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 main ideas and filling out a graphic organizer. The final product is a summary.

Concepts

plot summary, summarizing, main ideas, expository text

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Before making copies, write in some sentence frames to get your learners started
• Use the templates for summarizing any text, either informational or literary
• As a next step, or with longer texts, have your learners flesh out their summaries with supporting details

Classroom Considerations

• The summary is basic and focuses on main ideas, which may prove to be a great first step for your pupils
• While the resource suggests that you mark main ideas with sticky notes, the graphic organizers are generic and could be used in any number of ways

Pros

• It comes with three different summary graphic organizers to choose from depending on your preference or purposes

Cons

• None

Common Core

W.3.2.a RI.2.2 RI.3.2