How to Teach Writing a Summary

Have you ever wondered how to teach writing a summary so students aren’t getting confusstudents don’t struggle to grasp the concept? Emergent readers are taught to retell all of the details of what they’ve just read, but as they become transitional readers they’re suddenly asked to just give the main points. “Somebody Wanted But So” is great strategy for many students, but one year I found the approach just wasn’t working for my fourth grade class. 

So, here’s what I did to teach summary skills that year. And with the success I had in that class, it’s the same thing I’ve done every year since.

Before reading my story, think about the readers in your classroom. Are they all engaged in and reading stories during independent reading time? Or are they spending more time just flipping through pages in a book? Utilizing a reading engagement inventory has helped me understand my students and support them in ways I never thought possible! Learn more and download these 9 FREE reading engagement activities below to start supporting engagement in your classroom today!

Why I learned how to teach summary to 4th graders using animated video clips

I taught kindergarten and first grade for 5 years. When I moved up to fourth grade, I had a bunch of repeat students from previous years. It was an amazing experience to teach these kids for the second – and some even third – time! 

As I began to assess them at the beginning of the year, I was shocked to see many students retelling stories using every single detail… When I told them to give me a summary instead, they asked me what a summary is! I saw them working hard using those retelling skills, but with longer texts at a higher level it was taking them way too long. On top of that, they were completely missing the point of the story because they were lost in all of its minor details.

I immediately taught the “Somebody Wants But So” lesson. Only about half of my class picked it up, however, and getting them to write was a laborious task. The engagement was low and many students were still stuck on retelling.

One day, during morning meeting, our share task was to share something that students did that weekend in one minute or less. One of my struggling summarizers started to summarize a movie that he had seen the previous weekend. He told only the important parts and did it in under a minute! It was then that I realized I needed to relate this reading skill to real life. My students could summarize, they just didn’t fully understand what I was asking. And they were lost in the formulaic process of following a template.

Now, I’m not bashing the template. It did work for other students in my class. But, in general, I try to teach in the most authentic way possible. And I strive to relate the content to real life however I can. This situation was no different. I needed to scaffold this work with very clear step by step directions. This is when the idea for using animated video clips clicked. Then I quickly got to work creating an activity for my students.

This resource is for you if you need to know how to teach summary skills to students in an engaging way

Using these clips was so helpful for my students who had a lower reading engagement level. It made learning to summarize fun. And it helped students think about books like they think about movies. Asking them “what movie are you making in your mind?” became such a normal question in our classroom that I even overheard students asking it to one another! 

Now, relating reading skills to things other than books when first teaching a skill is a game changer for me as a teacher. Teaching theme with music lyrics is another fun one! I used this notebook to teach summarizing skills to my students in one week. Here were the steps that I took.

How to teach summary writing 

Step #1 Teach summary and retelling similarities and differences

Students need to understand the difference between these two skills AND recognize why we need to make this transition as readers. Explicit teaching of each skill is the first step in helping students be successful. You can use anchor charts, a retell vs summary venn diagram, or even a t-chart to teach these similarities and differences. Here is the exact venn diagram I used to explicitly teach summary and retelling skills.

I spent one mini-lesson using this diagram to review these skills. And I showed a YouTube video about summarizing. During independent work, students wrote down a difference between retelling and summarizing that they learned in 1-2 sentences.

Step #2 Teach summarizing in more depth 

The second step focuses on teaching summarizing with more detail. This is a great place for an anchor chart that is only about summary writing. I created this one because it helped students think of a summary with a beginning, middle, and end. 

This helped students keep it short while including important elements from each part of the text. I also added questions to prompt students who were stuck while writing their summaries. 

After reviewing this chart, I shared a graphic organizer for planning out a summary. I found that students used these while writing a summary at first. Eventually, though, they could just look at the chart and write the summary without filling it in. These who, where, when, what, why, and how questions helped students think about all of the story elements and also helped me to pinpoint the areas where my students needed support. Then I could conference with students about the story elements causing confusion.

Step #3 Model how to write a summary to students with animated clips

The third step is where the engagement and connection to real life kicks in! I shared this silent short film with students and filled in the graphic organizer to plan their summary writing. I modeled for them by asking myself questions as I filled in the chart. “Ok, who was the character?” I LOVED using the silent short films for this activity because having the lack of words boosted engagement and made students think about what was really happening in the film. It was also helpful for my ELL students because it took out vocabulary while they were learning this skill.

While working through the chart, I told my students I was stuck and went back to watch the silent film a second time. This was a great teaching point to remind them about using text evidence and revisiting the text to find more information.

After this lesson, I had students go back to their seats and watch a different short film. Then they worked on filling in the organizer independently. I walked around the room during this time, collecting data and conferencing with students. I also provided support as needed. Mid-workshop, I pulled a group of students to the carpet and we worked on some of this together.

Some years, step 2 and 3 have been one the same day, while in others it has been on two different days. It really just depended on my class’s needs and how much we could get through in one day.

Step #4 Writing the summary

The fourth step is when it all comes together. I projected the organizer on the smartboard and used chart paper to write my summary. I taught students to go through each bullet point and turn it into a sentence combining some bullet points with a conjunction. Sometimes I completely model this skill, while in other years I have students help me through the process like in shared writing.

When I finished writing, I reminded students that summaries are concise so we went back and reread it together. I revised it a few times, taking out extra words and minor details to hit home that summarizing only has the important details – unlike a retell. 

Once I finished modeling, I invited students to use the organizer to write a summary of the silent short film. Some students benefited from watching the video again to have a clear memory of what happened. I walked around the room and took anecdotal notes on my observations on this day without conferencing or intervening for the first part of the block. This gave my students the opportunity to try out the skill. I find that it can be easy to intervene quickly without giving students enough of a chance to practice by themselves.

Mid-workshop, I pulled a group of students based on some of my anecdotal notes and worked with them to convert the information from the organizer into a paragraph. We did it together so I decided to pull this group the next day to practice with another silent film. I wanted them to master this skill before applying it to a text. Another scaffold that was in place was allowing students to use voice typing since we did this on the computer. This was helpful for some of my struggling writers!

Step #5 Practice summary writing with a book

On the last day, I read a book aloud to the class and passed out a paper copy of the organizer. I wanted to use this as an informal assessment to see which students understood this skill and could transfer it with a book. 

After reading the book, students went back to their seats, filled in the organizer and wrote a paragraph summary of the book. I didn’t provide support during this time and told students to do their best! This assignment wasn’t taken for a grade but used as formative assessment to give students feedback and for intervention groups the following week. I used a whole group anecdotal note form to write notes about student understandings as I analyzed their work. 

Step #6 Next Steps

With my anecdotal notes, I created 3 small groups. Students who needed intervention because they had few details in their summary. Students who needed some support with story elements because they had some of the details. And students who had mastered the skill and had most or all of the story’s important details. This anecdotal note form helped me to plan out each small group and keep all of my notes in one place.

These were small groups the next week during our reading workshop. With the intervention group, I spent time modeling this skill and providing heavy support with gradual release. With the group that needed some support, I reviewed summarizing anchor charts. Then I read another book to them before they practiced writing a summary in our small group. This allowed me to coach them through the process on the story elements that they missed. The group that mastered this skill practiced with a book in their book box.

As students gained more understanding, I added more checks to the summarizing checklist. 

Keeping specific data like this has been so helpful to me as a teacher when conferencing with parents and talking to school teams about students! Checklists are my go to!!

Books to teach summary

Here are some of my favorite books to use when teaching summarizing skills. These books are great because they follow a more obvious beginning, middle, end structure and have a simple plot.

• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
• Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber
• Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus
• Magic School Bus books- These books have more details so are better once students become more familiar with summarizing as they will have to determine which details are the most important for the summary.

Try out one of these anchor charts or short clips as you teach summarizing to students while letting them enjoy watching a movie in school!

You can grab this full, week-long lesson to teach summary writing. In the form of a student notebook, you will get a student table of contents page completion tracker, summary vs retell anchor chart, summary writing steps, teaching summary venn diagram, links to videos, summary writing example, and student summarizing practice! All anecdotal notes forms for summarizing are included to help you stay organized while teaching this skill.

Don’t forget that boosting engagement in your class should be the first step in helping students to become life-long readers! Grab these 9 FREE reading engagement activities below to learn more about your students as readers!