How To Summarize
Summarizing means identifying the main idea and most important
facts, then writing a brief overview that includes only those key
ideas and details. Summarizing is a vital skill for students to learn,
but many students find it difficult to pick out the important facts
without providing too much detail. A good summary is short and to
the point.
Somebody Wanted But So Then
an excellent summarizing strategy for stories.
Somebody: Who is the story about?
Wanted: What does the main charter want?
But: Identify a problem that the main character encountered.
So: How does the main character solve the problem?
Then: Tell how the story ends.
example from the little riding hood story :
Somebody: Little Red Riding Hood
Wanted: She wanted to take cookies to her sick grandmother.
But: She encountered a wolf pretending to be her grandmother.
So: She ran away, crying for help.
Then: A woodsman heard her and saved her from the wolf.
answer:
Little Red Riding Hood wanted to take cookies to her sick
grandmother, but she encountered a wolf. He got to her
grandmother’s house first and pretended to be the old woman. He
was going to eat Little Red Riding Hood, but she realized what he
was doing and ran away, crying for help. A woodsman heard the
girl’s cries and saved her from the wolf.
SAAC
"State, Assign, Action, Complete."
useful technique for summarizing any kind of text (such as a story,
an article, or a speech).
State: the name of the article, book, or story
Assign: the name of the author
Action: what the author is doing (example: tells, explains)
Complete: complete the sentence or summary with keywords and
important details
example from "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" by Aesop (a Greek
storyteller):
State: "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"
Assign: Aesop (a Greek storyteller)
Action: tells
Complete: what happens when a shepherd boy repeatedly lies
to the villagers about seeing a wolf.
Answer:
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf," by Aesop (a Greek storyteller), tells what
happens when a shepherd boy repeatedly lies to the villagers about
seeing a wolf. After a while, they ignore his false cries. Then, when a
wolf really does attack, they don’t come to help him.
5 W's, 1 H
who, what, when, where, why, and how.
questions make it easy to identify the main character, important
details, and main idea.
Who is the story about?
What did they do?
When did the action take place?
did the story happen?
Why did the main character do what s/he did?
How did the main character do what s/he did?
Example from "The Tortoise and the Hare." story:
Who? The tortoise
What? He raced a quick, boastful hare and won.
When? When isn’t specified in this story, so it’s not important in
this case.
Where? An old country road
Why? The tortoise was tired of hearing the hare boast about his
speed.
How? The tortoise kept up his slow but steady pace.
Answer:
Tortoise got tired of listening to Hare boast about how fast he was, so
he challenged Hare to a race. Even though he was slower than Hare,
Tortoise won by keeping up his slow and steady pace when Hare
stopped to take a nap.
First Then Finally
helps students summarize events in chronological order.
First: What happened first? Include the main character and main
event/action.
Then: What key details took place during the event/action?
Finally: What were the results of the event/action?
example using "Goldilocks and the Three Bears.":
Answer:
First, Goldilocks entered the bears' home while they were
gone. Then, she ate their food, sat in their chairs, and slept in their
beds. Finally, she woke up to find the bears watching her, so she
jumped up and ran away.