Summarizing

Summarizing

A summary is a brief statement or account of the main points of something.

Multiple Choice

What does brief mean?

• a full story

• a few words

• a lot of details

Open Ended

Because a summary is only a short retelling of a story, you have to be sure to include only the most important details. Those details should include "who"...the main characters in the story.

Who are the main characters in chapter 2 of Because of Winn-DIxie?

Multiple Select

A summary should include: who, what, why, how, and where the story takes place. These things are called the "story elements".

Why are they important in a summary?

• Understand what I read

• Understand what I'm writing

• Include all the important details of a text

• nothing

Open Ended

This is where we tell what the main character was trying to accomplish.

What was the main character trying to do in chapter two?

Multiple Choice

Now that we know who the main characters are, and what they wanted to accomplish, we need to know what interfered with their goal. So, let's look at the next thing a summary should also include. Every summary needs to have a "why" also known as the conflict. What do I mean by "conflict"?

• resolution

• response

• problem

Open Ended

Explain the problem in chapter 2 of Because of WInn-DIxie.

Remember, this is after Opal left the grocery store with WInn DIxie.

Open Ended

The next thing we're going to look at is the response to the problem. In other words, what did the main character do to tackle the problem.

What did the main character do to solve the problem in chapter 2?

Poll

Was the problem solved?

• yes

• no

Open Ended

Lastly, what was the outcome of the main character's attempt to solve the problem?

Open Ended

Now, let's take all of the information we learned, and write a summary of chapter 2 of Because of Winn-DIxie.

Your summary should look like this, but with you filling the information in the parenthesis.

In, (chapter and title of book), (Who) wanted to (What was the person trying to do?), but (The conflict). So, (The attempt to resolve the problem.). Then, (The resolution).