Sentence Structures for Summarizing

Building academic language

Word

• Use vocabulary cards to introduce the definitions for the words summary and main idea.
• Tell students that they will be studying some keywords that will help them write summaries.
• Hand out the worksheet Summarizing with Key Words.
• Read the definitions for each of the five terms in section one ("somebody," "wanted," "but," "so," "then"). Then, model the activity by drawing a picture for the first word, "somebody" (e.g., a person).
• Instruct students to work with a partner to come up with pictures or symbols that will help them remember the remaining four terms.
• Invite students to share their drawings with the class.

Sentence

• Tell students that they will be studying sentence structures with specific keywords that will help them summarize stories.
• Review the directions for the second section of the Summarizing with Key Words worksheet. Instruct students to complete the worksheet with a partner.
• Call on volunteers to read their completed sentence frames aloud.
• Ask students to share the strategies they used to determine which part of the story matched with each keyword. Provide a sentence frame for students to use during the discussion (e.g., "I could tell that the keyword ____ matched with ____ because ____.").
• Support students in understanding that they must sometimes change the wording of a text to fit into the sentence frames (e.g., "he hoped" should change to "he wanted"). Explain that, in a text, the keywords will not always be present, so students will have to paraphrase or write the summary in their own words.
• Remind students that when put together these sentences form a short summary that tells about the main idea of the story.

Discourse

• Hand out the worksheet Hot Cross Buns: Read to Remember. Review the directions and read the story aloud to students as they follow along.
• Tell students to talk with a partner and identify the main idea of the story so that they can complete the organizer.
• Write a paragraph frame on the board that reads: "____ wanted ____, but ____. So, ____. Then, ____."
• Have students fill out the paragraph frame independently in the section labeled "Summary." Then, allow them to discuss their answers with their partner before calling on a volunteer to read their paragraph aloud.