Nonfiction Summaries!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was working with my third graders on fiction summaries. I am very pleased to say that they have made a lot of progress! Unfortunately, that is only half the battle. Now, we must master nonfiction summaries, too! Does it ever end?!

We used the same anchor chart, but focused on the nonfiction side. A nonfiction summary focuses on the main idea and supporting details. Finding the main idea can definitely be tricky. The only way to get better is through lots and lots of practice!

For the first book, students analyzed my model of a nonfiction summary. Since the checklist worked so well for fiction, I made one for nonfiction, too! Students used crayons to mark up my summary. When they found something from the checklist in my summary, they either underlined or circled it and checked it off.

We wrote the second summary together through guided practice. Once again, we used the checklist to analyze and mark up the summary when we were finished. 

For the final summary, students wrote the summary independently. They self-assessed their own summary using the checklist, then they traded with a partner. The partner then used the checklist to grade their summary. I love how the checklist allows students to be more independent. They can just reference the checklist instead of asking me for help. The constant assessing of my work, their own work, and other students' work provided constant repetition and reinforcement of the elements of a good nonfiction summary. We will continue to practice, and hopefully students will retain this information!

If you would like your own copy of the checklist, click here.

Do you use checklists in your classroom?

Summarizing, Summarizing, and MORE Summarizing!

Summarizing is definitely a tricky skill for students to master, particularly struggling readers. In the third grade, summarizing begins to take center stage in reading comprehension. It is all over the state tests and a huge part of the DRA.

In my opinion, explicit instruction makes all the difference for summarizing. You have to be very clear about what is expected. What better way to explain expectations than with an anchor chart?! I like to have very distinct explanations about what a fiction summary looks like versus a nonfiction summary. So far, we have focused only on the fiction summary. I have explained to students that story elements must be included in the summary, but how you weave these elements together in your explanation also plays an important role. The summary has to make sense!

After reading our first book, I modeled what a good summary looks like. I had the summary typed up, and we went through the summary together and underlined the story elements.

For the next book, we created the summary together through guided practice. Once finished, we went back and used a checklist to make sure we had all of our story elements. Students underlined the different elements with different colored crayons. For a copy of the checklist, click here!

For the third story, students wrote their summaries independently. They self-assessed their summary with the checklist. Then, students traded summaries with another student. That student then used the checklist to analyze the summary. Interestingly enough, most students forgot to mention the setting in their summaries! 

I was really impressed by my students' independent summaries! I think the checklist was very helpful. We are going to venture into nonfiction summaries next week. Once finished, we will continue to work on a combination of nonfiction and fiction summaries for added practice.

On a side note, I noticed that these Reading A-Z books are awesome for stories with very clear cut problems and solutions. I also love being able to send home the books with the students when we are done.

How do you help your students master summarizing?

Main Idea and Supporting Details

Main idea is such an important skill for our students, but I have found that many of mine struggle with the concept. This year, I have a very low group of third graders. My first reading group is a level K, but my second group is a  level G. While we are working intensely on word attack strategies, I also found that their comprehension skills are definitely lacking.

So, we jumped right in with main idea. We began by looking over this anchor chart. Some things that I have noticed that really help my students are focusing on the title, pictures, beginning/ending sentence, and words that are used repeatedly. At this point, we talked about how the the author puts a lot of thought into his/her title, and it has a lot to do with what the book is about. Also, the illustrator wouldn't waste his/her time on pictures for events that weren't important! Especially with articles, the author often comes right out with the main idea in the first or last sentence. Lastly, if a word is used several times throughout the text, it is important!

We began with a paragraph about Chew-a-lot gum. Each student received a sentence. We read through each sentence and determined which sentence was the main idea. The main idea was that Chew-a-lot is the best gum. The other sentences described how the gum was the best. One of my groups nailed this activity, but the lower group struggled.

My students glued a copy of the anchor chart into their reader's notebooks for future reference. Then, I gave students a copy of a web that I made for one of our books. Students read the book in a typical guided reading whisper read. (This is when I am assisting students with their individual word attack needs.) Then, we used our anchor chart to go through and identify the main idea. We looked at the title, pictures, key words, and beginning/end. I showed students how this main idea goes in the center of the web. Then, we went through the book and identified where the supporting details came from.

 Level G

Level K

For each group of students, I selected two books and an article. For the books, I chose one fiction and one nonfiction. The articles were also nonfiction. Students continued reading each book in typical guided reading fashion, with the whisper read. I modeled the main idea/detail web for the fiction book, and we completed the web together for the nonfiction book. Students completed the web for the article independently. Main idea is a challenging skill that we will continue to work on, but we are making progress!

How do you teach main idea?

Summary Webs

Currently I am in the midst of administering the DRA to 60 first graders. It is taking just a little bit of my time these days. With our data, we will be creating our first grade RTI groups. We made our kindergarten groups today, so we are getting somewhere! I am definitely ready to be done testing and to get moving with these groups! Once you start dreaming about the DRA, you know you are in trouble!

Since I am wrapped up in testing, I decided to share one of my favorite techniques for teaching summarizing. It is such a simple idea, but the kids really love it. I believe it is extremely effective as well.

The lesson is based off of an idea I found in one of my favorite books of all time, Strategies that Work by Harvey and Goudvis.

To begin, I selected two texts about the Dust Bowl from EBSCOhost. Both articles had a variety of great text features, including detailed photographs, vocabulary boxes, diagrams, etc. In order to make the summary webs, it is important to chose an article with several visual text features, particularly photographs or diagrams.

Students read through each text independently, and we discussed our reading and what we had learned about the Dust Bowl. Many students had a basic understanding of the Great Depression, but had not heard anything about the Dust Bowl. They found the dust storms fascinating. In such a developed part of the country with so many buildings, they had a hard time wrapping their head around the actual reasoning behind the storms. 

As students read, we worked on taking notes on the important information using our reader's notebooks. Students then used these notes to complete a summary web of the two articles, essentially synthesizing all the information they had gathered on the Dust Bowl. To really enhance the project, I printed off some extra images from the articles, as well as additional images from the Library of Congress. You can find image collections from almost any major event/era in history on their website. 

Overall, I find summary webs to be a great way to get students to synthesize information from different sources. Students don't really see the project as writing a summary, and as a result, are more involved and motivated. 

Does anyone else make summary webs? What topics have you covered?

Foldable Box Book Project

As a fun end of year activity, my fifth graders and I made a foldable box book project! On the bottom part of the box, students record information about the book they read. The box isn't as difficult to make as it seems at first, and the students really love the activity!

For the project, you will need two large pieces of construction paper. You will need a 12" x 12" piece of paper for the lid, and an 11.5" x 11.5" paper for the bottom.

Directions for Lid: (12”x 12”)

• Step 1: Draw a point in the center of the square paper.

• Step 2: Fold each corner to the point you drew in the middle. Make sure each fold is creased clearly.

• Step 3: After your folding, you will have four lines from your creases. Fold each corner to the opposite crease line.  

• Step 4: Now your paper will have many creases. Fold each corner to the nearest crease. It will make a very small triangle in each corner.

• Step 5: Pick two opposite sides. On each side you will make two cuts. The cuts should be two of the creased sections long.

• Step 6: On the sides you did not cut, fold the two triangles in, and then fold over one more square section on each side.

• Step 7: Fold in the triangle tip of both of the other sides.

• Step 8: Once you have folded in the triangle tip, fold over the rectangle you just made all the way to the top of the lid. Do this for both sides.

• Step 9: Tuck the flaps of the other sides under the sides you just folded. This will make a box.

• Step 10: Press all of your creases firmly to hold the shape. This may take several firm presses.

Directions for Bottom: (11.5”x 11.5”)

• Step 1: Fold your construction paper into thirds. Open the paper up and fold the paper into thirds the other direction. Open the paper up.

• Step 2: Cut the pattern below into your construction paper. 

• Step 3: Fold up the flaps to make the box.

• Step 4: Put the lid on to hold the box in place. 

How to Fill Out the Bottom: 
Once you have folded the entire box, the bottom will have nine individual boxes created by the fold lines. The students will fill out the nine boxes according to these guidelines: (or you  can pick your own!)

• Box 1: Title and Author
• Box 2: At Least 3 Predictions
• Box 3: List of Main Characters
• Box 4: Setting
• Box 5: List of 8 Key Vocabulary Words Chosen from the Story with Definitions
• Box 6: 2 of Favorite Quotes from Story
• Box 7: Theme of Story
• Box 8: 3-5 Sentence Summary
• Box 9: Describe Your Favorite Part of the Book and Explain Why it is Your Favorite Part

*Complete boxes 1 and 2 before reading the book. Complete boxes 3-9 after reading the book.

If you would like printable directions for the box, click here! Do you have any fun book projects you do with your students?