Summary Practice

What is a summary?

• Retells the main events of the story in a shorter version.

• 
  Tells the people in the story.

• Tells where the story takes place.

• Tells us the theme of the story.

True or False: In a summary you should include ALL of the details from the text.

• True

• False

The Blackpole Warbler is a tiny bird that takes a really long trip. This little songbird lives in the forests of North America in the summer. However, when the weather turns cold in North America, the Blackpole Warbler takes flight.These small birds fly all the way to the Caribbean, where they spend the winter on warm tropical beaches. How far does the warbler fly for this tropical getaway? Scientists have tracked the Blackpole Warbler and say these amazing birds can fly over 1,700 miles!

Which is the best summary of this text?

• The blackpole warbler is a small bird. It is also a song bird. It can fly.

• The blackpole warbler is a small songbird that can flyover 1,700 miles.

• 
  The blackpole warbler is a small songbird that flies from North America to the Caribbean during the winter and can fly over 1700 miles.

• Birds often migrate to warmer places in the winter.

A summary is suppose to be _________.

• short

• long

The main idea should be included in a summary.

• True

• False

A summary includes enough details to tell the important ideas, but not too many unimportant details.

• True

• False

Which best describes a summary?

• a really long detailed piece of writing

• a dumb thing that teachers make you write

• the entire text told in your own words

• the main ideas and important details of the beginning, middle, and end of a passage.

A written summary for a passage should typically be 3-5 sentences long.

• True

• False

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!

What is the best summary of the text?

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

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

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

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

Which sentence best summarizes the FIRST THREE paragraphs of the story Gorilla Mountain?

• Unlike most other days, Nyota gets to travel far from her home with her father.

• For the first time, Nyota is going with her father to observe the gorillas that he has been hired to protect.

• Nyota is going to where her father works for the government protecting gorillas.

• Nyota wakes up prepared to walk with her father into the green mountains to see what he does for a job.