Tip #158 from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents (McKinley, Trombly): summary writing
Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.
#158
Summary
Writing (How-to)
So
the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the
reader who reads.
In elementary school,
kids begin to learn how to write summaries, and they use this skill in many ways
throughout their schooling. However, learning how to write a summary is often a
mysterious task for a child. An easy way to start out is to think about the “5
W’s”: Who? What? Why? When? Where?
To try it out:
1. First
choose a small piece of text. Try an article from one of her magazines or a
short book.
2. After
reading it, talk about it together. Tell her what you think was important to
remember about it, and let her do the same. Try to steer her away from
including any minor details and to focus on the major ones. Also try to keep
opinions out.
3. Then,
write the five question words on a piece of paper, and jot down the important
parts for each. Young kids like to trace their hand and put one question word
in each finger; this helps them to remember that there are five. Some pieces of
writing may not lend themselves to all five, and that’s okay. (You might say,
for instance, “Is the ‘when’ important in this article or could it happen any
time?”)
4. Once
you have this important information down, have her try using just those five
things to retell the plot. Remember to keep any thoughts or opinions out of a
summary. (An older child could write this part.) Do you both agree that that is
what it was mostly about?
For fun, you could give a
really “silly summary.” Leave out some important parts and add in some minor,
silly details. Ask her to tell you what was wrong with your summary. When she
corrects you, it is helping her learn what to include (and not include!) in a
summary of her own.
If you do this a few times, your child will come to realize that those five question words are a good foundation for a summary. It will help her to include the important stuff and weed out the not-so-important stuff.
Cindy McKinley Alder Patti Trombly
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