size Me, America has a serious obesity problem. The number of
obese individuals has doubled in recent years and now most adults are overweight. Obesity is
responsible for many deaths and illnesses. The video claims that the availability of fast food is
responsible. It offers facts about the sales and wide availability of McDonalds and discusses the
details of a lawsuit blaming them for the obesity of two children.
3)
People eat at McDonalds every day, according to the video. McDonald’s has fast food restaurants in
over 100 countries around the world and they can be found in train stations, hospitals, and many
other places. This shows that McDonald’s is partly responsible for the obesity problems in America,
which is now a very fat nation. They were even sued by two girls for causing their obesity problem.
4)
According to the documentary Super-Size Me, Americans are now extremely fat. This problem has
grown incredibly fast years and now most adults are overweight. Obesity is causes many horrible,
disgusting diseases and causes many deaths. This is because of wicked fast food restaurants like
McDonalds which don’t care about how much they hurt people by selling them fatty food.
McDonalds deservedly got sued by two girls for causing their obesity.
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Myths about obesity
By Deborah Cohen
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2014/01/26/Five-myths-aboutobesity/stories/201401260007
The obesity epidemic is among the most critical health issues facing the United States.
Although it has generated a lot of attention and calls for solutions, it also has served up a
super-sized portion of myths and misunderstandings.
As obesity rates have soared, some researchers have focused on individuals’ genetic
predisposition for gaining weight. Yet, between 1980 and 2000, the number of Americans
who are obese has doubled — too quickly for genetic factors to be responsible. So why do we
eat more than we need? The simple answer: Because we can. At home and at restaurants, a
dollar puts more calories on our plates than ever before.
The food industry has developed tens of thousands of products with more calories per bite, as
well as new, effective marketing strategies to encourage us to buy and consume more than
necessary. We should blame these business practices, which are modifiable, for obesity rather
than our genes, which are not.
Research shows that if we are overwhelmed with too much information or preoccupied, we
have a tendency to surrender to poor dietary choices.
In one study, for example, people asked to choose a snack after memorizing a seven-digit
number were 50 percent more likely to choose chocolate cake over fruit salad than those who
had to memorize a two-digit number. When adults in another study were asked to sample a
variety of foods after watching a television show with junk-food commercials, they ate more
and spent a longer time eating than a similar group watching the same show without the junkfood ads. In the same study, children ate more Goldfish crackers when watching junk-food
commercials than those who saw non-food commercials.
Our world has become so rich in temptation that we can be led to consume too much in ways
we can’t understand. Even the most vigilant may not be up to the task of controlling their
impulses. What we really needed is regulation — for example, limits on marketing that caters
to our addiction to sugar and fat.
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Why Childhood Obesity Drop May Show a Change of Habit (Op-Ed)
Katherine Tallmadge
http://www.livescience.com/38965-childhood-obesity-drop-may-herald-change-of-habit.html
Recently, I was asked by the newly launched "On Background" on Washington Post TV
to discuss news reports of the childhood obesity decline, the first in decades. According
to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, childhood obesity
decreased in 19 states from 2008 through 2011. This modest decline is nothing short of
miraculous, because America's overall food and physical-activity environment seems
worse than ever.
The new reversal in the childhood obesity trend means families , parents, caretakers,
teachers and schools are making huge efforts to overcome negative lifestyle influences.
Reversing obesity in American culture, where being overweight is the norm, takes effort
— 2 out of 3 adults and 1 out of 3 children are overweight or obese. The problem of
obesity is not an accident! Now it seems that adults are making better — harder —
choices for their kids. Americans seem to be slowly internalizing the need for healthy
eating and exercise, something I focused on in the Easy Solutions for Your Kids chapter
of my book — there are tons of ideas that easily integrate into family life.
Just as smoking was once considered normal adult behavior, the nation is gradually
realizing that mindful meals and physical activity must be made a societal norm. And
that's great news for children, for their families and for the country — which spends
billions of dollars annually on obesity and its related diseases, including Type 2 diabetes ,
heart disease, cancer and others.
"Obese children are more likely to become obese adults and suffer lifelong physical and
mental health problems," the CDC stated in its report. "Obesity rates in low-income
preschoolers, after decades of rising, began to level off from 2003 through 2008 and
now are showing small declines. However, too many preschoolers are [still] obese," the
report continued.
It seems that small, simple changes have been responsible for this amazing
improvement in the health of children . Just adding fruits or vegetables at each meal
or 15 extra minutes of daily physical activity can make a huge difference in a child's
health and weight.
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Op-Ed: Who’s to Blame for Childhood Obesity? Uh, That Would Be
You.
We all know that childhood obesity is rampant in America. We know that it is crushing
our children’s health, and as we discuss in our new book, Always the Fat Kid: The Truth
About the Enduring Effects of Childhood Obesity, it is also undermining their
future mental health and social well-being as adults. We all know obesity’s “usual
suspects”: portion sizes, technology, fast food, food marketing…the list goes on and on.
And each of these factors does play a very important role in obesity. But the real
culprit of childhood obesity is you.
Each and every one of us is complicit in this ongoing crime against our children. As a
society, we have chosen not to advocate for change through our democratic right and
social obligation. Case in point: In late 2011, Congress stopped a proposed revision to
child nutrition guidelines that would have increased the amount of tomato paste that
qualifies as a vegetable.
So what? Well, by failing to implement the new guidelines, school cafeterias are able to
count pizza as a vegetable. That’s right, as long as a slice of pizza has two tablespoons
of tomato sauce, it counts as a serving of vegetables. And not just two tablespoons of
vegetables; it counts as half a cup. So, federally speaking, one slice of pizza is the
same as a half cup of broccoli. Three slices of pizza? The same as two entire ears of
corn. While people were upset, the surge of emotion was almost entirely limited to
blog comments. As we all know, comment sections of blogs don’t change the
world. Action does. People love to blame Congress for these laws, but the truth is that
they stand because of us.
Why? There are two main reasons. First, many people feel it is not their problem. If
they don’t have kids, or if they do but their kids are not overweight, it’s not their
problem, right? Wrong. Even if altruism doesn’t catch you, think of this: Currently, the
financial cost of childhood obesity is over $3 billion per year. That cost is shouldered by
us all, and will only continue to grow as childhood obesity increases.
Second, as a society we have become afraid of discussing weight. However, wholesale
avoidance of weight in discussions is not the right course of action. Because of this
growing culture of “fat fear,” people are often terrified to mention weight to others. If
we can’t even talk to children about it, how can we expect them to maintain a healthy
weight? Let’s face it: Whether you like the word or not, kids are fat! Until we embrace
that as a fact, and stop sugar-coating things in vague clinical language, we will never
generate the kind of social action that will be required to change things. At the most
basic level, we have to be able to talk about it to find ways to address it.
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