Summarizing Pracctice

A summary is what a passage or story is mostly about.

When and why do we summarize stories?

Multiple Choice

When would you most likely summarize a book?

• to tell someone the gist or main idea of a story

• when you want to forget a book you've read

• when you don't understand a vocabulary word you've read in a book

• when you want to share your opinion of a book

Multiple Choice

Jose carefully poured out the bag of marbles on his bed. He picked his ten favorite marbles and carefully set them to the side. Then he got out a small bag from his top drawer, and put the ten marbles inside. Just to make sure he wouldn't forget them, he placed the bag of marbles in his backpack. Jose loved show and tell, and he was excited that he would get to show his class some of his favorite marbles.

• Jose had lots of marbles.

• Jose would rather play marbles than play baseball

• Jose placed the bag of marbles in his backpack.

• Jose was getting his favorite marbles ready to take to school for show and tell.

Multiple Choice

A summary is a retelling of the whole story in my own words.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

You should write your summary

• in your own words with complete sentences
• in a secret language that you make up
• in one draft without revising
• in fragments without punctuation

Multiple Choice

What can you summarize?

• only novels
• only nonfiction
• only movies
• anything you read or watch

Multiple Choice

What is the first step to summarizing a passage?

• Carefully reading through and understanding the passage so you can make a better summary.
• Put the first important thing you see down without even reading the passage.

Multiple Choice

When some people think about Texas, they think of cowboys on the open range-herding cattle up a dusty trail. However, Texas has much more than open prairie with large herds of cows. There are the mountains of West Texas, the piney hills of east Texas, and the emerald waters off the coast of Padre Island. Texas also has large coastal harbors with numerous sailboats, powerboats, inland lakes, rivers. The swamps of southeast Texas have alligators and other exotic wildlife.

The Summary of this passage is:

• There are a lot of cows in Texas.

• There are many different, varied parts of Texas.

• Texas is one of the biggest states in the United States.

• There are alligators in the swampland of southeast Texas.

Multiple Choice

Which best describes a summary?

• a really long detailed piece of writing
• the entire text told in your own words
• a dumb thing that teachers make you write
• the main ideas and important details of a text

Multiple Choice

It started when they got to the bears. Peter felt tired and his stomach hurt. He dragged himself over to see the elephants, which were eating from a stack of hay. Normally, the elephants were his favorite. Without much interest, Peter followed his classmates to the camels, which were busy swatting flies with their tails. Peter knew he should be having fun at the zoo, but he just felt terrible and all he wanted to do was lie down and rest. Even the lions and tigers did not interest him now. 
The Summary of this passage is:

• Peter's favorite animals were the elephants.
• The camels were swatting flies with their tails.
•  It was really hot at the zoo.
• Peter didn't enjoy the zoo because he felt really bad.

Multiple Choice

Which of these is the BEST summary of the story?

• Bill and Joshua were grown and it was difficult to get together. Both men had busy lives. They decided to get together to go through some old stuff their mom saved. They found water balloons and filled them up with water.

• Bill and Joshua didn't see each other very often because of their busy schedules. One day, they decided to get together and go through an old box their mother saved. They found some water balloons and had an awesome fight with them. The events of the day made them realize that they should spend more quality time together.

• Bill and Joshua found some old water balloons in a box. They filled them up and went into the backyard to have a fight. They felt like kids again and realized they should get together more often.

• Two brothers got together. They found some water balloons. They were in an old box. They had a water balloon fight . It was in the backyard. They were dripping with water. They should get together more often.

Multiple Choice

Read the following paragraph and determine which sequence of events is the BEST answer.

• Louvre Museum, Eiffel Tower, Seine River cruise

• Seine River cruise, Mona Lisa, visit Paris

• Paris, Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Mona Lisa

• Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Seine River cruise

Multiple Choice

Which of the following BEST completes the summary?

• Michelle rushes to the bus without an umbrella.

• Michelle regrets her decision when she has to walk to her grandmother's house in the rain.

• Mom is upset with her when she arrives at Grandmother's house and is soaking wet.

Multiple Choice

Turn over a bag of potato chips. Is the label interesting? A simple food recipe may use several ingredients. These come from the soil and from chemistry labs around the world. Surprises also show up in the labels on clothing and other products. Look at the label on a package of lipstick. The tube seems small and shiny, but inside lipstick there is soap, oil, fish scales, and wax!

Which is the best way to summarize this passage?

• A bag of potato chips seems like a simple recipe. There are many ingredients from the soil and from chemistry labs.

• Clothes and other products have many ingredients as well. Lipstick alone has soap, oil, wax, and fish scales.

• Labels show what goes into food, clothing, and other products. A simple product may have many ingredients.

• Lipstick seems small and shiny. Look at the label sometime. It has at least four different ingredients.

Multiple Select

What makes a good summary? (choose all that apply)

• Only including information from the text

• Explains what the author thinks

• Includes only most important details.

• Copies sentences word for word from the text.

• States the reader's opinion

Multiple Choice

What detail should be cut from the following summary?

My Funny Friend Fiona is a novel about a girl named Fiona. It’s really quick to read, and you should read it because it’s the funniest book in the world.

• the name of the main character

• the title of the book

• the fact that the book is a novel

• the opinion that it's the "funniest book in the world"

Multiple Choice

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• B

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• D

Multiple Choice

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Multiple Choice

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