Mr. Gloomingdale's Downpour by Andrew Conlan is the story of a very grumpy man by the name of Mr. Glommingdale. Mr. Gloomingdale lives in a very lovely cottage with very lovely plants that always had very lovely days, and he hated it. He's always in such a grumpy mood that he thought the happy plants and animals were making fun of him by smiling all the time, but they were really just trying to make him happy! One day Mr. Gloomingdale gets a letter in the mail telling him about a wishing well. He goes and finds the wishing well, and knows exactly what he is going to wish for. He wishes for there to be no sunshine and cheer around him as long he is in this grumpy mood. All of a sudden a rain cloud appears and starts following him around. He runs into his house to avoid the rain, but it follows him. He looks outside and realizes that the only one in the rain is him. The plants are smiling, the sun is shining, and the animals are playing. To help stay dry, he had to wear a rain coat and carry an umbrella. He thought it made him look silly which made him livid! He soon realized that the he was taking up all the rain, and the sunny days were taking their toll on the plants and animals. Soon the plants began to wilt and the animals fell over. This didn't make Mr. Glommingdale happy or grumpy, it made him sad. He put his umbrella down and looked at the plants. When he did, rain dripped from his yellow hat, and the plant he was standing over started to get better. After he saw this he hurried to all the plants and animals and gave them water. After helping all the plants and animals he realized the rain cloud was gone, and he was not grumpy anymore. He was happy at his very lovely cottage with very lovely plants that always had very lovely days.
Summarizing information: Means to tell what's important!
GIST: A summarization
strategy. The group will
write a summary in 20 words.
Explanation: The GIST of something is the main idea. Sometimes we don’t need to remember all the
details but read just to get the GIST of the material.
Procedure: Draw 20 word sized
blanks on the chalkboard.
After reading a
short section of text (one-two paragraphs), the students will assist the
teacher in writing a 20 word summary to give the gist of what they read.
With older students, read an
additional section of text (one-two paragraphs). Information from both sections must be
incorporated into a new 20 word summary.
Can you do a 20 word Gist of the story from the synopsis above?
This book sounds so cute! I would love for this book to be in my own classroom for my students to enjoy. Your strategy for summarizing the book is really simple which makes it that much more feasible for an early childhood classroom. The strategy does not require the use of anything but time. I love the strategy and this book! Good Job! -Karli
ReplyDeleteThat is a great summarizing strategy. The book looks like a great book for students to learn summarizing with. The strategy you found is a simple but effect strategy. I think students would really have to pay attention to the story and think to come up with a twenty word Gist for this story. I think students would learn a lot from this summarizing strategy. Great job!
ReplyDelete---Meghan Ward
This sounds like a very cute book! The summary was very informative! I love the idea of using the GIST activity. This is a great way to determine the students idea of the main idea in their own words.
ReplyDelete-Fallyn
This seems like a great story for children. I have never heard of the GIST summary strategy. It sounds like a good activity, but my first thought is that it would be hard for students to come up with just one word to summarize. I would definitely like to try it to see how it would work. Thank you for sharing! ~Elma Daniel
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea of summarizing. Its a very different summarizing strategy, and it sounds like students will enjoy it. I like how all the students can work together to summarize the story. This is a great way to use all of the students' ideas. Great job! -Lindsay Lawson
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this strategy, but you explained it very well and made it sound like a very good activity. I also like it because both the teacher and the students are involved in this activity instead of the students just writing, which can be boring at times to the students. Nice strategy!
ReplyDelete-Ashanti
I actually like the concept of this strategy, and you explained how it will be used to benefit the students understanding of the text. The book is interesting and provides a good catalyst for learning and synthesizing of the text. It’s a great blog.
ReplyDelete