Curated OER
Let's Find the Main Ideas!
Third graders examine how finding the main ideas and summarizing increases their reading comprehension. They read "The Sea in Danger" while applying the six rules of summarization in a modeled lesson. Next, working in small groups, they...
Curated OER
Face to Face Summary!
Students, while in the computer lab visiting the National Geographic Kids website, fill out a checklist of unimportant/redundant information, look for important events and ideas and search for the author's main idea and supporting...
Curated OER
Let's Get it Together! Reading to Learn
Let’s learn about frogs! Young readers are led through “Freaky Frogs,” a non-fiction article. Teach learners how to edit an article so there are fewer details to sift through. After talking through the article, they learn the six steps...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Comprehension: Monitoring for Understanding, Simple Summary
Can your class sum up a text in a few sentences? Help them build this skill by starting nice and slow. For this summarizing activity, the teacher marks the main ideas with sticky notes. Learners read and reread the text, pausing at the...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension 1: Level 11
Here’s a reading comprehension assessment that will capture the interest of your learners. Stink bugs and the danger they pose to farmers is the subject of the passage, while the eight questions ask readers to infer, predict, summarize...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension - Short Stories
Much more than a simple reading assessment, this resource can form the basis of a review of comprehension strategies, as a worksheet that models for readers how to employ strategies to answer questions based on passages, or as a practice...
Curated OER
Writing and Presenting a Fable Using Research
Elementary and middle schoolers research animal facts and use them in a fable. First, they pair-share to find animal traits to use in writing a fable. They then complete a prewriting worksheet. After going through the writing process,...
Curated OER
Retelling and Summarizing
Having students use a rubric to score a piece of writing is an excellent practice. They read a passage titled, "Firefighters," and discuss different summaries that were written about it. They evaluate several summaries then score them...
Curated OER
Writing a Summary
Skim, reread, and then take notes. The step-by-step procedure outlined in this resource can be used to help pupils write a summary of a reading passage. Using their notes, class members then draft a summary focusing on the main idea and...
Curated OER
Catch those Butterfly Facts!
Discuss the importance of comprehension and the use of summarization with your class. Through guided practice, they follow three steps in finding and highlighting important information, deleting information that is not needed and...
Curated OER
Super Summarizers
Students examine the process of summarization by creating an event map. They discuss the process of summarizing text, then silently read an article from "Time For Kids" magazine. Students observe the teacher create a map for the...
Curated OER
Short and Sweet
Students explore how to summarize a text while reading. They discuss what it means to summarize. Students read a non-fiction text and practice summarizing the pages they read. They highlight the main ideas and important details within...
Weebly
Cereal Box Book Report
What is is about cereal boxes that draws consumers in? Tap into the effective marketing of cereal boxes and apply those elements to a book report. Pupils cover cereal boxes with information about their chosen books. they must create a...
Anchorage School District
Writing Effective Summaries
Drafting a strong first sentence for a summary is an important step. Writers can use the formula presented on this handout to get started. The resource lists three steps to put together a strong topic sentence, as well as tips and hints...
Curated OER
Some Simple Rules to Sum it Up!
Students observe and demonstrate three steps to summarize text. They read and discuss the three steps to summarizing, then silently read an article about dugongs from "National Geographic Kids" magazine. Students demonstrate the three...
Curated OER
Let's Get the Facts!
Young scholars observe and demonstrate the process of summarization. They discuss the three steps of summarization, then silently read a National Geographic Kids News article. As a class they complete a semantic map of the article, and...
Curated OER
Summarize and Celebrate Earth Day!
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. As a class they read and discuss a poster of the rules for summarization, then silently a page from the book "Let's Celebrate Earth Day." Students then summarize the...
Curated OER
Summarizing Story Events
Here is a way to build your pupils' public speaking abilities. The lesson describes a reader's report chair, which is used each week by a student who has just finished reading a book. The featured reader sits in the chair and talks about...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Comprehend a Paragraph, then a Page/Section in a Text
Help your class tackle chunks of text with a simple graphic organizer. Pupils read three paragraphs and, as they read, draw pictures in the provided boxes that demonstrate what each paragraph says. There are three boxes on the page and...
Curated OER
Using Color as a Pre-Writing Tool
To better understand how to compose a clear and well-organized paper, learners read short passages, write summaries, and make colored graphic organizers. This is a fully developed three-day lesson with suggested assessments.
EngageNY
Writing a Summary: “Middle Ages” Excerpt 1
What's this all about? Scholars learn the importance of summarizing skills using a summary writing graphic organizer. They work with an elbow partner to discuss summaries and complete the organizer using Middle Ages Excerpt 1. Learners...
EngageNY
Connecting Informational Text with Litearature: Building Background Knowledge About Mexican Immigration, California, and the Great Depression
Help your class transition as the setting in the novel Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, moves from Mexico to California. Beginning with prior knowledge, and moving into jigsaw research groups, class members add to and create posters...
Curated OER
Summarizer-Literature Circles
The summarizer’s job in a literature circle is to identify the key events in a story and to use those main ideas to craft a summary. Give this one-page learning exercise to each of your summarizers to assist them in drafting their summary.
Curriculum Corner
Summary Writing
Nineteen stylish worksheets offer lesson ideas and practice opportunities designed to reinforce summary skills. Scholars recall events over the weekend as well as favorite books—main characters, problems, solutions, the beginning,...