Summarizing
in the
Elementary Grades
Suzanne Whisler
ESU 4
March 2, 2012
Learning Targets
• Understand the purpose and
importance of summarizing.
• Identify ways to implement
summarizing in the classroom.
• Review examples of summarizing
activities.
Ave. Effect
Size
Percentile
gain
Identifying similarities and differences
1.61
45
Summarizing and note taking
1.00
34
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
.80
29
Homework and Practice
.77
28
Nonlinguistic representations
.75
27
Cooperative learning
.73
27
Setting objectives/providing feedback
.61
23
Generating and testing hypotheses
.61
23
Questions, cues, and advance organizers
.59
22
Category
WHY do we ask kids to
summarize?
How do you currently teach your
students to summarize information?
Students & Summarizing
• When you ask your students to
summarize, what usually happens?
• What do you want them to do?
• Pull out the main idea
• Focus on key details
• Use key words and phrases
• Get the “gist”
The time to begin teaching students
how to summarize is on the first
day of kindergarten.
~Elaine K.
McEwan
One of the greatest gifts
we can give our students…
• The ability to identify important
information, and
• Processes to structure that information
for meaning and successful application
Summarizing!
Rick Wormli, Summarization in Any Subject, 2005
Kids Aren’t Born Knowing How To
Summarize…
• We have to teach our students to
summarize.
• Many teachers say: “Summarize
what we’ve learned today.” But
they don’t do direct instruction
(that means teaching) on
summarizing.
• Use direct, explicit instruction to
teach summarizing.
Summarizing is Procedural
Summarizing is “procedural knowledge”. If students are
expected to become proficient in procedural knowledge,
they need to be able to“practice.”
Mastering a skill or process requires a fair amount of
focused practice. Practice sessions initially should be
spaced very closely together. Over time, the intervals
between sessions can be increased. Students also need
feedback on their efforts.
While practicing, students should adapt and shape what
they have learned.
Gradual Release of Responsibility
Think Alouds
• Name a strategy, a skill, or a task.
• State the purpose of the strategy, the skill, or the
task.
• Use “I” statements.
• Demonstrate how the strategy, the skill, or the task
is used.
• Alert learners about errors to avoid.
• Assess the usefulness of the strategy or the skill.
Summarizing Think Aloud
• So what it’s saying is . . .
• The big idea here is . . .
• I think the point is . . .
Modeling is key!
10-2 Strategy
• For every ten minutes of new learning
provide students two minutes to process the
new learning.
• Time to process is essential to transfer learning
to long term memory.
• Take 2 minutes and reflect on summarizing,
gradual release of responsibility, and think
alouds.
Summarizing Strategies
Fiction Strategies
Narrative Framework
• Elements commonly found in fiction
• Use the framework to help students summarize stories.
• Introduce the framework questions to students.
• Ask students to think about the questions as you read the
story aloud.
• Read the story again stopping to let the students answer
the questions.
• Finally, use the answers to the questions to write a
summary.
Marzano, 2001
Visualize a Video
• Explain to students that as you read a story to
them, you want them to make pictures in their
minds, about 4 very important things that they
will hear during the read aloud.
• Main character – which person or animal is most
described in the story
• Setting – looking at the pictures and noticing what
is in the background
• Problem/Solution – takes more thinking and you
have to look and listen for clues in the story
Visualize a Video
Setting
Characters
Title
Problem
Solution
Story Maps
• Read Write Think Story Cube
• http://bit.ly/xijYFx
• Scholastic Interactive Story Train
• http://bit.ly/ybVvC4
• Education Place
• http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
• Enchanted Learning
• http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/story
map/
• Have Fun Teaching
• http://bit.ly/ylSWTp
What about DIBELS Retell?
• In addition to having students summarize
a story, provide them with opportunities to
retell everything they can remember about
a story.
Elbow Partners
Tell your neighbor everything you
can about the story we just read.
Take Seven Steps
• What have you heard so far that makes
sense?
• What strategy are you going to try with
your students?
• What are you still wondering about?
More Strategies
Model for Summarizing
Steps in Rule-Based Summarizing for Younger Students
1. Take out material that is not important to
understanding.
2. Take out words that repeat information.
3. Replace a list of things with a word that describes
the things in the list (e.g. use trees for elm, oak and
maple.)
4. Find a topic sentence. If you cannot find a topic
sentence, make one up.
Traditional Rules-Based
Summaries
T - Trivia (Remove trivial material.)
R - Redundancies (Remove redundant or repetitive
information.)
G - Generalize (Replace specifics or lists with general
terms and phrases.)
TS - Topic Sentence ( Determine the topic sentence,
which is the subject plus the author’s claim about the
subject. You might have to make one up if there isn’t
one.)
T - RG - TS (TARGETS)
Traditional Rules-Based
Summaries
•Use regularly, but don’t exclude alternative
formats
•Provide models for students
•Provide opportunities for practice
•Do think-alouds to model the process
Practice with Summarizing
• With your elbow partner, review the rules-based
summary directions. (TARGETS)
• Apply the strategy to the “Penguin” paragraph and
write a summary.
• Practice doing it as a “Think Aloud” with your
elbow partners.
Google Docs & Word Documents
Paragraph Shrinking
A strategy designed to develop comprehension
through main idea identification.
• Steps:
• Name the who or what. (The main
person, animal or thing)
• Tell the most important thing about the
who or what.
• Say the main idea in 10 words or less.
(Fuchs, Mathes, and Fuchs)
Question Card
Paragraph Shrinking Card
Questions to Ask
1. Name the Who or What
2. Tell the most important thing about the
who or what.
3. Say the main idea in 10 words or less.
privilege.
One Word Summaries
• Ask students to write one word that
summarizes the lesson’s topic.
• Ask them to explain why they chose
that word.
ABCYa http://bit.ly/w2XqdQ
Wordle http://www.wordle.net/
Tagxedo http://www.tagxedo.com/
One Sentence Paraphrase
• Requires students to synthesize information
• Puts focus on bigger picture learning rather
than specific details
• Steps in the process
• Model the process
• After reading, put away or hide passage
• Students write one sentence that reflects their
understanding
• Share sentences, looking for similarities &
differences
Inner/Outer Circle
• Form two circles with equal numbers of
people, one inside the other
• Inside faces outside, speaking distance apart
• Pose a summarizing question, allow time for
discussion, one minute for each
• Rotate the outer or inner circle to change
pairings, pose additional summarizing
questions
Partners A and B
• In pairs: One person A, other person B
• A- talk non-stop about what we’ve read
about so far today for one minute
• B- talk non-stop for one minute
• (B can’t repeat anything)
Carousel Brainstorming
• Place topics on chart paper around the room
• Divide students into small groups
• Each group has a different color marker and goes
to a different chart
• Students write ideas/facts about the concept on
the chart
• Call time and rotate to next chart
• Each time students arrive at new chart, they
review what is already there and add to the list
Summarizing with
the Final Countdown
• Ask students to reflect on what they have learned
about the topic.
• Use the Final Countdown strategy.
• First Tier - Write the three most important facts that
the student learned.
• Second Tier - Write two questions that the student
still has about the topic.
• Top Tier - Write one way in which the student can
connect the topic to material previously learned.
from Instructional Strategies for Engaging Learners
Guilford County Schools TF, 2002
Summarizing with
3-2-1
• Use the 3-2-1 strategy to summarize a
topic.
• Write 3 things you found out
• Write 2 interesting things you learned
• Write 1 question you still have
www.readingquest.org
Penny Juggins of Fairfax County, VA
Charades
• Divide the class into 2 teams.
• Then have the students within each team form a small
group of three or four.
• Hand out slips of paper naming concepts, facts, people or
skills you’ve been teaching.
• Ask small groups to discuss what they know about the
topics and determine how to act out the words.
• When everyone is ready, reassemble the two teams and
have the small groups present their pantomimes to the
other small group on their team.
The Frayer Model
Essential Characteristics
Examples
Nonessential Characteristics
Topic
Nonexamples
Share One; Get One
• Give the students a note card or sticky note.
• Ask the students to record 1 to 3 different
concepts, facts, or skills they learned from a
lesson.
• Ask students to walk around the room, share
their card with another student, and then trade
cards with that student.
• Continue the process.
• Share out as a whole class or in small groups.
Sum It Up Directions
• Get a “Sum It Up” sheet.
• Read the entire selection (chapter, article,
handout, primary source, etc.) and as you read list
the main idea words on the “Sum It Up” sheet.
• Write a summary of the selection using as many
of the main idea words as possible. Put one word
in each blank. Imagine you have only $2.00 and
that each word you use is worth ten cents.
• You’ll “sum it up” in 20 words!
Sum It Up
Gist Log
Who or what is the paragraph mostly about?
What is the most important information about the who or what?
Write the gist in a complete sentence of 10 words or less.
Say Something
• Form pairs of students
• Ask students to read silently to a designated
stopping point.
• When each partner is ready, stop and “say
something”.
• Continue this process until the selection is
read.
Summarization Pyramids
• A synonym for the topic
• An analogy between the topic
and a sport
• One question it sparks in you
• 3 facts about the topic
• 3 words that describe the topic
• A book title or headline about
the topic
• Causes of the topic
• Effects of the topic
• Reasons why we study the topic
• Personal opinion on the topic
• Samples of the topic
Summary Ball
• Begin the activity by tossing a ball to any student.
• The student who catches the ball has 3 seconds to
state any fact, concept or skill learned from the
lesson.
• The student then tosses the ball to another student
in the room who has not spoken.
• The second student states a fact, concept, or skill
that hasn’t been mentioned, then tosses the ball.
Think – Pair - Share
• Give the students a prompt and have
them reflect on the prompt and topic of
the lesson.
• Ask students to pair up and to share
their responses.
SILENT Give One, Get One
• Write down one new summarizing activity you
want to try with your students on a sticky note
• Take your sticky note and power point with you
• Make eye contact with someone (smile) and
swap sticky notes
• Take time to read the note/record any new
ideas
• Mingle and make eye contact with a new
partner
Shhhh!!
Technology Sites
• Into the Book
•
http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/summarizing/summarize_stude
ntvideo.html
• Reading Rockets
• http://www.readingrockets.org/
• Dabble Board http://www.dabbleboard.com/
• Reading Quest
• http://www.readingquest.org/strat/
• Instructional Strategies that Work
• http://classroom.leanderisd.org/webs/marzano/home.htm
Whip Around
What have you learned about summarizing?
• Start with one person sharing an idea.
• Go around the room with each person giving a new
idea.
• If the person’s idea has already been given he/she can
say pass.
• Keep going around the room until all ideas are
presented.
Please do a 3 - 2 - 1
• Three things you learned today
• Two things that surprised you
• One thing you’ll commit to in your classroom during
the rest of this school year