Literacy Chick
Contact Us:
' target='_blank' alt='Twitter' aria-label='Twitter'>
  • Home
  • Standards & Targets
  • Reading
    • Close Reading
  • Writing
  • Vocabulary Instruction
  • Student Talk
  • Study Tools
  • Movement for Learning
  • Interactive Notebooks
  • Games
  • Formative Assessments
  • Bloom's Taxonomy Resources
  • Web Tools
    • Discovery Presentation Tools
  • Culture of Learning
  • Professional Library
  • Blog
  • Instructional Framework
    • NBHS 2014
    • Enka MS
    • Enka High
  • Professional Development
    • JLT Retreat 2018
    • CREW 2017 Cherokee
    • CREW 2017 Cherokee
    • Building Vocabulary Workshop
    • NCACTE Nov 2016
    • Close Reading
    • Nesbitt Discovery Academy
  • Word Vids
  • The Comics
  • I Have a Learning Difference: What's Your Superpower?
  • Reading Evolution: From Stone to Screen
  • Products I Love
  • Educator Self-Care

The Elusive Summary

1/28/2016

0 Comments

 
This installment of "Lit Tips" focuses on the skill of summarization - a skill we assume high school students should have well in hand, but often find out the contrary.

​Summary /ˈsəmərē/ : a brief statement or account of the main points of something.
synonyms: abridged, abbreviated, shortened, condensed
​
What do you often get when you ask students to summarize – a paraphrase, a retelling, something unintelligible? Often, I’m not sure students know exactly what we mean by “summary.” They may have been told somewhere along the way, but can we be sure? I hypothesize that students often think of summarization as retelling or paraphrasing, when in fact it means to boil down to only the most critical. Yes, theyshould now what it is by now and how to write one, but what if they don’t, or they’re not sure?
We must be explicit in what we ask of them, and in some cases teach or re-teach skills we think they should have mastered by now.

Summarization is a skill that is specifically addressed in the Common Core Literacy Standards:
Reading Standards for History/Social Studies:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2 
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

Reading Standards for Science/Technical Subjects: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.2
Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; trace the text's explanation or depiction of a complex process, phenomenon, or concept; provide an accurate summary of the text.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sending out a few summarization strategies that can be adapted for any content. Our first one is called “Pyramid Summary.”
You may use the template attached, have students draw it themselves, or create your own. For each line, give instructions in this pattern:
Line 1: Character’s name 
Line 2: Two words describing the character 
Line 3: Three words describing the setting 
Line 4: Four words stating the problem 
Line 5: Five words describing one event 
Line 6: Six words describing another event 
Line 7: Seven words describing a third event 
Line 8: Eight words describing the solution to the problem

…or for Social Studies:
Line 1: One word for a significant location
Line 2: Two words describing location
Line 3: Three words describing climate of the location
Line 4: Four words describing location’s impact on people living there
Line 5: Five words describing conflicts in this area
…and so on…
​How could other content areas adapt the pyramid?​
Students will then write a summary using their pyramid as a guide.

Picture
0 Comments
    Tweet

    Archives

    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014

    Lit Tips o' the Week

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.