Making sense of summary writing

Although it was a short week, there was lots of learning going on in 5th grade!  Our week was full of reviewing figurative language, summary writing, poetry reading and writing, and learning about the migration of American Indians.  It's official... my kids and I are finally getting into the swing of things!  There really is something to say about 10 and 11 year olds... They're eager to learn and so much fun to be around.  I don't know if my group of kids could be any better!

I wish I could say that the week was all rainbows and butterflies, but struggles with summary writing snuck up on me first thing on Monday.  In our district, students in every grade level are required to complete a weekly language arts reading and skills sheet.  Students complete the sheet at home and then bring it back to school on Mondays for a pre-check and assistance on any of the incorrect questions.  As I was looking through their work, I was alarmed by their summary writing skills.  To be honest, their knowledge of summary writing seemed to be anywhere from minimal to nonexistent.  As I was helping a small group of students rewrite their summaries, I found myself frustrated beyond belief.  They simply weren't understanding the way that I have traditionally taught summaries.  (Sentence 1- main idea, sentences 2-4 - supporting details, and sentence 5 - conclusion)   Students seemed to be pulling random lines from the passage, throwing them down on the lines provided, and calling it a summary.  I had to stop and think... How could I make summary writing make sense in a different way? I leafed through my Ohio Writing Project 4-week materials and found the solution to my problem: note card summaries.  

How to Use the Note Card Summary Strategy
The note card summary breaks summary-writing in smaller portions.  Students select five words (or sets of related words) after reading the passage.  As students read the passage for the first time, they are encourage to only think about what the main idea might be.  He/she must choose a few words that describe the main idea.  This/these word(s) should be written on the center of the card.  Then, students choose three to four from the passage that help the reader better understand the topic that is written in the middle of the card.  I advise my students to circle these words and then write them on the four corners of their note card.  Then, students number the note card to show the order in which their summary will be written.  The middle section, or the topic, is given the number one because it is the first sentence.  The corners are numbered two through five to represent the four other sentences of a summary.  Before beginning to write, students think about how the words that are written on the corners of the note card relate to the topic, and why they are important.  On the back of their note card, they write the summary using the important words as a guide.

This summary-writing strategy works wonders for nonfiction reading!

Important Poem Summaries

Students can also write a summary using the Important Poem that I blogged about last week.  After reading a passage, students choose the most important sentence in the passage.  Then, they mark that sentence with a Post-it Note.  Next, students choose three sentences that support the most important sentence.  They then mark those sentences with a different color.  Once four Post-it Notes have been placed on the passage, the student turns those sentences into an Important Poem summary.  

My students have used this strategy for both fiction and nonfiction passages.  

I'm ready to enjoy a great weekend and hope you are, too!