2nd Grade Summarize and Retell Resources

Use the templates to assemble and stage a puppet show based on the story.

Help students build key reading comprehension skills by creating a story map for a book that they read. Students practice retelling, identifying characters, and making connections.

Make sequencing stories more interesting than just beginning, middle, and end! This "handy" graphic organizer can be used with all fiction to help set up a concise but thorough summary using a five finger strategy.

Tuck this chapter summary chart into reading workshop folders to help students keep track of longer chapter books. When they finish the book, have them look back at this to create a whole-book summary!

Stretch student understanding of story sequencing into a summary with this graphic organizer. Students will start by jotting down quick notes to remember each part of the story, then they'll use their notes to write a complete summary of the text.

Help your students retell a simple fictional text using a paragraph frame for support! In this activity, students will read a short story about a family's camping trip and then summarize it by filling in the blanks.

After reading a fable or folktale, students will use this cute graphic organizer to record the most important things that happened in the beginning, middle, and end. Then they'll try their hand at identifying the moral of the story.

The class watched an exciting movie about a castle adventure. But now the students need help recalling the details of the film.

Then what happened? In this activity, students will choose stop and jot sticky notes from different parts of the story to practice their sequencing and summarizing skills as they respond to questions about the literature.

Provide your students support as they work on improving their reading comprehension skills by creating a nonfiction text summary.

Give your students a chance to strengthen their reading comprehension skills by identifying the main topic and supporting details in a nonfiction text.

Use this paragraph frame worksheet to support ELs as they navigate through the process of retelling text using transition words. This template can be used as a scaffold for any fictional text in the classroom!

Help your second graders practice their prediction and summarizing skills.

Summarizing stories has never tasted so good! Students can use this yummy ice cream-themed graphic organizer to form short summaries of fiction they read independently or with the class.

Use this worksheet to have students write or draw about their reading each day.

The "Somebody Wanted But So Then" reading strategy is a great way to help kids identify the key elements of a story. Students will use this easy format to begin summarizing a story of your choice in this fun treasure map-themed worksheet!

Help the Smith family summarize their family vacation with a main idea, details, and a conclusion. Kids will work on reading comprehension and summarizing.

Ask your students to read the story about Ty's birthday, then answer the comprehension questions by retelling main events of the story on the lines provided.

Everyone's heard the story of the ugly duckling, but have you met his new friend, the beastly bird? Help students learn about the importance of transition words when telling a story with this fun tale of outcasts who become fast friends!

Take the monotony out of writing chapter summaries with this fun and creative alternative! Rather than writing out summaries, students will get to create illustrations and captions for major events from each chapter of their book.

Use this glossary with the EL Support Lesson Plan: Summarize a Nonfiction Text.

Read a chapter and write a summary! Help your second graders practice their reading fluency while also improving their summarizing skills.

Get students excited about taking reading notes with this bubbly worksheet! This fun format can be used to jot down quick notes about each chapter in your students’ books, then used as a reference for complete summaries when the time comes.

Use these vocabulary cards with the EL Support Lesson Plan: Summarize a Nonfiction Text.

Keep this organizer handy for your students to keep track of the chapters they've read and look ahead to the next one! Challenge your young readers to take their chapter summaries one step further by having them write out predictions for upcoming chapters

Children will select a chapter book, then make predictions as they progress through the story, in this reading comprehension template.