How to Summarize What You Read
Summarizing is a useful skill for students. It teaches them how to identify the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant and insignificant information, and how to pick up the central ideas in a useful way. Teaching how to summarize can also improve the memory for what the kids read, and this skill can be used in almost every subject area. Here are some reasons why you should teach students to summarize: It helps them discern important ideas and compile important details that support them. It enables them to handle a large chunk of text and condense it to just the main points for better understanding. It allows them to focus on keywords and phrases of a particular text that are noteworthy and important to remember. How to summarize: 1) Start with having the student read the text or listen to the audio version of the text. 2) Guide the student to answer the following framework questions: What are the main concepts? What are the essential details necessary for supporting the ideas? Which information is unnecessary or irrelevant? 3) Ask them to use phrases or keywords to identify the main points from the text.
Summarize the Text
Underline key words and phrases. Answer the questions. On a separate sheet of paper, write a brief summary of the text.
Sequence, Then Summarize
First, take notes of the major points in the order that they happen. Then, write a summary of the story in the complete sentences.
Organize Me
Read the assigned text. Then use the graphic organizer below to get together the information that you need to summarize it.
What Happened?
Draw and describe the major events of a typical day for you in the order that they happen.
The Scene
Choose a scene from the story. Draw a picture of what’s going on in the scene. On the lines, summarize what’s going on.
The Stray Kitten
Every afternoon, Jenna took a walk around her neighborhood. One day while she was walking, she saw something up ahead of her in the road. I wonder that is? she thought to herself.
Writing a Summary
A summary is a concise statement that includes the main points of something. You write a summary in the present tense. A summary should contain a topic sentence that is followed by details.
My Practice
Read the passage. Identify the main idea and major facts. Write a three to four sentence summary on the lines.
Write A Chapter Summary
Who, what, when is the chapter about? What are their thoughts and feelings?
5 Questions
Read the assigned text. Answer the five questions about the text. Then use your answers to the questions to write a brief summary of what you read on the back of this page.
BME
When trying to decide what to include in your summary, answer the questions below for each main part of the story.