Summarizing: Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs
Grade
Levels: K - 3
Objective
This
lesson is designed to expand primary students' summarizing skills. In this lesson, students will
summarize Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. First, they
will work in groups to complete assigned parts of a
story map. Then, they will summarize the entire story as a class. Finally, they
will create their own summary picture books to help them summarize the story.
This is the final lesson in a set of summarizing lessons designed for primary
grades. (For the first two lessons, see Summarizing: Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia and
Summarizing: Nate the Great.
This
lesson, which focuses on summarizing, assumes that students are already
familiar with basic Story Elements, including character, plot, and
setting. Summarizing also requires students to be familiar with sequencing
events and determining importance. If students are unfamiliar with these
concepts, you will need to take some time introducing them.
Materials
- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
- Chart paper
- Story map
- Drawing paper
Procedure
- Hook/Engagement
Begin
by telling students a story with the title "The Worst Weather I Ever
Experienced"—for example, a time you were caught in a hurricane, a
snowstorm, or some such experience (the more death-defying, the better.) Make
it as dramatic as possible. Make it a long story, with plenty of details.
Next,
ask a student to tell you the story, with "just the important parts. Keep
it short and sweet." Quite likely, the first child who tries this will
provide too many details. Say, "Too many details!!! Someone else try. I
want just a summary. Keep it short and sweet." Keep going until someone
gives you a really nice, short summary.
Have
students individually draw pictures of "The Worst Weather I Ever
Experienced." Then have them tell the story to a partner. They can tell a
long story, with plenty of details. Then, have the partner tell the story back
to them, keeping it "short and sweet." The person who listens to the
summary can decide whether it's short and sweet enough.
If
your children are not yet comfortable working in pairs, you can do this as a
whole-class activity. The important thing is to make sure everyone understands
what a summary is.
Explain
to students that they are going to read a funny story that has to do with
unbelievable weather. Explain that they are going to be summarizing some
weather conditions they have never ever seen before!
- Vocabulary
Tall tale—a
funny story that includes exaggerated details and problems that are solved in
funny ways
Students
should know the terms: character, setting, problem, main event, and solution.
- Measurable Objectives
Tell
students that now that they have completed several lessons about summarizing,
they are going to show you that they really know how to summarize. First,
you'll ask them to break into groups and fill in one part of a story map,
without too much of your help, about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
Second, you'll ask them to help you put the parts of the story map in order.
Third, they will summarize Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to you as a
class. Finally, you are going to give them "book" pages on which they
will write and draw about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. They will
use their books to summarize the story for their family members. Remind them
that their summaries should always be shorter than the real book because a
summary only includes the most important information about a story. It should
be "short and sweet."
- Focused Instruction
Review
the vocabulary words on the story map. Explain that the reason they need to
fill information in a story map is because it helps them keep track of the most
important information they need to remember to be able to summarize a story.
Write
the name of each part of a story map section (characters, setting, problem,
main event [label 1st, 2nd and 3rd], and solution) on a piece of chart paper
and draw a small picture beside each section to remind students which section
they have. Have students help you brainstorm a quick image for each section of
the story map. For example, you can draw a stick figure next to the character
section.
Divide
students into seven groups (one for each section of the story map) and give
each group one section of the story map. Explain that you are going to read Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs aloud to them and they are going to write or
draw the information in their section of the story map. Tell them that you are
going to stop reading at certain points, and groups should talk about what you
have read to figure out if they need to add any important information to their
section of the story map.
Before
you begin reading, explain to students that Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs is a story that really has two stories. The grandfather in this
story tells his grandchildren a tall-tale—the story within the story. Point out
that students should record all of the characters they hear, and tell them to
listen closely for the beginning of the tall-tale that the grandfather tells.
Start reading aloud Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to students. Stop
reading right after Grandpa begins the tall-tale and make sure that students
understand this is the beginning of Grandpa's story. Give groups a chance to
fill-in information.
At
this point, try not to do any modeling as you have done in the previous two
lessons. Instead, if groups need help, ask questions such as, "Who is in
the story so far?" and "What do I know about the setting?" Make
sure that the groups who have the "Character" section are recording
information. Continue reading aloud and be sure to monitor students'
discussions as they determine what information to include. You may have to clue
groups who have the main event sections that the first main event has happened,
and so on. For students who are struggling writers, tell them that they can
draw whatever they want that reminds them of their section. For example,
students who have the second main event section could just draw a big pancake
covering a school.
Suggested
stopping points:
- After reading the page about the Sanitation Department
- After reading that the people had to abandon Chewandswallow
- The end of the story
Sample
Story Map answers:
Characters:
Henry, Henry's sister, Grandpa, Mom
Problem: The good
food stopped falling and it was replaced by bad food that was too big; the
people had to leave Chewandswallow.
Setting: house;
Chewandswallow
First Main Event:
It rained food three times a day in Chewandswallow. The people ate whatever
weather was served, and they didn't have to worry about going food shopping.
People just carried their utensils with them.
Second Main Event:
The weather took a turn for the worse. Bad food kept falling, and then food
that was too big. People got sick trying to eat too much, and they had to close
school. People decided to leave Chewandswallow.
Third Main Event:
The townspeople made a boat out of stale bread and sailed to a new town. They
had to get used to shopping for food at the supermarket.
Solution:
The people of Chewandswallow survived in a new town, and Grandpa's story put
the children to sleep!
- Guided Practice
Create
a decorative story-map title page on a piece of chart paper that includes the
title of the story, and the author's and illustrator's names. Collect the chart
paper from each group and beginning with your title page, have children tell
you where to tape all of the pieces of chart paper in the same order as the story
map across the front board. Tell students that they are going to use their
words or pictures to help them summarize Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
Begin the summary by stating the name of the story and the name of the author
and illustrator. Then, call on the "character" group to tell who the
main characters are, the "setting" group to tell about the setting,
and so on. Guide groups to summarize their part of the story in one or two
sentences including only the most important points. Tell groups to listen to
one another so that they can hear Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
being summarized.
- Independent Practice
Tell
students that when they are summarizing a story to somebody, they usually do
not have the book available to look through as they are talking. Explain that
you want them to write and draw their own summary of Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs so that they can summarize the story to you and to their family
members at home.
Create
a title page with the story's name and then create blank pages with these
sentence frames on top:
The
main characters are ________.
The
setting of the story is: ________.
The
problem in the story is _________.
The
first funny event that happened is ______.
The
second funny event that happened is ________.
The
third funny event that happened is ________.
The
story ended when _______.
Copy
the book pages and distribute them to the class. Show students how to put their
"books" in order and then staple them. (If appropriate, students
should number the pages at the bottom.) Have students draw a fun picture on the
title page and on each page to tell about the sentence frame. Advanced students
may be able to fill in some words, but if they can't, tell students that a
family member can write the information when students are summarizing Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs for them. Help children read the sentence frames
and remind them that they should draw just one main picture that tells about
the sentence frame. Their "book summary" should be shorter than the
actual story and should only include the most important details.
- Assessment
To
assess whether students have learned how to summarize an entire story, ask each
student to use his or her book to give you a summary of Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs. Check that they only tell you the most important parts of the
story. To further assess students' understanding of how to summarize, you could
have them work on a story map for a story that you had already read aloud in
class and then ask them to use their story map to summarize the story for you.
Be sure to assess the class's summary of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
before you assess their independent understanding of summarizing. Encourage
students to bring home their summary books so that they can summarize this
funny story to people in their family—what fun table talk!
Reflection and Planning
Determine
which students understand how to summarize a story. For students who need more
help, use this lesson plan using stories that students already know well. If
additional support is needed, use the previous summarizing lesson plans, and
use different books. Encourage students to make "summary books" of
stories that you read aloud to them throughout the year and have them share
their summaries with other classes to encourage other students to read the same
wonderful books your students are reading in class.
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