Writing Summaries...

Seems simple RIGHT? Read a chapter, write a summary...

Our students see this a lot, whether it be on our reading assessments (good 'ol DRA2), in our own classrooms, or on our state assessments (although, last I looked, they were switching things up a bit saying things like "paraphrase" or "find the main idea." Well, which one is it? Let's keep it simple folks.)

Bottom line, we want our kids to be proficient (and feel confident) in taking out the important elements from a piece of text, both fiction and non-fiction. We want our zealous little readers to be able to get at the heart of the matter when writing summaries, and we want them to be able to do it in as few words as possible. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that our students need to be taught "HOW" to break down a larger piece of text into a short, brief, to the point summary. Piece of cake, right?! Oy...

So, here we are! I must say, our summary writing is most definitely a work in progress, but I am proud of the hard work my kids put in so far!

  

Here's what the beginning of our unit looked like: 

I broke this unit into two separate mini-units. One for fiction summary writing and another for non-fiction summary writing. This blog post will be entirely devoted to the beginning stages of our fiction summaries. 

I decided on a very specific format for writing our fiction summaries, the very popular “Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then”. This summarizing strategy comes from an older book titled; Responses to Literature. Good lord those authors were on to something! ;) Obviously since the whole problem-solution narrative format tends to be the easiest, being that my kids have so much background knowledge on it, I figured this would be a great place to start.

I have seen so many AWESOME organizers using this strategy all over the blog world, and I assure you teacher friends it's for a reason, because this little phrase is AMAZING! I found this FREE graphic organizer courtesy of One Happy Teacher. Click the picture below to check out her blog and to grab this freebie! 

I expanded the above graphic organizer onto our anchor chart to introduce this strategy to my students and to really drive home the ideas of summarizing fiction.

With the first lesson, we discussed narrative text vs. expository text, and more specifically discussed the narrative format of problem-solution. I did a very brief mini-lesson revisiting mentor texts that we had already used, to discuss the problem-solution structure of narratives. I discussed that narratives are “stories” and should be read as such. We discussed that it is important to pay attention to events in a story versus taking out facts when reading a non-fiction or expository text.

Here are the mentor texts we used: 

Although the above books are great books to use for this unit, I did not use them for the purpose of summary writing. Instead, I chose a chapter out of our current read aloud: Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix. I chose this because my kids’ biggest problem with writing fiction summaries is that they include irrelevant information. By choosing a chapter from a book that we are currently reading, a lot of the details are fresh in their minds and I can easily note where they're adding in extra or irrelevant details.

To start, I copied the chapter, passed it out, and gave each student a copy of the above graphic organizer. Some students felt confident enough to fill it out as we read, others needed my help. 

After reading the passage, we walked slowly through each of the steps below: 

First, we identified the character in relation to the problem of the text. I broke it down like this: The character that is “going through something” is the Someone. 

Second, we discussed that what the character wanted, or what their goal was, (in relation to the problem) is the Wanted. 

Next, we worked to figure out what the obstacle was that was getting in the way of the character reaching their goal, and identified this as the But. 

Then, we pulled out what the character did or how they reacted to the problem they were facing as the the So.

Lastly, we agreed on the solution to the problem or the outcome as the Then.

It was hard for some, but when I showed them how you could take those individual sticky notes and put them together to write a summary, they were pretty flabbergasted!  

I got a few, THAT'S IT? and WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE! comments. I was cracking up. Unfortunately my friends, this is just the beginning.

Questions I asked my readers today: What happens when the author does not use the format of problem-solution? What about when an author doesn't present the information in the exact order that the graphic organizer is laid out? What happens when the author doesn't come out and neatly provide the reader with any of the above information but instead uses figurative language or forces the reader to infer things like problems and solutions?

The above questions will be our next feat to tackle! But, until then, we are practicing, practicing, and practicing some more!

What are some tips and tricks you use for teaching higher level summary writing and non-fiction summary writing?


My latest Valentine product is UP FOR YOU TO GRAB: Valentine Coordinate Graphing Ordered Pairs {Mystery Pictures}. I made these with 5 pictures: 3 pictures in quadrant 1-4, and 2 pictures in quadrant 1.

The first 3 readers to leave me tips and tricks for summary writing, leave your email and I'll send you a free copy! I'll be adding my Valentine Math Centers, Activities and Games Pack next! Stay tuned...