Comprehension - Summarizing

This week in reading workshop we have been practicing retelling a story or article that we have read.  As a class, we talked about how our summary should include the most important parts (not the very small details).  As readers it is so important to summarize what we are reading to make sure we understand what we are reading. Summarizing means pulling out only the essential elements of a passage, just the main ideas and supporting details (not every small detail) and then we put that information into our own words.

One tool that we can use to help us summarize is:  Who? What? Where? How?  Why?

Who?  Who is the article/book about (people or animals)

What?  What did they do? (What did people or animals do)

Where? Location (specific or general)

How? What was done (by people or animals)

Why?  What is the point or purpose of what was done?  (BIG IDEA)

Yesterday we read the article A Sweet Science.  We began by looking for WHO the article was about (Donna Zeller) then we underlined the information in the text.  We went on to find the WHAT, WHERE, HOW and WHY.  (You can see from the picture below.)

Today in Reading Workshop we used the information that we found during yesterday’s mini-lesson to help us orally summarize the article.  We will continue to practice the skill of summarizing this week!