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Summarize

Students will summarize a small selection in as few words as possible. Students will break longer selections into smaller parts and summarize as they read. By summarizing in this headline-writing fashion, students will begin to sort out main ideas from details of the text. Summarizing is a part of synthesis on which we focus the third month of school.

Getting Started: What is a Summary?

What is a summary and what is a retelling? Stay with me here! The answer is not as easy as it looks.

Traditionally, retelling is defined as telling a story from the one's point of view. When teachers listen to students retell, we (either mentally or literally) tick off key points: main points, main characters, sequence of the story, and an understanding of character. The student pretty much tells the story, not in a memorized rendition, but in her own words. In North Carolina that's pretty much what's expected.

But, that sounds like a summary to me. I associate the word with the book-jacket summary. Publishing companies similarly condense to the main point (beginning, middle and end), main characters, and settings.

Keene and Zimmermann use the word retelling to define summarizing (in their book Mosaic of Thought, page 231). They write, "... we are asking for a succinct retelling of the key points of the text in the order in which they were presented." Huh? So, a retelling is longer than a summary.

As I continue my search, I check the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Retelling is defined as "telling a story in one's own words." Then I consult Harvey and Goudvis' Strategies That Work. They consider a retelling to be "a more detailed summary."

As a result of my study, I came to use these definitions in my classrooms:

Retelling - a detailed telling of the story in one's own words that includes main points, characters, and setting told in sequence, a more in-depth re-accounting of the facts.

Summary - the gist. Webster defines it as "covering the main points succinctly." A summary is a statement of the main idea of the story, it's very essence, it's core - "in just a sentence or two (Harvey & Goudvis)."

In the traditional sense, summarizing was considered a low-level thinking skill. Armed with my new understanding, students can't tell me everything. Instead. to truly summarize, they must cover the main points succinctly, interpret the details, and boil them down to just the crystals of understanding. When taught in this way, I understand how summary is a part of synthesis.

I often challenge the students to write summaries in a headline fashion, limiting the students to 3-6 words: "Dog Rescues Man from Burning Building." I don't even require sentences. If kids have difficulty, I ask them to start by condensing the story to, "WHO, Does WHAT?" Here are some summaries that would work for the movie Shrek I. I sometimes refer to them as "headline summaries" to distinguish them from longer ones:

1. Shrek loves Fiona.
2. Shrek finds true love.
3. Shrek decides looks don't matter.

Summarizing like this is a handy tool when reading longer texts.

• Students summarize paragraphs as they read, rather than waiting to finish. They look back at their summaries to generalize main ideas and themes.
• Students summarize sections of text as one of the 3 steps in Reciprocal Teaching, a comprehension strategy circle highly recommended by ASCD.
• Summarizing helps when reading textbooks and nonfiction. Students recognize headlines ARE summaries. If they read the headlines, they're getting the gist.
• Summarizing works as a test-taking strategy: Read a part. Summarize it. Match questions to summaries.

Thinking about summarizing and retelling like this can be confusing, especially when definitions used by publishers are taken into account, and also when talking to colleagues. Like me, come to an understanding of the definitions you will use in class and within your school through discussion. Post them on another one of those anchor charts. (Is your room wall-papered yet?)

See lessons below to teach summarizing as a way to improve comprehension.

Sample Lesson: Who + Did What? Exercise

1. Bring in several stories from the newspaper. Ask children to write down as many headlines as they can and look for patterns as to how they are written.


2. Lead them to understand that a headline is a summary of sorts; it usually is 4-6 words which includes "who" + "did what."


3. Tell them that they are going to practice writing summaries, like headlines, as a strategy to improve their comprehension.


4. Model summarizing using this poem. Show one stanza at a time and show students how you summarize each stanza, headline style. Your summaries may be worded differently but you want to show your students how to get at the gist of the writing, the main idea.

At first, children want to retell the whole section. If that happens, use it as a teaching opportunity. In retelling, we try to tell the whole story in our own words. A summary is expressing the main idea in as few words as possible. That's why I like making summary writing into a game of who can write a summary in 4-6 words or less. Writing shorter is often more difficult than writing longer. This activity is a puzzle of sorts. Condensing the ideas presented in the stanza or paragraph takes thinking and a good vocabulary.

5. When summarizing, students look for patterns.
   • Grandma laughs.
   • Grandma sends cards.
   • Grandma cooks.
     
   • Grandma compliments us.
   • Grandma is sweet.
   
   

6. From the pattern observed from summarizing, determine the main idea of the poem, something like, "Grandma is a sweet treasure." (The main idea is reading term. It is the gist of what happens in the story. Students should be able to agree on the main idea.)

   By looking back at the summaries, determining themes is much easier. (Theme is a literary analysis term. It is the unifying idea of the piece. Often, readers synthesize different themes from the same text. Themes are debatable but should be supported with evidence from the text.) Keene and Zimmermann say, "A wide variety of interpretation is appropriate for fiction text; a narrower range is typical for nonfiction text." Harvey and Goudvis write, "Themes stir emotions." For this poem a theme may be, "Grandparents are valuable." Or, "Grandma will always be remembered for the things she did for us." Or, "We should appreciate our grandmas while we have them."

7. Guided Practice: Ask children to try writing a summary for each stanza of a poem. It is best if you sit with a small group of about 6 children when you begin to teach summarizing. At first, writing short summaries like this is very difficult. With practice, students get better at it but it is helpful if the teacher is close by to help students think through their thinking. (A great, short picture book perfect for summarizing is the poem Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles and Rod Clement.)


8. Independent Practice: Once children understand how to use summarizing to help them comprehend, ask them to try Stop and Summarize when reading self-selected books or reading-group books.

When reading nonfiction, subheadings ARE summaries. If we show students how to take note, understanding content improves. When reading picture books, encourage students to stop before they turn the page to see if they understand the text. In novels, stop and summarize every so often as a way to deepen understanding of the text, especially after each chapter. In the photo (right), a student summarizes the range of emotions Ramona experiences in the book by Beverly Cleary. In the other photo, a students summarizes what happens in each chapter of Freckle Juice. Both assignments lead from the lowest level of synthesis, summary, to higher levels, determining characterization and theme.

9. Assessment: What strategy did you learn today? How can you apply it to your reading life?

Later, successful summarizing will help in reciprocal teaching, Socratic Seminars, synthesis, test-taking skills, and writing so it is best that writing summaries is learned well now. Plus, it has a puzzle-solving aspect to it. I find students enjoy summarizing and comparing their summaries. When approached in this way, students build their generalizing and vocabulary skills which leads to better articulation of main ideas and themes.