Summarization

= Reading Strategy used:  =

List the main points on your paper. Try to figure out the main idea of your selection.
Main idea is:

Could another person get the main idea of this election by reading my summary?
Summary writing can help children clarify their thinking about content and support their reading of information. In writing a summary, the student should:

**1. Read the material (or engage in the learning) with the intent of writing a summary.** S/he should attend to the main ideas and notice how the writing is organized--time order or some other strategy. Headings, subheadings, and topic sentences can help the student recognize the main ideas and may help him/her recognize how the selection is organized **2. Put his/her ideas in their own words as they read.** Maybe every paragraph or two, s/he should retell to him/herself the information that s/he just read. **3. Collapse examples and details into categories.** Use clear, concise, general statements to describe these grouped ideas or categories together. **4. Use the same organizational strategy as the original author.** In other words, if the original information is presented in chronological order, the student should use time order to summarize the information. ** 5. Should remember that a good summary isn't a string of facts; it is a miniature version of the original text. ** S/he should include no unnecessary details by deleting trivial and repetitious information. **6. Integrate the information** into a coherent piece of writing. **7. Polish the summary.** Rethinking and revising a summary helps students get a firmer grasp the main points of the material. [|Summarizing Stratagies] [|Read Write Think Notetaker] [|Find Facts in What You Read] [|Summarizing 5 w's]