Information Pyramid in 3rd Grade

3rd Grade Information Pyramid

Over the past week, I have had the opportunity to visit our 4 3rd grade classrooms and do a lesson on summarizing using the information pyramid. I learned about this pyramid from a Smekens training. This pyramid is great for nonfiction articles. 

We started the lesson by looking at the Newsela article: On a Mission: NASA spacecraft to search for Closer Earth-like Planets. We then summarized it using the information pyramid. Here is two examples from different classrooms: 

                              

The first line on the pyramid is for for concept or topic. The following line is for 2 words that are related to the topic. The third row allows students to pull out the main idea of the article in three words and the final line allows for students to support their main idea in four words. Finally, at the end students generate a summary using their keywords from their pyramid.

After this, we read the Newsela article: Orcas, or Killer Whales, Speak Using Human Words. Students were then split into small groups and completed the information pyramid on their own. Students did a great job working with their peers and filling out the information pyramid. Here are some examples below: