Summarizing a story is an essential skill for students to master. It helps them distill key ideas, enhance comprehension, and improve communication skills. But let’s face it—teaching summarizing can sometimes feel like pulling teeth! Fear not, because this blog post is packed with practical strategies and fun activities to help your students become pros at summarizing a story.
First, Next, Then, Last
This strategy is a simple yet effective way to teach younger students how to summarize events in chronological order. By breaking the story down into four steps, students focus on the sequence of events, making it easier to identify the most important parts.
Activity Idea: Summarizing a Story Sequencing Cards
- Choose a familiar story (like The Three Little Pigs).
- Provide students with cards that have key events from the story written on them.
- In small groups, have students put the cards in order and summarize the story using “First, Next, Then, Last.”
- Bonus: Let students create their own sequencing cards for a story they’ve read and swap them with a partner to summarize.
SWBST: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then
The SWBST method is perfect for summarizing a story because it focuses on the main character, their goal, the conflict, and how it’s resolved. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Somebody: Who is the main character?
- Wanted: What did they want?
- But: What was the problem?
- So: What did they do to solve it?
- Then: What happened at the end?
Activity Idea: SWBST Graphic Organizer
- Provide students with a blank SWBST graphic organizer – you can download a free one here.
- After reading a story, have them fill it out as a class, in groups, or individually.
- Turn it into a creative writing exercise! Ask students to write a summary based on their completed organizer.
The 5 W’s and H: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How
This strategy is a versatile tool for summarizing both fiction and nonfiction. By answering the 5 W’s and H, students can organize the main ideas of any text into a concise summary.
Activity Idea: Text Detective Challenge
- Divide students into small groups and assign them a short article or story.
- Give each group a large piece of chart paper with the 5 W’s and H written on it.
- Have students work together to answer the questions and use their answers to write a summary.
- Share summaries as a class and discuss any differences in interpretation.
The “One-Sentence Summary” Technique
For a quick and challenging way to teach summarizing a story, encourage students to distill an entire text into just one sentence. Sometimes referred to as snapshot summaries, this strategy forces students to focus on the most important information.
Activity Idea: Sentence Stackers
- After reading a passage, have students write their one-sentence summaries on index cards.
- Collect the cards and shuffle them.
- Read the summaries aloud and let the class vote on which one captures the text best.
- Discuss why certain summaries are more effective than others.
Summarizing Through Storyboarding
For your visual learners, storyboarding can make summarizing a story more engaging. Students create a visual representation of the key events in the text, with illustrations and captions.
Activity Idea: Comic Strip Summaries
- Provide students with blank comic strip templates.
- Have them illustrate and caption the main events of a story in the correct sequence.
- Display the comic strips around the room for a gallery walk.
- Extension: Use this activity for nonfiction texts by having students storyboard historical events or scientific processes.
Retell, Reduce, Reflect
This strategy encourages students to summarize progressively, moving from a full retelling to a concise summary.
- Retell: Students recount the entire text in detail.
- Reduce: They identify and keep only the most essential details.
- Reflect: Students analyze why the chosen details are important and how they relate to the text’s main idea.
Activity Idea: Summarizing a Story Relay
- In groups, assign each student one of the three steps (Retell, Reduce, Reflect).
- Give them a short story or passage to work on.
- Each student completes their step and passes their work to the next teammate.
- Once finished, the group combines their work into a polished summary.
Summarizing a story helps students think critically about what they read, identify key information, and communicate their understanding effectively. By incorporating these strategies into your lessons, you’ll empower your students to tackle any text with confidence—and maybe even have a little fun along the way.
Try out these strategies in your classroom, and watch your students’ summarizing skills soar! Here is a leveled list of my favorite novels and novel studies to use for practicing summary skills.
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