What is the second step in summarizing plot events identify the main events and details in each part of the plot?

Summary writing isn’t the easiest skill to master.  It takes a decent amount of time and practice to be able to craft an effective summary.  Students need to be able to summarize all types of texts, extracting only the main ideas and key details.  Students often struggle with selecting the correct amount and portions to include in their summaries, which can quickly snowball into a complete re-writing of the entire text they are trying to summarize.   Utilizing a graphic organizer will help students narrow down and focus on the appropriate information.  The inherent scaffolding a graphic organizer provides sets students up with a framework for picking and choosing content.  Ten different types of summary writing graphic organizers are detailed below.  Each template focuses on a different type of text.

Fiction Summary

Summarizing fictional text most often requires students to identify the main characters, the setting, the conflict, explanation of the problem, and how the problem is resolved.  Using a graphic organizer to break down the plot in this manner helps students focus on the pertinent information and avoid extraneous details.

Story Summary

An additional way to set up a graphic organizer for students to summarize a piece of fiction is to guide students by using the words “somebody”, “wanted”, “but”, “so”, and “then”.  As shown below, each word can be broken down even further.

Somebody: Who is the main character?

Wanted: What did the main character want?

But: What was the problem?

So: How was the problem solved?

Then: How did the story end?

Plot Summary

Crafting a plot summary is simply a plot diagram in written form.  Students start with the exposition, identifying the main character and setting.  Next, students move to the rising action where they record the problem and events relating to the problem.  After recording the rising action, students identify the climax, or the point in the story where the problem is at its highest point of tension.  Following the climax, students record the events that move the conflict toward a resolution, also known as the falling action.  Finally, students are ready to record the resolution.  Using a plot diagram as a graphic organizer provides students with an excellent visual representation of the summary.

Chapter Summary

Summarizing a book chapter requires students to practice sorting events in chronological order.  Setting up the graphic organizer in a way that moves students progressively forward in time works well.  Additionally, incorporating transition words such as “first”, “next”, “after that”, and “finally” will help to keep students on track and focused on major content included in the chapter.

Want all of the graphic organizers detailed in this post? Click here to download them now from Literacy in Focus on TpT! 

Sequence Summary

The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts.  A sequence summary graphic organizer follows the sequence of events laid out in the text.  Students are guided through the beginning, middle, and end of the story with a series of prompts.

Beginning: Describe the main characters and the setting.

Middle: Explain the problem and things that happen because of it.

End: Explain how the problem is resolved and how the story ends.

Non-Fiction Summary

When summarizing nonfiction or informational text, we want students to be able to identify the topic, main idea, and supporting details.  Students should also be able to provide textual evidence for each detail.  A graphic organizer will help to scaffold students through the entire process. Ideally, students will understand that each piece is a more focused version of the last.

Biography Summary

When students are writing a summary based on a biography, it is helpful to have a graphic organizer that focuses on the 5”W”s (who, what, when, where, why).  Taken a step further, each “W” can be broken down into a specific question:

Who is the person?

What did this person achieve?

When did this person become well known?

Where did this person live and work?

Why is this person important?

How will this person be remembered?

Article Summary

Aside from including the article title, author, publication, and date, it is important for students to be able to identify the topic, main idea, and supporting details.  The graphic organizer should start with the main idea and narrow down from there.  That way, students will be guided in the right direction.

GIST Summary

A GIST summary requires students to paint a broad picture of the text.  Students will identify and record  who, what, when, where, why, and how.  Next, students use the information recorded for each of the 5Ws to craft a one sentence summary of the text.

5 Sentence Summary

The five sentence summary graphic organizer will work for fiction or nonfiction text.  Each portion of the template moves students through the content of the text.  Students begin with the topic or main idea, record three important details or facts, and finish with the wrap-up or resolution.  The five sentence summary works well for short pieces of literature or informational text.

Summary writing doesn’t have to be a daunting exercise for you or your students. Using graphic organizers to guide students through the process will help tremendously. When it comes to creating each graphic organizer, there are typically three different options: students can make their own, you can provide pre-printed templates, or if you have access to technology, you can go the digital route.  The end-goal of each type of organizer is the same, so use whatever best meets the needs of the students in your classroom.

Looking to save time? Click here to download all ten graphic organizers mentioned above in printable, editable, and digital formats from Literacy in Focus on TpT.

This flashcard is meant to be used for studying, quizzing and learning new information. Many scouting web questions are common questions that are typically seen in the classroom, for homework or on quizzes and tests. Flashcards vary depending on the topic, questions and age group. The cards are meant to be seen as a digital flashcard as they appear double sided, or rather hide the answer giving you the opportunity to think about the question at hand and answer it in your head or on a sheet before revealing the correct answer to yourself or studying partner. Some questions will include multiple choice options to show you the options involved and other questions will just have the questions and corrects answers. Simply reveal the answer when you are ready to check your work. Absolutely no cheating is acceptable.

In student-friendly terms, summarizing is telling the most important parts of a text, in your own words, in a much shorter way. Teaching summarizing shows students how to discern the essential ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what they read and acts as a check for comprehension. Summarizing is a complex skill that will continue to develop over time, as students read increasingly complex texts.

Why teach summarizing?

• It helps students learn to determine essential ideas and consolidate important details that support those ideas.
• It enables students to focus on key words and phrases of an assigned text that are worth remembering.
• It teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main points for more concise understanding.
• Summarizing skills are applicable in almost every content area.

Summarizing can be tricky, even for adults. The leap from retelling — which asks readers to recall the events in a story in logical order — to determining what is important or essential in a story and condensing the information into a summary, is a big one. A good way to scaffold young readers’ growing ability to summarize is to model and practice summarizing routines. The routine or structure that makes the most sense will be different depending on students’ age and experience.   

Less experienced students

Try transitioning from structured routines for teaching story sequence, such as “Beginning, Middle, and End” and “First, Next, Then, Last”, to structured summarizing routines such as “Someone Wanted But So Then” or “Five-Finger (5Ws)” summarizing. These scaffolds give students a visual representation of their thinking and a way to structure their responses while prompting them to think about more than just the sequence of events.

More experienced students

For students who have had more practice identifying story elements and determining important ideas, try using more open-ended routines such as Sum it Up for $2.00 or other keyword-focused approaches to summarizing. 
For students who are comfortable with the concept of main ideas and important details:

1. Begin by reading or by having students listen to the text selection to be summarized.

2. Ask students the following framework questions:

• What are the main ideas?
• What are the crucial details necessary for supporting the main ideas?
• What information is irrelevant or unnecessary?

3. Have them use keywords or phrases to identify main points from the text.