In order for a reader to be able to read and understand a text there is a great deal of work that they must do in their head. As shared in The Importance of Strategies, readers use a variety of strategic actions and strategies to process what they are reading.  Summarizing is one of twelve strategic action we will explore in this Strategic Action Series. 

Strategies Change Over Time

When young children begin reading, they may use very simple strategies like memorizing or remembering the words in a story and reciting them as they see the pictures. As they learn more about letters, words, and books, they will begin using strategies like:

• Pausing when something doesn’t make sense (self-monitoring)
• Looking at the picture, thinking about the sentence, and looking at the first letters to make sure what they have read “looks right,” “sounds right,” and “makes sense.” (cross-checking sources of information)
• Reread a word to read it correctly when they misread the word the first time. (self-correcting)

As young readers have more and more time to read and experience books, they develop their ability to use more sophisticated strategic actions as they read.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

It is important to note that readers use strategic actions simultaneously. Unfortunately, many children view them as separate actions or even as their goal of their reading. This may be the case if you’ve ever heard your child say, “This week I am inferring.”  This happens when strategies are talked about in isolation or if your child does most of their strategy work with worksheets. Even though we may attempt to strengthen a strategic action by talking about it in isolation, it is always important to remind your child that they use many strategic actions and strategies to understand what we are reading.

Here is an example shared by Fountas and Pinnell in Guided Reading (2e) 

• A child who is automatically solving words and monitoring his comprehension might realize it and pause to reread or search for more information. He might also search his background knowledge, make connections, and, by comparing present knowledge to new learning, synthesize new ideas.

Even though these actions are listed in a sequence, many take place simultaneously. Our brains can work so quickly and can do such much.

Now let’s take a look at Summarizing, a strategic action identified by Fountas and Pinnell (Literacy Continuum, Expanded Edition, 2017).

Summarizing

When summarizing, readers need to remember important information and use it later as information for problem solving and understanding within a text.  When a child summarizes, they do not remember every word or detail, but they consider and retain the important ideas and information.

Check out the Reading Level Specific Posts  to see questions you can ask or prompts you can give to support your child’s use of this strategic action.

5 Fantastic Strategies to Encourage Summarizing

1. Connecting Pages

Great for any Reading Levels

Strategy Steps

1. Read a page or section.
2. Think about what that page or section is mostly about.
3. Read the next section.
4. Think about what that page or section is mostly about.
5. Ask yourself how they connect.
6. Use the words “and then” to connect the statements about the main part of each section.
7. Continue throughout the text.

You can prompt your child to think about how parts of the text connect by asking the following prompts:

• How do these pages/chapters/sections connect?
• How does what you learned on this page fit with what you learned on that page?
• How did the character get from here to there?

2. What is Most Important

Great for Reading Levels E-K

Strategy Steps

Remind your child that a summary is a short telling of what they just read.

1. When you get ready to summarize, think about what parts of the story you will tell.
2. Think about including enough information to make sense to someone who has not read the story.
3. As you tell your summary, make it clear how one event led to another.
4. In one sentence (or very few), tell about the most important thing that happened in the story – this is most likely connected to the problem.
5. Then in one sentence (or very few), tell the most important events in the middle of the story – connect back to the problem.
6. Finally, in one sentence (or very few), tell how the whole story ends up.

You can prompt your child to a brief summary by asking the following questions: 

• Can you say that in a shorter way?
• How does that event connect to the one you just told me?
• You told me many things that happened in the middle. Which two or three were the most important?
• What’s the most important thing that happened at the end?

 3. Highlight Deep Ideas

Great for Reading Levels L and up

 Strategy Steps

1. Think about what happened in each part of the story.
2. Ask yourself, “What was this story really about?”
3. The answer to this question is now your claim (your leading idea).
4. Now, tell your summary by sharing the events that best support that idea or claim.
1. [Big idea]
2. First….
3. Next….
4. Finally….

Note: This strategy requires that kids can identify the message or theme of a book.

You can prompt your child to summarize with big ideas by asking the following questions:

• What’s the problem in the story?
• Was the problem solved at the end of this chapter?
• (At the start of a new chapter) Is this a new story or the same one?
• How do you know?

4. Character’s Wants

Great for Reading Levels L and up

 Strategy Steps

1. After reading, think about what the main character really wants.
2. Keeping the character’s wants in mind, think about the one really important event that happened in each chapter. Make sure it is an event that connects to the what the character wants.
3. Summarize by saying these events in order.

You can prompt your child to use character’s wants to summarize by asking the following questions:

• What is the main event in this chapter?
• What does this character want?
• What does the character want in this chapter?
• What is most important?
• Does that show up across the book?

 5. Somebody…Wanted…But…So

Great for Reading Levels N and up

 This strategy is popular in schools so you may have heard your child saying Somebody, Wanted, But, So.

 Strategy Steps

1. After reading, think about the book and ask the following questions.
2. Think “Who is the main character?”
3. Then ask, “What does the main character want?”
4. Then, “What gets in his or her way?”
5. Finally, “How does it end up?
6. Make sure the end connects to the problem and/or what the character wants.
7. Put your answers for each of these questions together for a concise summary.

You can prompt your child to identify the major points of the text by asking the following questions:

• Who is the main character?
• What does the character want?
• What’s an obstacle to getting what he or she wants?
• Does the ending connect to what the character wants?

Check out these posts for more strategies to support strategic actions:

• Searching for and Using Information
• Monitoring and Self-Correcting
• Solving words
• Adjusting
• Maintaining Fluency
• Predicting
• Making Connections
• Synthesizing
• Inferring
• Critiquing
• Analyzing

Resources:

• Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2017). Guided reading: Responsive teaching across the grades. Heinemann.
• Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2007). The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8: Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support. Heinemann.
• Serravallo, J. (2015). The reading strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled readers (Vol. 11). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.