Write a summary of the text in 100 words.

100 Word Summary

Students often have a difficult time identifying the main idea or the most important parts of a reading selection.  The ability to write a summary that includes relevant details and presents them in a logical order is a skill that students should be taught.  Summarizing also helps solidify the message and main ideas of a  text in a student's mind which improves retention of the information.

Procedure:

Students should read an assigned text and write a 100  word summary of the selection.

Initially, students might be assisted in identifying the most important parts of a text through the use of text marking.

Instruct students to organize their summary in a logical manner and to include

what they are summarizing (title, author, genre)

one general sentence telling what the poem, story, article is about (main idea)

the important details that explain the main idea

Students can share their summaries with a partner so they can also benefit from what their peers interpreted as the main idea.

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