SUMMARIZING
Why and How
What the Research Says
Summarizing can be highly effective for
helping students
identify main ideas
generalize
integrate ideas
improve memory for what is read
UNDERSTAND what is read
It is especially worthwhile when used with
other strategies such as generating questions
and answering questions
What is Summarizing?

Summarizing is how we take larger
selections of text and reduce them to
the bare essentials.

Summarizing means including only the
MOST important information.

A summary tells the main idea of the
text.
When we summarize …
We focus on the meat of the text. We try to
find the key words and phrases that, when
uttered later, still manage to capture the gist
of what we've read. We are trying to capture
the main ideas and the crucial details
necessary for supporting them.
From www.readingquest.org
Why is it Important to
Summarize?

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Summarizing while you read helps you
remember what you read.
Creating a summary allows you to pull out
and remember the most important
information – info you need to best
comprehend the text.
Good readers can summarize automatically!
When I ask students to
summarize …
Students usually:
 Write down
everything

Write down nothing

Copy word for word

Miss the important
points
I want you to:




Pull out main ideas
Focus on key details
Use key phrases
and details
Break down large
ideas
Summarizing
Is one of the hardest strategies for
students to grasp.
 Is also one of the most difficult to
teach.
 Must be modeled repeatedly.
 Must be practiced often.
 Is one of the most valuable strategies!

Strategies for Summarizing
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Selective underlining/highlighting
Shrinking Paragraph
The 5 W’s
Headless Stories
QuIP – Questions Into Paragraphs
Learning Frames
GIST/Sum it Up
Magnet Summaries
Summarize as you go
Picture/graphic summaries
Make a “kids book” version
Various other graphic organizers or ideas
Selective
Underlining/Highlighting
Model for students how to identify 5 W’s. Use
the highlighted words to create a summary
paragraph. Some students may need hints
(give them the starting letter, if needed).
From www.readingquest.org
Selected Underlining/Highlighting
Original Text
Which words would you underline/highlight?
Critical reading is a vital part of the writing process.
In fact, reading and writing processes are alike. In
both, you make meaning by actively engaging a text.
As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an
active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an
inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you read
will make anything you read richer and more useful
to you in your classes and your life. This guide is
designed to help you to understand and engage this
active reading process more effectively so that you
can become a better critical reader.
From http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/reading/critread/
Example – Selected Highlighting
Critical reading is a vital part of the writing process.
In fact, reading and writing processes are alike. In
both, you make meaning by actively engaging a text.
As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an
active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an
inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you read
will make anything you read richer and more useful
to you in your classes and your life. This lesson is
designed to help you to understand and engage this
active reading process more effectively so that you
can become a better critical reader.
Use these terms to write a summary paragraph.
Summary Paragraph
Critical reading is a vital part of
both the reading and writing
processes. You must make
meaning by actively engaging in a
text. As an active constructor of
meaning, you will exhibit an
inquisitive attitude towards what
you read which will make text
richer and more useful.
The Shrinking Paragraph
Students read text and then write a summary
paragraph. Help them delete unnecessary
information (and shrink their writing) until
they have a succinct summary paragraph.
They may have to write several paragraphs,
shortening it as they go, before writing a
good summary paragraph!
Readingquest.org
Example – Shrinking Paragraph
This summary paragraph was written earlier. Can we
make it more succinct?
Critical reading is a vital part of both
the reading and writing processes. You
must make meaning by actively
engaging in a text. As an active
constructor of meaning, you will exhibit
an inquisitive attitude towards what
you read which will make text richer
and more useful.
Shrink It!
Critical reading is a vital part of
both the reading and writing
processes. You make meaning by
actively engaging in a text. You
actively construct meaning and
exhibit an inquisitive attitude
towards what you read which will
make the text rich and useful.
Shrink it Again!
Critical reading is a vital part
reading and writing. Meaning is
made by actively engaging in a
text. Exhibiting an inquisitive
attitude towards the text makes
it richer and useful.
Headless Stories
Separate the text from title/headline.
Students play a matching game, trying to
decide which title fits each text selection.
You might also give students just the
paragraph and have them create a title to
help them learn how to find the main idea!
Readingquest.org
Headless Stories
What is the best title for this summary
Paragraph that was created earlier?
Critical reading is a vital part
reading and writing. Meaning is
made by actively engaging in a
text. Exhibiting an inquisitive
attitude towards the text makes it
richer and useful.
What is the best title?
Please Vote!
A.
B.
C.
D.
The Reading Process
Reading and Writing
What is Critical Reading?
Read Correctly
QuIP
Questions Into Paragraphs
Students are given a topic and asked to
generate questions about it. Keeping
notes of the sources they use, they
then read to find the answers. The
answers are then used to write a
summary paragraph.
Readingquest.org
QuIP Chart
Topic: Critical Reading
1. What is critical
reading?
FLVS LA class
2. What does it involve?
FLVS English class
3. Why does it help?
FLVS SAT and FCAT
4. What do you gain?
1.
Part of reading and
writing
2.
Actively engaging in
reading
3. Makes text richer
4. Makes you understand
text easier
After completing the chart, students turn the answers into a
summary paragraph.
Learning Frames/Templates
These can be used with any topic and can also be
customized/modified.
Today, I learned about ________________________ with my
class. The first thing we learned was ______________
_________________ . Next, ________________________
__________________________________ . Then, ______
______________________ . After that, _______________
_______________________________________________ .
I also learned that ________________________________.
The next time we study _______________________, I want to
learn more about __________________________ .
From
http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/act/strategies/Learning_Frame.doc
GIST
(a.k.a. One Sentence Summaries)
1. After reading a passage, write down the important
points from the text.
2. From your notes, create one sentence summarizing
what you have read.
3. You must keep your sentence to 20 words or less.
By doing this you will eliminate the fluff that writers
put into text to make the reading more interesting. It
will take you right to the point of the article and will
be easier to remember!
GIST
Create a one-sentence summary, using 20 words or less, using these
notes (from our highlighting exercise earlier).
critical reading
writing process
reading process
passive participant
active constructor
meaning
inquisitive
attitude
richer
useful
understand
engage
www.readwritethink.org
Create Your One-Sentence
Summary Now!
Can you do it in 20 words or less?
GIST
Critical reading is when
meaning is made by actively,
inquisitively engaging in text to
make it richer and more useful.
Sum it Up
Students pretend they have to tell another
person about the text they read but can only
use so many words. You decide the number of
words based on the length of the text.
This is very similar to GIST.
Readingquest.org
Magnet Summaries
1. Read the text once. Think: what is this all about? (What’s the
magnet or big/controlling idea?)
2. Read it again, noting the key details that are drawn to the big
idea. Jot down the magnet idea (a sentence) and key details.
3. Number the details in the order that makes the most sense.
4. Write your summary including the title and author, controlling
idea sentence, key details, (using transition
words to help it flow smoothly).
5. Read the summary over again to see if it makes sense; revise
as needed.
From the Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative
Magnet Example - Text
Critical reading is a vital part of the writing
process. In fact, reading and writing
processes are alike. In both, you make
meaning by actively engaging a text. As a
reader, you are not a passive participant, but
an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting
an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what
you read will make anything you read richer
and more useful to you in your classes and
your life. This guide is designed to help you
to understand and engage this active reading
process more effectively so that you can
become a better critical reader.
Magnet Word
The magnet word here is CRITICAL
READING. Words and phrases students
might write around it would be:
reading, writing, passive participant,
active constructor, inquisitive,
engaging, attitude, richer, useful,
meaning.
Students are writing down the important words, not highlighting
them this time. They will likely come up with same words, though.
Magnet Summary
Using their notes, the next summary might look like this:
Critical reading is a vital part reading and writing.
Meaning is made by actively engaging in a text.
Exhibiting an inquisitive attitude towards the text makes
it richer and useful.
Summarizing As You Go…
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Read entire passage
Then go back and re-read the first two sentences.
Write two sentences stating what the first two
sentences were both about.
Read the next sentence and then change your
summary to include the 3rd sentence.
Continue until you have read and added information
about each sentence in the passage.
You may need to delete some information as you will
find some sentences are not really necessary for
your summary.
Upon completion you should have no more than 2-3
sentences depending on the length of the text.
Resources/Other Strategies
Teaching Paragraph Summarization
Strategies
www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgibin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instructi
on&section=main&subsection=rc/paragraph
Scaling Back to Essentials: Scaffolding
Summarization With Fishbone Mapping
www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.
asp?id=277
More Resources
Summarization Station
www.auburn.edu/~murraba/guides/an
dersonrl.htm
Text Structure
www.itrc.ucf.edu/forpd/strategies/stratt
extstructure.html (FOR-PD)
Questions?
Please don’t hesitate to contact Crystal
Howard, Jodi Marshall, or any
other RLT member!
Thank you!
Thank you to the following instructors
who contributed ideas and strategies
for this presentation:
Claudine Townley, Sherry Propst,
DAthlone Brown, Chrissy Conidis, Holly
Ard, Jodi Marshall, and Crystal Howard.