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Summarizing Strategies for Literary Text

Description:

In this unit, students learn how to use different summarizing strategies to determine the main idea and key details of a literary text. They will use a combination of whole-group instruction and discussion, small-group exploration, and individual application through hands-on and online activities to learn to distinguish between re-telling a story sequentially and recounting the main idea and key details. Through guided practice, they will learn how to discern the most important, relevant ideas in a literary text, how to ignore the immaterial information, and how to succinctly integrate the main idea and key details in a literary text.

Hands-on activities include “Re-Tell TV,” in which small groups have to re-tell fairy tales to their classmates after whole-class read alouds. Students then practice summarizing these re-told shared stories using the Beginning-Middle-End (BME) strategy in order to distinguish between retelling a story and recounting or summarizing the main idea and key details. Students practice the BME strategy in guided, small-group work and independently with the use of summarizing task cards and summarizing worksheets. They practice and reinforce this skill via recordings on Seesaw and sharing feedback with one another about these summaries. Through whole-group and guided exploration, students then learn how to use the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then (SWBST) summarizing strategy in their guided reading of literary texts. Students practice the SWBST strategy of summarizing through a hands-on activity in which they must jump through five hula hoops--one for each SWBST component--as they summarize a text or short film, such as Lava by Pixar. They then practice using both the BME and SWBST strategies with task cards and story maps as well as via Seesaw and other online applications. Kahoot interactive trivia games will be used for formative assessments throughout this unit.

*Lesson variation: A corresponding writing unit may include students creating their own fractured fairy tales that include the main story elements and the same summary of key details based upon their summary of the original fairy tale. This can be done independently or in small groups, based upon students’ needs.

Learning Targets:

Identify story elements and how to include them in summarizing a literary text;

Determine the difference between re-telling a story and recounting the main idea and key details;

Determine main ideas and consolidate important details that support them

Demonstrate understanding of different summarizing strategies to communicate thinking

Attachment	Size
Summarizing Strategies for Literary Text.pdf	129.57 KB

Author:

Stephanie Kahl-...

Content Area:

Language:

Resource Type:

Licensing:

Grade:

Common Core Language Arts

Common Core Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.2

Tags:

summarizing

reading comprehension strategies

How are the standards/objectives assessed?

● Formative:

○ Anecdotal observations and notes during guided reading and whole-class activities

○ Task cards used throughout can be checked to determine students’ degrees of understanding as they practice summarizing

● Summative:

○ At the end of the unit, students read a selected piece and write a summary using their preferred strategy

○ Note: this can be used as a midpoint check for understanding as well.

■ Students may use a story map or graphic organizer (see above ideas from www.teacherspayteachers.com) to help organize their thinking

○ Use the following checklist to evaluate students’ understanding:

1. Student demonstrates the ability to identify important information in a piece of fiction and to complete a story map or graphic organizer

2. Student accurately uses the information in the story map/organizer to write a summary statement.

3. Collect and use the story maps to assess students’ understanding. Provide specific feedback to each student.

Student prerequisite skills and knowledge

Students will need to understand the difference between re-telling and summarizing a text.
Students will need to learn the Beginning-Middle-End (BME) and Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then (SWBST) summarizing strategies.
Students will need to have a fundamental understanding or and access to Kahoot, Seesaw, and Canva applications.

How is the concept or procedure explained or demonstrated?

The concepts are scaffolded to ensure students are able to distinguish between re-telling and summarizing a literary text.

The teacher will use an interactive modeling technique through interactive read alouds during whole-group instruction, and guided, small-group practice for each concept and routine. Once the teacher models each, a student models with the teacher, followed by all students modeling the desired concept (i.e., "I do, we do, you do").

What concepts or procedures are being explained or demonstrated in this lesson object?

How to re-tell a story
How to identify the main idea and key supporting details in a literary text
How to recount or summarize a text
How to upload and share using Seesaw and Canva

What was your experience, both successes and challenges, using this lesson object with your students?

Summarizing is a difficult strategy for many students. I found that it was important to focus on the difference between re-telling and summarizing. The students really enjoyed the hands-on "Re-Tell TV" activity and were able to give each other constructive feedback to guide their learning.

Spend time up front teaching students how to use the different applications, so they are able to use these tools independently when necessary.

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