Summarizing

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Summarizing
Dana Franklin Debbie Wales Colleen Witzke Mary
Collins
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Sunshine State Standards-LA. A.1.2.4

• Grades 3-5
• Reading
• Standard 1
• The student uses the reading process effectively.
• 4. clarifies understanding by rereading,
  self-correction, summarizing, checking other
  sources, and class or group discussion.

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Definition and Important Vocabulary
Summarizing-Finds the main points of
descriptive, explanation, instruction and
persuasive text without details, illustrations,
examples or personal opinions
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• To summarize a student uses their own words to
  combine, or synthesize the important parts of the
  text.
• A summary is short and tells only the most
  important ideas.

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Summarizing using Get the Gist Strategy

• To get the Gist of what I am reading
• Who or what is the paragraph about?
• Tell the most important thing about the who or
  what.
• Tell the main idea in 10 words or less.

Just Read, Florida You can find this strategy in
the red book behind the comprehension tab
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Summarizing Fiction

• Give only key points in a short one-four sentence
  summary
• Summarize in logical order
• Reread to remember main idea
• Refer to illustrations to summarize the text

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Summarizing Nonfiction

• Give only key points in a short one or two
  sentence summary
• Leave out unnecessary details
• Summarize in logical order
• Reread to remember main ideas
• Refer to illustrations, headings and other text
  features to summarize the text

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Tools for Teaching Summarizing
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Bio-Pyramid

• Purposes
• To summarize a persons life
• To provide a format for summary writing
• Procedures
• 1. After reading about a persons life, show
  students the format for writing Bio-Pyramids.
• Line 1-persons name
• Line 2-two words describing the person
• Line 3-three words indicating a problem the
  person had to overcome
• Line 4-four words indicating a problem the person
  had to overcome

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Bio-Pyramid

• Line 5-five words stating one of his or her
  accomplishments
• Line 6-six words stating a second accomplishment
• Line 7-seven words stating a third accomplishment
• Line 8- eight words stating how mankind benefited
  from the accomplishments
• Create Bio-Pyramid as a class
• In small groups or pairs, have students create
  Bio-Pyramids
• Use the completed pyramids to promote discussion

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Bio-Pyramid

• 1.________
• Persons name
• 2.______ _______
• Two words describing the person
• 3._______ ______ _____
• Three words describing the persons childhood
• 4._____ _____ ______ _____
• Four words describing a problem the person had to
  overcome
• 5_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
• Five words stating one of his or her
  accomplishments
• 6._____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
• Six words stating a second accomplishment
• 7._____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
• Seven words stating a third accomplishment
• 8._____ _____ _____ _______ ________ _____ _____
• Eight words stating how mankind benefited from
  his or her accomplishments

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Lyric Summary

• Purposes
• To provide an alternative format for narrative or
  expository text summaries
• To provide opportunities to use multiple
  modalities when creating summaries
• To link content learning and the arts.
• Procedures
• 1. Review summarizing with the students
  depending on the type of text. Ask them to note
  the types of information that comprise narrative
  or expository summaries.
• 2. Introduce the musical aspect of the Lyric
  Summary by explaining that summaries can also be
  written as song lyrics to familiar tunes
  (popular, rock, jazz, disco, childrens songs).

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Lyric Summary

• 3. Choose a melody with which students are
  familiar and use it as the background for writing
  a Lyric Summary. Write the first line and then
  encourage pairs of students to suggest subsequent
  lines. When the Lyric Summary is completed, sing
  it with the class.
• 4. Have small groups of students choose a melody
  they know and a topic they have recently studied
  to create their own Lyric Summaries. The topic
  may be a story they have recently read or
  information from a content area.
• 5. Have the students sing their completed Lyric
  Summaries for the class.

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Lyric Summary

• Text _____________________________________
• Tune_____________________________________
• Verse 1 ________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ______________________________
• Verse 2 ________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ______________________________
• Refrain ________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ______________________________

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Narrative Pyramid

• Purposes
• To summarize a narrative text
• To provide a format for summary writing.
• Procedures
• 1. After reading a story, show students the
  format for writing narrative pyramids.
• Line 1 characters name
• Line 2 two words describing the character
• Line 3 three words describing the setting
• Line 4 four words stating the problem
• Line 5 five words describing one event

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Narrative Pyramid

• Line 6 six words describing another event
• Line 7 seven words describing a third event
• Line 8 eight words describing the solution to
  the problem
• 2. Create a Narrative Pyramid as a class.
• 3. Have students create Narrative Pyramids in
  small groups or pairs for a story they have read.
• 4. Use the completed pyramids as the basis for
  discussion.

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Narrative Pyramid

• 1.________
• Characters name
• 2.______ _______
• Two words describing the character
• 3._______ ______ _____
• Three words describing the setting
• 4._____ _____ ______ _____
• Four words stating the problem
• 5_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
• Five words describing one event
• 6._____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
• Six words describing another event
• 7._____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
• Seven words describing a third event
• 8._____ _____ _____ _______ ________ _____ _____
• Eight words describing a solution to the problem

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QuIP (Questions into Paragraphs)

• Purpose
• To provide a framework for initiating research
  and structuring writing.
• Procedures
• 1. Students choose a topic to explore and write
  the topic at the top of the QuIP grid.
• 2. Generate three broad questions related to the
  topic.
• Locate and read two sources to find the answers
  to their questions. Students write the titles of
  the sources in spaces provided on the grid.
• Record answers to the questions in the spaces
  provided on the grid.
• Synthesize information into a paragraph.
• Share paragraphs in pairs or small groups.

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QuIP (Questions into Paragraphs)
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Story Map

• Purposes
• To promote understanding of the narrative
  elements
• To encourage summarizing using narrative text
  structure
• Procedures
• Explain to the students the purpose of
  summarizing and the narrative elements that are
  included (characters, setting, problem, attempts
  to resolve, solution) when summarizing a story.
• Demonstrate completing a Story Map after reading
  a story aloud. Discuss the components you
  included. (A story map or other visual cues may
  help.) Use the completed Story Map to briefly
  summarize the story.
• Read another story to the students and in small
  groups, have them complete a story map.
• Share and discuss the completed Story Maps. Use
  them to summarize the story.

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Story Map
STORY ELEMENTS
Characters
Setting
Problem
Solution
Event
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Summary Cube

• Purpose
• To provide a structure for summarizing factual
  information or retelling key points of a story.
• Procedures
• Explain and model the idea of cubing to the
  students. Describe the information that goes on
  each side of the cube.
• Demonstrate through read-aloud and think-aloud
  the process of determining key ideas about either
  narrative or expository text to write on the
  cube.
• Show the students how to assemble the cube. In
  small groups, guide the students to read a text
  and create Summary Cubes. Share ideas with the
  class. Display Summary Cubes.
• Encourage students to create their own cubes as
  follow-ups to reading narrative and expository
  texts.

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Summary Cube
Information for cubes
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Summary Cube
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Key Word Strategy

• Purpose
• To provide a structure for summarizing factual
  information or key points of a story
• Procedures
• 1. Read a story.
• Reread it with the goal of trying to select a few
  key words that seem especially important to the
  story. Make a list of these words. Be
  selective. You want the MOST IMPORTANT words.
• 3. Cut your list apart so that each word can be
  moved separately.
• 4. Arrange the words in a way that supports you
  as you retell the story in your head. (For
  example, in Cinderella fireplace and cinders
  would probably come before pumpkin.)
• 5. Use your words to get you started writing a
  summary of the story.

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Key Word Strategy

• The Reader ____________________ Date ____________
• The Book _______________________________________
• Key Word List
• My summary
• How many of your key words appeared in your
  summary?

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Teaching Strategies

• Take articles from the newspaper and sut off
  their headlines. Have students practice writing
  headlines or matching the headlines to the
  correct story.
• After teaching maid ideas and supporting details,
  challenge students to sum up a story or article
  the entire class has read together, using no more
  than 20 words. With partners, have students
  highlight repeated words or phrases, listing key
  details. Have volunteers write the 20-word
  sentences on the board. The class can then vote
  on the best one.

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Teaching Strategies

• Model two-column note-taking. (T-charts)
  Students learn to record major concepts in the
  space to the left and supporting details to the
  rights. For studying, show one section only by
  folding the paper in half. To use differently,
  give students a main idea statement and use the
  two columns for relevant and irrelevant details.

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Teaching Strategies

• Have students reformulate text into newspaper
  articles using an inverted pyramid to plan the
  summary into a headline for the main idea and a
  lead paragraph for the supporting details. Have
  them use key words or phrases to identify only
  who, what, when, where, why and how.

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Teaching Strategies

• Teach the purpose of headings. Using a textbook,
  show how the broadest ideas are set in larger
  type. As the ideas get more specific the type
  gets smaller. Typographic cues including titles
  help students acquire this benchmark skill.