Choosing One Word: Summarizing Shel Silverstein's "Sick"
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Overview
After reading Shel Silverstein's "Sick" aloud, students summarize the poem and count the words in their summary. They then summarize the poem again, using only one word. Students explain their choices and discuss the various words offered as a summary. The class then chooses the one word that best represents what is happening in the poem. Finally, students read a second poem, individually or in small groups, and summarize it using only one word.
Although this lesson plan uses the poem “Sick” as an example, this activity can be done with a text of any length or genre: poetry, picture books, short stories, plays, and novels.
Featured Resources
Shel Silverstein's "Sick": Use this poem as a model to explore one word summaries.
From Theory to Practice
Kylene Beers describes the strategy of asking students to choose a significant word from a text in her When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do. Beers explains:
"To encourage what often becomes a lively debate (yes, even with struggling readers!), ask students to choose what they consider to be the most important word from the text they've just read. This strategy, first proposed by David Bleich (1975), forces student back into the text to consider what was the most important aspect of that text." (173-174)
As Bleich explains, this technique encourages readers to recognize that intellectual and emotional reactions to a text are interrelated and ultimately cannot be separated. Deciding on literary importance, then, is always an act of reader response. To choose the most important word in a text, students tap their comprehension of the text in ways that are individual, guided by their own response to the reading.
Further Reading
Common Core Standards
This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.
State Standards
This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.
NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts
- 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
- 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Materials and Technology
- “Sick” by Shel Silverstein
- Additional Poetry Resources
- Chart paper or board, and writing instruments
Websites
Preparation
- Make copies of the text that the students will be using in this activity. This lesson plan uses the poem “Sick” by Shel Silverstein as one example.
- Compile additional poetry resources from the booklist or from one of the children's poetry Websites listed in the Resources section.
- Test the Line Break Explorer on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
Student Objectives
Students will
- read and discuss a selected text.
- choose a word they think is the most important.
- justify their selection to the class.
- work independently and in groups.
Session One
- Read the poem “Sick” by Shel Silverstein to the students.
- Invite students to tell you what the poem is about, using their own words. Record their responses on chart paper or the board.
- Explain to students that they have just summarized the poem.
- Talk a bit about what they word summary means.
- Ask the students to brainstorm when they may need to summarize material. Stretch their examples to cover all of the content areas.
- Reread the students’ summaries of the poem “Sick” by Shel Silverstein.
- As a class, count the number of words in the summary. Record that on the board or chart paper.
- Now, tell the students that they will also be summarizing poems; but their summaries can only be one word. Allow time for students to share their reactions to this assignment.
- Read the poem “Sick” by Shel Silverstein to the class another time.
- Again, ask students to summarize the poem, choosing the one word that captures the meaning of the entire poem.
- Record students’ selections on the board or chart paper. When students give an answer, ask them to explain why they have selected the particular words that they did.
- Once students have contributed their words, review the list of words, and ask the class to choose the one word that best represents what is happening in the poem.
- Ask students to explain and justify their choices.
- When the discussion is complete, have the class vote on the one word that sums up the entire poem.
- Tell the students that they will be working on this activity in groups during the next session.
- To end this session, students can read and explore different types of poetry; or they can further practice this skill by using the Line Break Explorer. Here two poems are presented. Students can select and drag away the one word they think represents that poem the best. Students can print when they are finished to show which word they selected.
Session Two
- Begin this session by having students describe the activity from yesterday: after reading a text, students chose one word they thought best described the text.
- Invite students to choose a poem from the classroom collection of poetry or from one of the children's poetry Websites listed in the Resources section.
- Individually, in pairs, or small groups, ask students to read their poems. Suggest that they read the poem several times.
- After multiple readings, ask students to choose one word that captures the poem.
- When all of the students have completed the activity, ask them to share with the class by reading their selected poem to the class and explaining the word they selected and the reason that they selected it.
- As the students are presenting, the teacher should be observing and taking notes as an assessment.
Extensions
- This comprehension activity can also be completed using picture books, short stories, novels, and other types of texts.
- Using the Fridge Magnets, students can create their own poems. Then, they can invite their friends to select the one word that best captures that poem.
- This activity asks students to select one word to represent a poem. Ask students to do the opposite and write a poem after being given only one word. To focus on the specific word, try using the Acrostic Poem interactive.
- Have students learn more about poet Shel Silverstein, using the ReadWriteThink Calendar Entry on Shel Silverstein and the Shel Silverstein Entry from poets.org.
Student Assessment / Reflections
Anecdotal records documenting student responses in both whole class and individual settings can help assess students’ understanding of the text they have been asked to summarize.
Those students do enjoy researching jobs, skills required, possible incomes, areas where the work can be most easily found and how soon they could enter this field.
Those students do enjoy researching jobs, skills required, possible incomes, areas where the work can be most easily found and how soon they could enter this field.
Those students do enjoy researching jobs, skills required, possible incomes, areas where the work can be most easily found and how soon they could enter this field.
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