Be encouraging throughout your lesson! Summarizing can be confusing and stressful to new students, and your support and knowledge will help put them at ease. It may help to use a projector, PowerPoint, or other visual aid while you’re explaining the basics of summarizing.
For instance, if you’re teaching younger kids, consider using an excerpt from a children’s book. If you’re working with older kids, use an article, biography, or other passage that’s easy to understand.
Alternatively, you can ask them to cover the book and write the points that stood out. [5] X Expert Source Tristen BonacciLicensed English Teacher Expert Interview. 21 December 2021. They can jot them down as bullet points or an outline. [6] X Expert Source Tristen BonacciLicensed English Teacher Expert Interview. 21 December 2021. You can find useful templates online, like ReadWriteThink’s website.
For instance, if you were to summarize the movie Titanic, you may say something like: “A wealthy woman and a poor man meet on an expensive cruise ship. As the ship sets sail, they both fall in love despite extra complications. Their journey ultimately ends in tragedy as the boat sinks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. ” Remind your students that they’ve probably summarized a story before, like whenever they describe a movie or TV show to a friend.
For instance, if you were reading a story like “Cinderella,” some main ideas could be how Cinderella’s stepsisters ruined her dress, or how the fairy godmother gives her a new dress to wear. If you’re working with older students and reading a book like “The Pearl,” you may want to focus on when Kino first finds the pearl, as well as when he tries to sell it.
For example, in “Cinderella”, the fairy godmother giving Cinderella a dress and carriage would be more important info to include in a summary than the fact that Cinderella had a dog and cat. If you’re working with older students, you may work with a story like “The Great Gatsby. ” In this case, a main idea would be the pursuit and failure to find happiness, as opposed to a statement on what Gatsby’s home looked like.
If you’re summarizing an article or passage where someone is stating their opinion, use phrases like “according to” to keep your summary unbiased. If you’re summarizing a story like “Jack and the Beanstalk”, try writing a summary like this: “Jack uses his family’s money to buy a packet of magic beans. To prove to his annoyed mother that he didn’t waste their money, Jack plants the seeds and climbs the beanstalk that grows. At this point, he finds a giant’s kingdom and steals their golden egg, which provides lots of money for Jack’s family in the end. ”
If the original text says something like, “The girl ran through the woods to escape her attacker,” you can paraphrase it to “A wolf started chasing the girl, so she ran very fast to get away. ” If an essay or article says something like, “The government will try to pass the new law next year,” you can paraphrase it to “According to members of the government, the traffic law will be passed relatively soon. ”
For instance, a concluding sentence for a summary of “Star Wars Episode 6” could be: “Luke, Leia, and Han reflect on the past before focusing on everything the future holds for them. ”
Remind your students that you’re there to help if needed. For instance, if you and your students are reading “Romeo and Juliet”, you could mark down the “who” as Romeo and Juliet, the “what” as a tragic love story, the “where” as Verona, the “when” as Shakespearean era, the “why” as a family feud, and the “how” as a pair of tragic suicides.
For example, in a summary of “Three Little Pigs,” you can write something like: “Three pigs have their lives frequently disrupted by a villainous wolf who destroys their home. They are finally safe when they seek shelter in a sturdy house that the wolf cannot blow away. ” A summary of “The Outsider” might sound like this: “Several boys are involved in a gang conflict that threatens to tear apart their small community. ”
A verbal summary may sound like this: “Star Wars starts off in a galaxy far, far away, where a galactic war is currently going on. The heroes of the franchise, Luke and Leia, fight against their long-lost father, who’s the main enemy. ”
