Curated OER
Comprehension: Create a Summary from an Expository Text
Children can learn to analyze expository or informational texts at nearly any age. This scaffolded and scripted resource provides teachers with the support needed to facilitate a thoughtful lesson on summarizing informational text...
Scholastic
Summarizing: Using Hand Motions for Key Words or Points
Learning to summarize texts takes practice. Jump into the training ring and guide your learners through a summarizing practice session. The classic direct instructional practice of "I do, you do, we do" is used to help them identify key...
Curated OER
Let's Get it Together! Reading to Learn
Let’s learn about frogs! Young readers are led through “Freaky Frogs,” a non-fiction article. Teach learners how to edit an article so there are fewer details to sift through. After talking through the article, they learn the six steps...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Cultures
Using informational text to make cross cultural comparisons is a great way to build a global understanding and comparative analysis skills. With several handy worksheets and a Venn diagram the class will read to make cross textual...
Curated OER
Summarizing Key Information
Imagine the surprise when small groups present their Evidence Charts to the class and discover that each group has studied a different version of the Cinderella story. Irish, Ojibwa, Egyptian, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Mexican, and...
EngageNY
Main Ideas in Informational Text: Analyzing a Firsthand Human Rights Account for Connections to Specific Articles of the UDHR
Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
Curated OER
Stonehenge Summarizations
Students encounter the tools they need to begin their journey of reading. They must realize that they must gain comprehension skills to comprehend the meaning behind what is being read. Students use this strategy to pull out key...
Curated OER
Summarization Made Easy
Learners explore the concept of summarization. They discuss the importance of summarization and the steps to summarize a text. Students read a text and highlight the important or main ideas within the text. They discuss the information...
Curated OER
Mapping Out Summarization
Students summarize a selected piece of text using a a six step process. After reviewing the correct way to read silently, students read a selected piece of nonfiction text. They write a summary paragraph using the six step process...
Curated OER
Shaking Things Up In Summarization
Students practice several techniques and strategies to become better at summarizing a piece of writing. They emphasize the five "W's: who, what, where, when and why. A book of Earthquakes is read and then summarized by each of the students.
Curated OER
Retelling Information
This scripted instructional activity suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and...
Curated OER
The Bear Facts About Summarization
Students practice summarizing techniques in this lesson. They listen as the teacher reads from a non-fiction article, and the class creates a story map to highlight the most important facts from the article. They use the map to write a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Colonizing the Bay
Eleventh graders review the goals of John Winthrop. In this American History lesson, 11th graders read Winthrop's speech and summarize his key points. Students predict the possibilities for success and failure in the...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan for Scaffolding Complex Texts
Enhance a class read-aloud of the children's story Hi! Fly Guy with this reading comprehension lesson. Children first listen as the teacher reads the story, stopping along the way to discuss any unfamiliar vocabulary. The book...
Curated OER
Rachel's Life is in a Hole
Explore how lack of access to water impacts peoples' lives in poor countries. Through text reading and discussion, middle schoolers are presented with the story of a young girl who lives and functions with limited water resources. They...
Curated OER
Summarization Time
Students write summaries in this lesson. They read "Stellaluna" by Jaell Cannon independently and answer story map questions: who, what, when, where, and why. They then take the answers to these questions and write an individual summary.
Channel Islands Film
Santa Cruz Island - Visible Thinking Routines
Visible Thinking Routines are designed to help learners deepen their understanding of what they are learning and enable them to communicate their understanding of concepts to others. Individuals adopt one of these routines to use to...
EngageNY
Research: Identifying Categories for Our Research About the Wheelwright
Here is a fine instructional activity on reading and understanding expository text designed for 4th graders. With a partner, learners read a passage of text about a machine called a wheelright. This machine was commonly used in...
Curated OER
Safety First
Fourth graders engage in a lesson plan which provides a better understanding of safety rules outlined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They submit a written report from the Safety Briefing Handout which summarizes...
Curated OER
Pigging Out on Reading Comprehension
Students summarize a piece of fiction text. After reviewing the correct way to read in order to summarize, students independently read the story "Pig in a Bag." They write a summary paragraph using the process outlined by the instructor...
Curated OER
Ten Cents a Word
Learners recognize the importance of summarizing in this lesson. They "sum up" an article about monarch butterflies. Students practice writing summaries of the article charging themselves 10 cents/word. They try to write the least...
Curated OER
Five Step Summary
Students review the five steps to summarization. They then read the article "Whoooo-o Are You?" silently. As a class they summarize a small section of the article using the five steps included. Finally, the students summarize...
Curated OER
The Long and Short of It: Summarizing Important Details
Students practice their summarizing skills while listening to a brief biography of Amelia Earhart. Students take notes while the teacher reads the article and write a paragraph that summarizes the important events from Amelia Earhart's...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Using Literary Elements to Compare Fiction Texts
Students explore language arts by reading and reflecting on literary examples. In this fiction writing lesson, students read several different cultural versions of the story "Cinderella" and discuss their interaction with the story and...