Mastering the Art of Summarizing

1. Summarize

2. Summarizing is telling the important events or ideas in a story in your own words.

3. A summary of a story is much shorter than the story.

4. A good summary gives only the most important events or ideas in a story.

5. A good summary does not give your ideas or opinions.

6. Read pages 17-18 of the story, then compare it to the following summary.

7. In this part of the story, Chita hurries to finish drying the dishes after supper so she can spend special time with her father.

8. When she’s done, she sits next to her father. Then, she asks him to tell the story about when he was a brave soldier.

9. Her father agrees and says that she can help him tell the story.

10. To summarize a story, you need to include to include the narrative elements.

11. You should include the setting, the main characters, the problem and the resolution.

12. Important details that take you from the problem to the resolution should be included in the summary.

13. You can use a story map to write a summary.