Lesson length30 min 45 min 60 min

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English lesson plan · 6th grade (Year 7 in England) · 45 minutes

Summarising

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.6.2CCSS RL.6.2England: Y6 Reading (summarising)England: KS3 ReadingEngland: GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q2

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Summarising.

I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
I can explain each step and say why it works.
I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Main idea and supporting details

Leads to: Central ideas in complex texts; Does the headline match the story?

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 5 min

Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Main idea and supporting details). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

Long ago, people did not have fridges. They kept food cold in cellars, packed it in ice, or dried and salted meat so it would last. What is the main idea? (Cellars are dark. / Salt makes food tasty. / Fridges are expensive. / People once used other ways to keep food from spoiling.) → People once used other ways to keep food from spoiling.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?
Spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, but spiders have eight. Insects have three body parts, while spiders have two. Most insects have wings; spiders never do. What is the main idea? (Insects can fly. / Spiders have eight legs. / Spiders are different from insects in several ways. / Spiders are scary.) → Spiders are different from insects in several ways.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?
Dolphins are very smart. They can learn tricks, solve puzzles and recognise themselves in a mirror. They also talk to each other with clicks and whistles. What is the main idea? (Dolphins whistle. / Dolphins are intelligent animals. / Dolphins live in the sea. / Dolphins like mirrors.) → Dolphins are intelligent animals.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?

Hook · 5 min

Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
Share the objective: Summarising. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 10 min

Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
Example: In 2019, pupils at Hill School noticed that the stream behind the school was full of plastic. They organised monthly clean-ups, wrote to the council, and persuaded local shops to stop using plastic bags. Within a year, the stream was clear and ducks had returned. Which is the best summary?
Step 1: The main idea covers the whole text; details only cover a part.
Step 2: So the answer is: Pupils cleaned up a polluted stream through action and persuasion, and wildlife returned.
Answer: Pupils cleaned up a polluted stream through action and persuasion, and wildlife returned.
Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 10 min

Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

Honeyguides are African birds that lead people to bees' nests. The birds call and fly from tree to tree until people find the nest. People take the honey, and the birds eat the leftover wax. Which is the best summary? (Honeyguides live in Africa. / Bees make wax and honey. / Birds can call loudly. / Honeyguide birds and people work together to get food from bees' nests.) → Honeyguide birds and people work together to get food from bees' nests.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?
In 2019, pupils at Hill School noticed that the stream behind the school was full of plastic. They organised monthly clean-ups, wrote to the council, and persuaded local shops to stop using plastic bags. Within a year, the stream was clear and ducks had returned. Which is the best summary? (The council owns the stream. / Pupils cleaned up a polluted stream through action and persuasion, and wildlife returned. / Ducks live near Hill School. / In 2019, plastic bags were popular.) → Pupils cleaned up a polluted stream through action and persuasion, and wildlife returned.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?

You do: independent practice · 10 min

Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 5 min

Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

Honeyguides are African birds that lead people to bees' nests. The birds call and fly from tree to tree until people find the nest. People take the honey, and the birds eat the leftover wax. Which is the best summary? (Honeyguides live in Africa. / Birds can call loudly. / Honeyguide birds and people work together to get food from bees' nests. / Bees make wax and honey.) → Honeyguide birds and people work together to get food from bees' nests.Prompt: What is the WHOLE text mostly about, not just one part?

Watch out for

Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

Review first: Main idea and supporting details.
Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

Move on to: Central ideas in complex texts; Does the headline match the story?.
Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-6.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Summarising

Name

Date

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The Phone-Free Lunch Experiment

For one month, students at Brookfield School tried something unusual: no phones at lunch. Phones stayed in lockers from twelve until one, and the dining hall filled with board games, sketchbooks and a lot more noise. The idea came from the student council. In a survey, 61 per cent of students said they spent most of lunch looking at a screen, and many said they wanted a break but found it hard to stop on their own. At first, not everyone was happy. "I thought it was a punishment," admitted Jaden, 12. "But after a week I'd learned to play chess, and now I actually look forward to lunch." Teachers noticed changes too. Ms Ortega, who supervises the hall, said there were fewer arguments and more students sitting in mixed groups. However, some students said they missed messaging family members during the day. The council will now vote on whether to keep the rule. One suggestion is a compromise: phone-free Mondays to Thursdays, with Fridays left free.

1
Question 1
Read "The Phone-Free Lunch Experiment". What is the article mainly about?
- A. how to vote in a student council
- B. the history of mobile phones
- C. a school's month-long trial of phone-free lunches and how people reacted
- D. why chess is the best board game

Who Has Seen the Wind? (Christina Rossetti, 1872)

Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by.

2
Question 2
Read "Who Has Seen the Wind? (Christina Rossetti, 1872)". What is the main idea of the poem?
- A. Only children can see the wind.
- B. Leaves are afraid of the wind.
- C. The wind is dangerous and destroys trees.
- D. We cannot see the wind itself, but we can see its effects.

3
Question 3
Honeyguides are African birds that lead people to bees' nests. The birds call and fly from tree to tree until people find the nest. People take the honey, and the birds eat the leftover wax. Which is the best summary?
- A. Honeyguide birds and people work together to get food from bees' nests.
- B. Honeyguides live in Africa.
- C. Bees make wax and honey.
- D. Birds can call loudly.

The Clever Octopus

If you wanted to design an intelligent animal from scratch, you probably would not start with a creature that has no bones, three hearts and blue blood. Yet the octopus is one of the most remarkable problem-solvers in the animal kingdom. In laboratories, octopuses have learned to unscrew jar lids to reach crabs inside. Some have escaped from their tanks at night, crept across the floor to a neighbouring tank to eat the fish, and then returned home before morning. In the wild, veined octopuses have been filmed collecting coconut shells, carrying them across the seabed and assembling them into a portable shelter – one of the few known examples of tool use by an invertebrate. What makes this intelligence so surprising is how different the octopus brain is from ours. About two-thirds of its roughly 500 million nerve cells are not in its head at all but in its eight arms. Each arm can taste, touch and even make simple decisions on its own. Scientists are still debating what it might feel like to be an animal whose thinking is spread throughout its body. The octopus's cleverness may be linked to its lifestyle. Without a shell for protection, it must outwit predators by hiding, changing colour in a fraction of a second, or squeezing through gaps no bigger than its beak. Survival depends on flexible thinking. Strangely, most octopuses live only one or two years. They have no parents to teach them and usually die soon after laying eggs. Every skill they show, they must largely work out for themselves.

4
Question 4
Read "The Clever Octopus". Which choice best states the central idea of the text?
- A. Coconut shells make good shelters.
- B. Octopuses escape from tanks at night.
- C. The octopus is a highly intelligent animal whose mind works very differently from ours.
- D. Octopuses should not be kept in laboratories.

The Long Wall

The Great Wall of China is not one wall at all. It is a network of walls, trenches and watchtowers built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years by different dynasties. If all its sections were laid end to end, they would stretch over 21,000 kilometres – more than half the distance around the Earth. The earliest walls were built from packed earth around the seventh century BCE, when rival Chinese states defended their borders from one another. In about 220 BCE, the first emperor of a united China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered many of these separate walls to be joined together to protect the north from raiding groups. The sections that most visitors see today are far younger. They were built during the Ming dynasty, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ming builders used bricks and stone, which is why these sections have survived so well. Watchtowers were placed close enough together for soldiers to send signals using smoke by day and fire by night. The wall came at a terrible cost. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, prisoners and farmers were forced to work on it, often in freezing mountains or burning deserts. Many died, and stories and songs about their suffering are still told. Did the wall work? Historians disagree. It slowed down small raids and helped control trade and travel, but determined armies could still break through or simply go around it. Today, its greatest power may be as a symbol – of human effort, of history and of a nation's identity.

5
Question 5
Read "The Long Wall". What is the main idea of paragraph 1?
- A. The Great Wall is a vast network built over a very long time.
- B. The wall goes around the Earth.
- C. The Great Wall was built in one year.
- D. Only one dynasty built the wall.

6
Question 6
Mangrove trees grow along tropical coasts where land meets sea. Their tangled roots trap mud, protecting shores from storms and erosion. The roots also shelter young fish, crabs and shrimp. Yet mangroves are being cut down for farms and resorts faster than many other forests. Which is the best summary?
- A. Mangroves protect coasts and shelter sea life but are being destroyed quickly.
- B. Crabs live in mangrove roots.
- C. Mangroves grow in the tropics.
- D. Resorts are popular with tourists.
7
Question 7
The first bicycles had no pedals; riders pushed along with their feet. Later models added pedals to a giant front wheel, which made them fast but dangerous. Eventually, the safety bicycle, with two equal wheels and a chain, became the design we use today. Which is the best summary?
- A. Bicycles have two wheels.
- B. Early bicycles were dangerous.
- C. Bicycles developed over time from pedal-less models to the safer chain-driven design used today.
- D. Riders pushed with their feet.
8
Question 8
In 2019, pupils at Hill School noticed that the stream behind the school was full of plastic. They organised monthly clean-ups, wrote to the council, and persuaded local shops to stop using plastic bags. Within a year, the stream was clear and ducks had returned. Which is the best summary?
- A. In 2019, plastic bags were popular.
- B. The council owns the stream.
- C. Pupils cleaned up a polluted stream through action and persuasion, and wildlife returned.
- D. Ducks live near Hill School.

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Answer key: Summarising

1. C. a school's month-long trial of phone-free lunches and how people reacted
2. D. We cannot see the wind itself, but we can see its effects.
3. A. Honeyguide birds and people work together to get food from bees' nests.
4. C. The octopus is a highly intelligent animal whose mind works very differently from ours.
5. A. The Great Wall is a vast network built over a very long time.
6. A. Mangroves protect coasts and shelter sea life but are being destroyed quickly.
7. C. Bicycles developed over time from pedal-less models to the safer chain-driven design used today.
8. C. Pupils cleaned up a polluted stream through action and persuasion, and wildlife returned.