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3 Reading Strategies to Help Students Summarize Nonfiction Text

Summarizing nonfiction.

This might be one of the most challenging reading skills/standards that we have to teach our students. I know when I was in the classroom I always dreaded the part of our nonfiction unit when it came time to learn how to summarize nonfiction texts.

My students loved reading nonfiction and for the most part we did great with identifying text features and figuring out the main idea and they were rockstars at asking questions and figuring out the text structure.

But summarizing nonfiction?

That was a challenge.

I never really LOVED teaching nonfiction.

And I think part of the reason why it was challenging for my students is because summarizing in general is a very higher level skill and it requires A LOT from students.

In order for students to successfully summarize, they need to be able to determine importance, synthesize ideas, understand the author’s purpose, Identify the main idea and key details … just to name a few.

But then they also have to be able to write a summary, which means they need to be able to write in complete sentences, they need to be able to paraphrase, they need be concise in their writing and they need to be able to write a summary in a way that makes sense with the text.

So if you have ever felt like teaching students to summarize nonfiction is challenging, you’re not alone. It definitely is.

But there are also things that we can do to help our students experience success when it comes to summarizing nonfiction and today I want to share with you 3 strategies that will help you teach nonfiction summary to your students.

Characteristics of a nonfiction summary:

Now before I actually teach my students strategies that will help them summarize nonfiction texts, I like to teach them what a summary is (and what it isn’t) and make sure they they understand the end goal when they are asked to summarize a nonfiction text.

One of the ways I do this is by teaching them the attributes or characteristics of a nonfiction summary. That way they know that no matter WHAT strategy they choose to use, they have a pretty solid understanding of what their summary should look like.

Here are the six things that I tell my students to keep in mind when writing a nonfiction summary.

• Keep it short (summaries should be around around 4-5 sentences). 
• Clearly state the main idea of the text.
• Only include a few of the most important details.
• Make sure you consider the author’s purpose.
• Your summary should mirror the structure (organization) of the text.
• Use your own words when writing a summary.

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Now, let’s talk strategies!

Strategy 1: tamko.

With this strategy, each letter stands for a different element of the summary. I kind of compare it to the nonfiction version of the SWBST strategy. In reality, it’s just a bunch of random letters, but when you teach it to students it gives them a specific formula that will help them summarize nonfiction.

I really like teaching this strategy to students because it helps them craft the first introductory sentence for their summary. And I have found that very first sentence can be one of the hardest ones to write. If students know how to start their summary, it will be a lot easier for them to finish.

So let’s breakdown what T-A-M-K-O stands for:

• The very first thing you want students to do is state the title of the text and explain the type of text it is.
• Example: In the book Kids vs. Plastic…
• In the example you can see that students write the title (Kids vs. Plastic) and they explain it’s an actual book.
• In the article ___________
• After reading the passage ____________
• In the magazine ___________
• On the website ____________
• The next thing students will do is name the author and the verb that describes the purpose for writing.
• Example: … Julie Beers explains…
• This is a continuation of the first sentence.
• Sometimes the author’s name isn’t always give so students can just say “the author”.
• The author describes
• Mr. Jackson shares his opinion
• Emily Clarkson informs her readers
• The last thing students will do to write their introductory sentence is state the main idea or the main topic of the text (whatever makes the most sense in their sentence).
• Example: …the negative impact plastic has on the environment.
• It’s important that students realize the TAM form a complete sentence so the topic needs to be written in a way that will make the sentence complete.
• Sometimes it will be one or two words and other times it will be a longer more descriptive phrase.

This is how their summary would begin using TAM.

In the book Kids vs. Plastic, Julie Beers explains the negative impact plastic has on the environment.

I have found that giving kids this formula to help them get started with their summary can be really helpful and effective.

The next two letters of the TAMKO strategy are a little less formulaic and provide general guidelines/reminders for students to keep in mind when summarizing.

• The next thing students need to do is include 2-3 key details that support their introductory sentence.
• If the author is describing, then they should find 2-3 details that help describe the topic.
• If the author is explaining, then they should find 2-3 details that explain the process or steps or problem and solution the author is highlighting.
• If the author is trying to persuade the reader, then they should find 2-3 of the most persuasive details the author included in the text.
• This step can be a little bit challenging for students, but I think it’s important to let students feel empowered in their ability to select relevant details to include in their summaries.
• Remind students to organize their summary in the same way as the author organized the text.
• This one is really helpful and can guide the rest of their summary.
• If students can identify the text structure the author used to write the text, then they can organize and set up their summary in the same way.

Summarizing can often feel feel really overwhelming for students, especially if they aren’t good writers or if they lack confidence in their reading comprehension, but with this strategy, you are making summarizing almost fool-proof. Students are given the exact words and framework to help them begin their summary.

And anytime we can help kids feel more confident in their reading the better.

Strategy #2: Asking the 5W and H Questions  

This strategy can be easy for students to use because it connects to something students already know how to do… and that is asking the 5W + H questions.

More than likely, if you are an upper elementary reading teacher, then your students at some point have been exposed to the idea of asking the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how for the text they are reading.

And there is so much benefit to being able to connect a reading strategy to something students already know how to do. Basically with this strategy you are teaching students to ask specific 5W + H questions for the nonfiction text and then using their answers to help them summarize a nonfiction text.

So you could teach this strategy at the most basic level and that would look something like this:

Give your students the following questions to ask and answer for the nonfiction text they are reading:

• Who is the text about?
• What events are happening (to the person) in the text?
• When did the events take place?
• Where does the event in the text take place?
• Why is this event important?
• How did this event happen?

But sometimes these typical who, what, when, where, why questions don’t match up with EVERY single text. For example, not every nonfiction text you give your students will have a WHO has the subject or they might not mention a specific location.

The good news is that these questions can still help students summarize nonfiction. But instead of teaching students specific questions, you just want to teach them the question stems and let them customize the questions based on the text they are reading.

So here some different questions your students could ask for each of the stems:

• Who wrote the text?
• Who is the intended audience for the text?
• Who is impacted by the problem in the text?
• What happens in the text?
• What topic is the author writing about?
• What details does the author include?
• What lesson is the author trying to teach?
• When was this text written?
• When did the problem become discovered?
• Where does this event take place?
• Where is the author from?
• Why is this event/person/topic signifiant?
• Why did the author write this text?
• Why is this topic important to read about?
• How did the author organize the information in the text?
• How do these details connect to my personal life?
• How did this event take place?
• How does the author suggest we solve the problem?

So remember that the goal is not just for students to ask and answer the basic or first who, what, when, where, why, and how question that comes to mind, but to critically think about the types of questions they are asking and then use their answers to help them craft a summary.

If students are actively asking and answering questions (and using these 5W +H stems) they will discover all the key details that will help them summarize the main points of the text.

Strategy #3 – Text Structure Summary

This one should be no surprise to y’all since you know I’m such a fan of teaching students how to identify and understand nonfiction text structure. 

Nonfiction text structure can give students a road map that will not only help students understand the text, but it can also give them a framework that will help them summarize the text.

Nonfiction summaries should mirror the structure of the text… and if we clearly explain that to our students, they have just one more strategy in their toolbox that will help them summarize nonfiction text.

When I’m teaching students to summarize nonfiction using the text structure, I have them think about their summary in three parts:

• In the beginning of their summary, they want to state the main topic of the text (which should also hint at the text structure)
• Example 1: In this text, the author shares the similarities and differences between crocodiles and alligators.
• Example 2: Pollution in the ocean is becoming a huge problem , but a group of students from New York have come up with a creative solution .
• As you can see in both of those examples, the organizational structure is mentioned.
• In the middle of their summary, students should include 2-3 details from the text. 
• And the important thing to keep in mind is that they should share them in the same way the author organized the text.
• So if you go back to Example 1 , if it is a compare and contrast text on crocodiles and alligators, then their summary might includes the most significant similarity and the most significant difference between the two animals.
• If you go back to Example 2 , if it is a problem and solution text on ocean pollution, then their summary might include 1-2 sentences that state the problem and 1-2 sentences that explain the solution presented in the text.
• And then finally, you want to teach students to end their summary with a concluding statement that will reiterate the main idea and text structure. It will be very similar to their introduction.
• Example 1: So while there are many similarities between alligators and crododiles, this text also highlights their differences.
• Example 2: The students from New York are making a big impact on a global problem with their creative solution to ocean pollution.

Now this strategy is a lot more open-ended then the TAMKO strategy, but I think it’s important to teach students a wide range of strategies. Some of your students will gravitate towards the structure of TAMKO and others will like the flexibility of a text structure summary.

I like teaching an open-ended approach like the text structure summary strategy because then your students can make it work for almost any text…. Sometimes when we teach a very scripted formula like TAMKO, it can be hard for students to apply that to a text that doesn’t meet all the criteria. 

For example, if you only teach the TAMKO strategy, but students are reading a text that doesn’t include the author’s name or maybe it doesn’t have a specific title, students might struggle to adapt that strategy to summarize the text…. But with a strategy that is a little more open-ended like teaching them how to summarize using text structure, they have options to use when it comes to their independent reading. 

Your Next Steps:

Ok, now that you have three strategies to help you teach nonfiction summary, I’m curious which one will you start with. Remember, with any strategy you teach your students, the goal isn’t for them to MASTER a specific strategy. The goal is for them to understand the text and feel confident in their ability to apply a specific reading skill – in this case summarizing the text.

Hopefully one (or more) of these strategies will help.

Before you go, be sure to grab your free Nonfiction Summary Checklist (below) and if you’re looking for more strategies and resources to help you teach nonfiction summary, check out this bundle of resources on TPT .

Happy Teaching!

Small Group Lesson – Inferring Character Traits

Are you ready to get started with small group lessons, but not exactly sure what to do with your students once you get them to your small group table? I’ve been there. One of the things that helped me with my small group lessons was having a super simple framework that I could use for my small group lessons no matter the level of my students or the focus for our lesson.

When it comes to teaching small groups, I like to use what I call the 4T Model: Target, Teach, Tackle, Transfer.

👇 Grab this free download to learn more about how you can use the 4T Model with your small groups.

In this free download, you’ll get: • A teacher guide to explain the 4T model • Lesson plan template + sentence starts • Sample lesson + materials for inferring character traits

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3rd grade reading & vocabulary

Course: 3rd grade reading & vocabulary   >   unit 1, summarizing nonfiction | reading.

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Video transcript

• Strategies for Teaching Nonfiction Summary Writing

Before jumping into  summarizing nonfiction  there are a few lessons that I teach prior to writing nonfiction summaries . Read on to see how I teach nonfiction summarizing in my classroom, breaking it down into different lessons that help students understand how to summarize informational text.

1. distinguish interesting vs. important.

My students always benefit from lessons on distinguishing the difference between interesting and important information. This is critical when they are writing nonfiction summaries . 

Begin by simply discussing the difference between what makes something interesting in the books that they read and what makes something important.

Here is how I explain the difference:

Interesting: Something new that I did not know that piqued my curiosity. 

Important: Something that I read that supports the main idea of the reading.

I go one step further to call students' attention to the N in interesting. That helps us remember that interesting is usually something New to us.  Looking at the word important, I call attention to the M. That reminds us that it supports the Main idea. This simple trick makes a huge impact on students' understanding of interesting and important.

A great book to use for a lesson on determining importance is  Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine .  As we read, we chart information into an Interesting vs Important Tchart. This book and activity helps students distinguish the difference, and improve their summary writing as they focus on only the important information.

2. Connect Summarizing with Main Idea...Start with Oral Summaries

TSMIDS simply stands for  topic sentence, main idea, and details that support.

I use this frame to show students how to write a quick summary. This is a good format to use when students are discussing sections of a nonfiction book or article. This is also perfect for students to summarize  what is going on within their book when you meet with them for reader’s workshop group time and conferencing. Once students master this format, I expect them to add more to their summaries.

3. Model Summary Writing with Mentor Texts

When introducing summaries, I like to use informational books or articles that we previously read . I model summary writing with a book that we have already read in class or even informational magazines like Time for Kids . Since we read the Moon Book during our science unit it is a great one for us to revisit as readers who are writing summaries.

Teacher tip: Be sure to grab the free resources above to grab the modeled example for a nonfiction summary using the Moon Book.

Once I have modeled my expectations, we write a few nonfiction summaries together, again using books that we have already read as a class. I like to use books and articles that we have already read because I know students already understand the main idea in the books that we have read and discussed as a class. This allows them to focus on writing a summary with important information, rather than reading the book for understanding.

Informational texts and authors that I like to use that have been previously read include:

• Time For Kids magazine (also online articles from TFK)
• Anything written by Gail Gibbons or Seymour Simon
• National Geographic Book Series
• Rookie Readers
• I Can Read (highest level readers)
• Let’s Read and Find Out Series

4. Practice, Practice, Practice

You might be interested in reading:

4 ways to help students successfully summarize 4 quick tips for differentiating summarizing instruction nonfiction teaching ideas and activities to hook readers what are effective reading strategies, looking for more reading activities that will make a big impact in your classroom click the  here ..

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4 Steps to Teach Students When Summarizing Nonfiction Text

When you try to teach your students how to summarize a text, do you suddenly feel like you are speaking a foreign language and they just have no clue what you are telling them to do?

You aren’t alone-summarizing is actually one of the most difficult concepts to teach in writing, especially in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.

Now make it a nonfiction text instead of fiction and it can feel like it’s our end game (Taylor Swift pun intended) .

Don’t worry! We’ve got your back and are going to share 4 simple steps to teach students when summarizing nonfiction text.

Let’s dive right in!

Characteristics of a Nonfiction or Informational Summary

A summary is a simple overview or outline of what the text is about.

As we said, summarizing an informational or nonfiction text can be really difficult for students.

Why is that exactly?

Let’s think about all of the steps for writing a summary:

• Students need to be able to identify important ideas in the text including the author’s purpose.
• They also need to identify the main idea and supporting details .
• In order to write a summary, they actually have to be able to write complete sentences and have their ideas make sense.
• Finally, they are supposed to paraphrase what they learned in their own words and not copy the ideas verbatim from the text.

Look at all of the intense writing skills that make up the art of summarizing! It’s probably a good thing that we don’t teach this skill until upper elementary!

If your students are already struggling to write complete sentences or just find the main idea of a passage, they are absolutely going to need some major hand-holding when writing a summary for a nonfiction text.

How to Teach Summarizing a Nonfiction Text in 4 Simple Steps

Now that we have looked at all of the characteristics and skills that writers need to have to be able to summarize, let’s start summarizing!

Here are 4 simple steps for how to teach your students to summarize:

Step 1: Read the Text

Obviously this seems simple but it’s more than that. Teach students to slowly read each paragraph. In addition, have them look at all of the text features including the title, pictures and captions.

Step 2: Underline Keywords

After reading the nonfiction text carefully, have students take a highliter or colored pencil and underline the most important words. Explain the importance of picking information that supports the main idea.

Step 3: Figure Out the Main Idea

Now, have students use these keywords that they just underlined to help them understand the author’s purpose and the point they are trying to make. They should be able to understand the main idea of the text this way. We encourage students to do this for each part of the text.

Step 4: Write the Summary (Use the TAMS Method)

Finally, teach students to use their own words when summarizing and not directly copy from the text. It is also important to remind them that when they summarize they are not stating their opinion. They have to use real facts from the text.

Use the TAMS method when teaching students to summarize. Once you teach students this method, you will not continue to get summaries turned in that are simply words just copied straight out of the text or full of students’ opinions. We teach students that summaries should be short and be about 4 to 5 sentences total.

Here’s the TAMS method and how we teach students to write a well-written summary of a nonfiction text:

Start by stating what type of text it is in the summary.

For example: is it a passage, article, recipe, etc?

A- Action & About

Then teach students to add purpose into the summary to state what the nonfiction text is about.

For example: This recipe (text) describes ( action) how to make blueberry pancakes ( about) .

M- Main Idea

Next, have students state one main that they learned from the nonfiction text.

S- Supporting Detail

Teach them to back up their main idea as we always do with a supporting detail from the text in their summary. We teach them to write 2-3 supporting detail sentences in there summary, keeping the summary no more than 5 sentence total.

Using this simple strategy for writing a summary of a nonfiction text is a total game changer! Use the Summarizing Nonfiction Text Worksheets Graphic Organizers Practice Activities with your students and we can pretty much promise they will become total experts at summarizing!

This resource explains the TAMS strategy in much more detail and contains tons of practice activities with easy to follow steps to hep students write a summary.

Summarizing Nonfiction Text Graphic Organizer & Anchor Charts

You can find everything that you need to teach students how to summarize informational or nonfiction texts in the Summarizing Nonfiction Text Activities.

It includes:

• Anchor charts
• Graphic organizers
• 1 entire month of summarizing low-prep activities
• Differentiated options for ESL learners or students in special education
• High-interest text that is engaging for students

and so much MORE!

What other tips do you have for teaching your students strategies for summarizing a nonfiction text?

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How to Summarize Nonfiction Texts: A Lesson Plan

Looking for a memorable way to teach students to summarize nonfiction texts? Try this alternative strategy in your middle or high school classroom as a means of differentiation or scaffolding for struggling readers.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to teach students to summarize fictional texts? They seem to catch on so quickly! Maybe it’s because the plot guides the summary, and all of the parts of the story work together sensibly. Exposition. Rising Action. Climax. Falling Action. Resolution . Streamlined, right?

If only nonfiction was equally as straightforward! Unfortunately, I’m not going to tell you there’s a secret formula that will magically transform nonfiction summarizing skills, but I do have some concrete, useful ideas and strategies to help reduce both student and teacher frustration.

One of the reasons I love teaching summarizing is because I know how important it is for skillful comprehension…not only in English class but in all subject areas. If your students can give you the main ideas and most important supporting details of a text in an accurate and objective manner, they are well on their way to being masters of cognition.

So, how can we do that? Here are a few tips to simplify your instruction and help students summarize nonfiction , non-narrative texts:

Start by picking high-interest texts.

Believe me,   I know how tempting it is to select a text about the deliciousness of coffee because of your love affair with it (…or maybe that’s mine), but resist the urge! Research says that if kids don’t care about the text, they will most likely not invest themselves in it. One of my go-to sources is Common Lit because it offers a variety of reading levels and provides other useful teacher resources. My students also really enjoy Scholastic Scope  and  Upfront magazines.

Lead with direct instruction. 

While people possess differing opinions on the value of direct instruction, I have seen its benefit when introducing new information. Keep it short, but give an overview of the down and dirty tips you expect your peeps to remember. Of course, include students in conversation during the mini lesson. Make them take notes. They’ll thank you later!

Model, model, and then model again.

Students need to see you working your mojo. Select a short text. Read it or watch it together (students love visual texts). Then, do a think-aloud while you model some brainstorming and writing up on the board. Students generally want to get involved in this process. Let them! If you are uncomfortable with writing on your feet, prepare something in advance and act like you are doing it on the spot. Don’t worry; they’ll never know the difference. What’s important is that they see the internal thought process played out aloud.

Scaffold. I do, we do, you do.

My goal is always to scaffold from direct instruction to guided practice to independent work. After you model, practice as many times as you deem necessary with the class. Modeling with a memorable strategy (I use Be a reporter! ) helps students understand what they need to do.

Write a summary together, put them in small groups, let them complete a think-pair-share summary for a different text, and then finally, throw those baby birds out of the nest and see if they fly or splat on the ground. If they come up looking at a “Snort” and think it’s their mother, it’s time to put them back in the nest for more guided practice.

Chunk your instruction. 

As with any effectively taught lesson, students need breaks. I try to chunk my instruction into three different parts in a forty-five minute period. If I have an activity that takes longer than 20 minutes, I use brain breaks periodically throughout the lesson. Even having students get up and grab a piece of paper from across the room helps get their blood flowing, increases their energy levels, and improves their focus.

What does this look like with summarizing? Maybe read a text, then have them discuss it with a partner or small group. Manipulatives and sorts provide brain-based approaches to learning how to write nonfiction summaries objectively as well. Following, they could share ideas with the whole class or via musical discussions. 

Obviously, you’re assessing how students summarize nonfiction throughout the entire process by asking questions, checking their written ideas, and listening to their conversations. Still, I like to do a formal assessment at the end of the unit, in which I include two things: 1) questions about the process of summarizing nonfiction (like, List three different elements to include in a nonfiction summary.) , and 2) a written portion where students read a nonfiction text and write a summary on their own – sans help! At this point, I would expect them to demonstrate proficiency.

And, voila! As they say, keep it simple.

When teaching students to summarize nonfiction, remember that answers will vary. What you’re really looking for is whether or not students can read a nonfiction text and then provide you with the main ideas and most important supporting details in a clear, objective, intelligent manner. Give students praise for everything they do well, and they’ll have more fun along the way.

RELATED RESOURCE:

These summarizing nonfiction text  teaching materials will provide you with everything you need to tackle the tips above. I use them at the ninth grade level with all levels: co-taught through enriched, but they would be appropriate for middle school or older high school students who struggle with reading comprehension.

15 Comments

Oh, I haven’t heard of Curriculet! I will check that out for sure! I LOVE reading and teaching nonfiction, so thank you for this post!

Yes, do! It has great teacher resources and levels texts for students’ reading abilities.

Hah! I could read your writing all day long – “Model like Cindy Crawford,” “throw those baby birds out of the nest” etc. LOVE IT!

Thanks so much for sharing these amazing tips.

Very kind of you…thanks so much for reading!

Thank you for sharing your steps for teaching summarizing in non-fiction texts. I follow a very similar method in my own classroom and have seen tremendous results from it as well. You hit the nail on the head when you said that this is a skill that is critical because it transfers to all other subject areas. I definitely think that this is blog post that all ELA teachers need to see!

Thanks for the validation!

Great tips! I especially support use of high interest non-fiction texts. I’ll have to look at your links. One topic that has never failed to interest my students is Criminals (think Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde). The old articles and sources I’ve used are often challenging because of the old writing, but they dive in because the subject catches their attention!

Thanks for the idea for criminal topics…I haven’t tried that, but I’m sure my students would also find it fascinating.

Such a well written explanation of GOOD teaching. Your student are lucky to have you. I too am a reading recovery teacher and summarizing is paramount. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for your kind words!

I agree with Kim! Looks like a lot of good teaching is happening in your classroom.

You’re hilarious – model like Cindy Crawford. I might say that to my students. Thanks for all the ideas – and I agree – providing examples reduces frustration all around.

You’ve got some great tips compiled here! Thank you for sharing.

This is so thorough! Thanks for the great ideas. As simple as it seems to us, summarizing nonfiction can be challenging for many students. I loved the comment about coffee texts…”Believe me, I know how tempting it is to select a text about the deliciousness of coffee because of your love affair with it (…or maybe that’s mine), but resist the urge!” I can identify with your love for coffee, and I wholeheartedly agree that interest is oftentimes the #1 factor in texting nonfiction texts!

I love the structure for your lessons! I can imagine the fun if you actually put up a picture of Cindy Crawford while you were “modeling”! 🙂

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Summarizing fiction texts simplified.

Seems simple, RIGHT? Read a chapter, write a summary…

Our students see this a lot, whether it be on our reading assessments, in our own classroom work, or on our state assessments.

Bottom line, we want our kids to be proficient (and feel confident) in taking out the important elements from a piece of text, both fiction and non-fiction. We want our zealous little readers to be able to get at the heart of the matter when writing summaries, and we want them to be able to do it in as few words as possible.

Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that our students need to be taught “HOW” to break down a larger piece of text into a short, brief, to the point summary.

Obviously, since the whole problem-solution narrative format tends to be the easiest, I figured this would be a great place to start.

Lastly, we agreed on the solution to the problem or the outcome as the Then .

In addition to practicing with the above mentor texts, we also practiced with differentiated passages from my Summarizing: Differentiated Reading Passages and Questions found HERE .

Having differentiated passages ready to go at three different levels has been so helpful to master this skill.

I got a few, THAT’S IT? and WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE! comments. I was cracking up. Unfortunately, my friends, this is just the beginning.

Questions I asked my readers today: What happens when the author does not use the format of problem-solution? What about when an author doesn’t present the information in the exact order that the graphic organizer is laid out? What happens when the author doesn’t come out and neatly provide the reader with any of the above information but instead uses figurative language or forces the reader to infer things like problems and solutions?

The above questions will be our next feat to tackle! But, until then, we are practicing, practicing, and practicing some more!

These resources are now digital! Use them as a part of your digital or distance learning.

What are some tips and tricks you use for teaching higher level summary writing and non-fiction summary writing?

In addition to using the Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then strategy, I also guide students to dig a bit deeper with their reading in my Summarizing: Differentiated Reading Passages and Questions . The goal of this resource is to help students sharpen their ability to summarize. It provides students with a practical process that initially guides them to relevant information from the text using the Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then strategy in a graphic organizer. I also ask them to read a summary and identify different issues (irrelevant details, opinions, not enough information, retelling events out of order, etc.) Once students progress through this resource and become familiar with the summary-writing process, I remove the use of a graphic organizer and ask them to write their own summaries. Additionally, they are asked to make increasingly-detailed critiques of other summaries to identify issues and explain how to improve the summary. You can see the entire resource by clicking HERE or the button below.

This resource is now included in a large bundle with over 300 differentiated passages. Click HERE or the button below to check it out!

This bundle includes 20 total resources – 10 Informational Text and 10 Fiction Differentiated Passages and Questions. Click HERE or the button below.

61 Comments

This is a great post! You are a fabulous blogger! You should see about publishing your ideas. You really have a way with words.

I also teach my kids the SWBST strategy but we also add a Finally onto it to sum up the story in one more final way.

For non-fiction, I teach my kids to find key words then turn the key words into a summary.

Jennifer Teaching to Inspire in 5th

I use the same format as well, but I added a ‘finally’ to help my kids wrap up their thinking. I like to use picture books that I’ve read to them to do as a whole class lesson…I think they remember those the best!

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:) Kaitlyn Smiles and Sunshine

I use a graphic organizer, but I think I like this one better! We also use stickies. We do a lot of summarizing in our responses to text :)

Thanks for your comments ladies, and for reading my blog!

I do like the “finally” idea and was thinking about adding this element in this week since my kids feel confident with what we’ve done thus far!

@Kristen- I should own a percentage of Post-Its since I use them so much. ;)

The coordinate mystery pictures are on the way!

I think the key is doing it over and over, starting with smaller picture type books and then expanding into chapter books. Lots of modeling!

tokyoshoes (at) hotmail (dot) com

I just found that summarizing organizer last week and I LOVE it!! It’s so helpful for my students, plus it allows them to start writing independently without saying “I don’t know what to wriiiiite” (can you hear that voice in your head? lol) I love the chart you made to go with it! I may do that this week! =)

Ashley The Resource Room Teacher I’m having a linky party!

Thanks so much for your comments ladies! You’re right about going slow and modeling Suzy! It has gone VERY slow, but I am so happy I took so much time to model it with my kids, because it’s paying off!

@Ashley- I can totally hear it! ;) Isn’t this graphic organizer the best? Thank you for your comment!

Wow! It’s seriously hard to believe that you’re a “young” teacher. You have such great ideas… I don’t think you need many tips or tricks! =) I absolutely love this way of summarizing!It makes it a lot easier for them to understand. My kids struggle with taking this type of organizer and then writing the summary. They are a few years younger than yours though, so I don’t feel so bad. I’ll just keep modeling, modeling, modeling. =) Keep up the amazing work! -Jackie- Sister Teachers

I teach summarizing A LOT to my kiddos and really appreciate your thorough and informative post. I will definitely be trying these ideas.

The REAL Teachers of Orange County

@Jackie- That is the sweetest thing. I AM a young teacher (well…4th year now!) I appreciate your kind comments, they mean so much! My kids struggled SO much too in the beginning, but when I kept modeling and practicing with them day after day we had some MAJOR breakthroughs!

@RealOCteachers- THANK YOU! I teach it a lot as well. It really is a super important skill to have (though not always the easiest to teach!)

I had good luck teaching summary by having students find the 5Ws and H (who, [did] what, where, when, why, how).

I had much better luck when it became who, [wanted] what, where, when, why and how. The _wanted_ (as you have it) is critical to getting at the character’s internal characteristics.

Teaching summary really gets students to the heart of a story :).

So I’ve never used this format to teach summary writing, but I think all that will soon have to change. We usually spend time making flow maps and plot charts of the story to work on summarizing, but they do have trouble with pulling out unimportant details. Thanks for sharing this!

Kristine–We are living parallel lives (sort of). We’re finishing up informational summarization and moving back into fiction, however. I won’t lie–it was tricky! The 5th grade CCSS of finding more than one main idea & summarizing is open to all sorts of interpretation. It was good, but HARD. I am beyond thrilled to be returning to the familiar strategy you mention, and even more thrilled to see your example with Among the Hidden! I read it to my kids every year, and we refer back to it all year long. Thanks for sharing your chapter summarization work.

We are preparing for DRA two assessments also. I also use the somebody, wanted, but, so, then, strategy. I swear by it! It helps the kids Get to the heart/Lesson learned of the story so much better than a listing of important events. Thanks for sharing your anchor charts! They are always super cute!

This is great! I just found your blog, and am glad I did! I am currently teaching resource room (mostly push-in, co-teaching) and it is amazing how many of the intermediates (4-6) cannot write a summary!

I will put this item in my wish list because here in Colombia teachers don´t teach how to sumarize. I´ts incredible that you will find college students who doesn´t know how to make a summary. We need to change that. Thanks!

Oxana Teacher’s clipart blog

I have been looking for something to help my kids grasp summarizing and this is perfect! Thanks so much. I can’t stop buying your stuff at the TPT store!

Thanks Jenny! That’s so kind of you! I’m so glad it helps! :)

Thanks for the shout out about the graphic organizer! I love using this resource with my students. It helps them keep focused on a summary as opposed to a retelling! Wendy One Happy Teacher

This is my first year teaching and I have a wonderful class of 5th graders. I have been struggling with how to mix up my reading lessons. Having them respond on Post-it’s so that they can fill in a large anchor chart is awesome. Thanks for the great ideas!

Wow! This is an amazing blog! Super interesting, LOVE the set up! Have you thought about joining the yearly EduBlogs Challenge? It gives students and teachers a chance to check out other blogs! Some of the info is on our school blog! (:

I work with UClass, where you can share your lessons with the world. If you want to get these great ideas out there and get paid for them, apply here https://uclass.wufoo.com/forms/uclass-lesson-planner/

This is most helpful. I thought I had a great way of teaching fictional summary writing, but the more I try to clarify it for the students, the more I am struggling to define exactly how they should pick out only the most important information. I was using M+2D where M is the main event or idea and the 2D is two related details. The tricky part in fiction is picking out just one event from a chapter for your M. You could choose one every few pages, or one for the whole chapter. I guess that the fact that it changes relative to the length of the text that you need to summarize makes it difficult. (If I’ve read a 20 page chapter, how do I even start picking just one main event?)

I like the method you outlined here, and I want to play with it more for my own purposes before presenting it to my sixth graders. Thanks!

Hi, I used your graphic organiser today with my Year 5 class- they loved it! It made it so much easier to summarise. the text. Thank you PS You may have noticed by my spelling that I am an Australian teacher from Melbourne. I will be back for more inspiration! :)

Thank you so much! This is great!

This lesson went so well this week! Last year, summarizing was really tough for my kids because I used a different strategy that didn’t help step them through the plot well. This year, I feel like I they produced great fiction summaries the FIRST time around. That’s huge. Thanks!

What a great idea! I am a huge fan of Response to Literature! Did you use all 4 of those mentor texts to teach problem solution?

Amanda- Thanks for your kind words! Sometimes I use all four, and other years I have only used one or two. It really just depends on my class and how much practice they need.

“Questions I asked my readers today: What happens when the author does not use the format of problem-solution? What about when an author doesn’t present the information in the exact order that the graphic organizer is laid out? What happens when the author doesn’t come out and neatly provide the reader with any of the above information but instead uses figurative language or forces the reader to infer things like problems and solutions?”

Do you have any answers for these questions? I love how you laid this out, but I would love some help with when writing gets tricky.

Thank you so much for sharing the Organizer for Summarizing. My daughter loves reading, but dreads writing summaries. I think this will help her easily write them for class assignments. -KG

I’m so glad to hear, Karelli! Thanks for your comments!

Thanks so much, Karelli! I’m so happy to hear it will help her! :)

I’ve been having a hard time using the right strategy for my 1st grader, and was looking for some help online (I knew I couldn’t be the only parent with this problem!). I like the way you’ve outlined getting to the details of the summary, and am going to give this a try next week onward. Thank you!

Thanks so much for your comments, Dee. I hope my strategies help! :)

Do you have a teaching plan/ graphic organizer for non-fiction summary writing? Thank you for all of your guidance in all of your writings!

Hi Jennifer- Thanks for your kind words! Check out this blog post on Reading and Summarizing Nonfiction: https://kristinenannini.com/reading-and-summarizing-nonfiction/ . I hope that helps!

So happy to be here,great website i like the template of a site.Great work done by developer.

Hello Kristine,

I must say, your a saviour :)… I was looking for some cool ideas as how to teach my daughter who is in grade 1 to write a summary in an easy and best way. and there i found your page. perfect. excellent and so damn useful.

Thanks a million…

I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks so much, Tehmina!

I teach first grade, and we are about to start our Reading Fair! (Like a science fair, only with digging into a book, instead of digging into a science experiment.)

The kids will be comparing characters, finding the moral/theme, finding the problem and solution, etc. To get them ready for 2nd grade, I am adding in a summarizing component, and this graphic organizer will be great to aid them in that first attempt!

They’ll finish it up by writing their review/opinion of their book (our writing focus right now!), and then present their posters to the class.

Thanks for creating and sharing this!

My students are able to accomplish this task for a smaller book or a few chapters at a time, like the examples you use with your class. They really struggle when they need to apply it to the whole chapter book. My school requires trimester book reports in which they need to write a 10-15 sentence summary. Any suggestions on applying this skill to a whole chapter book?

if you are novice in writing summaries, you can take a look at this site for a quick guide https://pro-essay-writer.com/blog/book-review.html

Great post. Thanks! I like such informative and useful posts and I also share them with readers at different blogs. For example I found one more interesting article here http://www.summarizing.biz/all-summarizing-strategies/ about effective summarizing strategies and tips. So I believe it is worth reading!

Thank you so much admin is already providing the information to us and here we are sorry permission to share your article may be useful

I really like your ideas and resources. I’m all about finding ways to teach things so that it makes clear sense to the students. So this is fantastic. Thank you and God bless all your efforts and endeavours.

Thank you so much, Carolyn! I appreciate your kind words!

Thank you so much admin is already providing the information to us and here we are sorry permission to share articles may be useful and helpful

i’m late to this party but I am using this idea too and love it. I had my kids use a slides presentation for each of the parts.I prepared it for them and sent it to them on google classroom.They have really caught onto this method, too!

Thank you so much admin is already providing the information and sorry I share articles here may be useful and help

Spasibo! (This means “Thank you” in Russian) I teach in the Russian Immersion program, 5th grade. I love your blogs. I am very grateful for your brilliant ideas that are very clear and engaging. You are an amazing teacher! Thank you!

Hi Olessia- Thanks so much for your kind words! I am so happy to hear that my ideas are able to help you all the way in Russia! :)

this summary guide is amazing! thank you so much!

Thanks so much, Natalie!

I’m a first year teacher and this information is awesome! Thank you!

Thanks so much, Angela! I’m so glad to hear it helped!

Thank you for such useful information. Summarizing is one of those skills that can be very easy for a teacher however can be troublesome for students who have not been appropriately taught how to summarize correctly. For a long time I didn’t educate my seventh and eighth grade students how to condense and summarize paragraphs online . I would simply request that they abridge messages and afterward get distraught at them when they neglected to deliver quality synopses. I wasn’t right in doing this. Presently I generally teaching my students how to write summaries.

Thanks so much for your comments, Eva!

you are a great blogger! thank you so much for your effort. this blog helped me lot with my assignment. keep up the good work. :))

Thank you very useful information admin, and pardon me permission to share articles here may help

It was really a great information thanks for sharing.

Thank you for such useful information. Summarizing is one of those skills that can be very easy for a teacher however can be troublesome for students who have not been appropriately taught how to summarize correctly and greateful article.We have amazing offers and trending deals,discount coupon save your money.

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Teaching Summarizing So Students Actually Understand

Teaching summarizing seems like it should be easy. When 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students summarize, they don’t have to come up with any of their own ideas – all they have to do is briefly tell the most important parts of a book or reading passage that they read.

Sounds pretty easy...but it’s not.

Teachers have all sorts of cute and colorful ideas to teach summarizing strategies. If you search “summarizing” on Pinterest, you’ll see a huge variety of activities and ideas for summarizing fiction and nonfiction text.

There are anchor charts, graphic organizers, the “Somebody Wanted But So Then” method, the SAAC method, the 5 fingered retell, summarizing sentence starters, and more.

With all of these strategies, you would think our upper elementary students would be better at writing summaries.  However, many of these strategies and techniques do not address the root of why students struggle with summarizing.

Why Students Struggle With Summarizing Fiction and Nonfiction Texts

Text to text/self/world connections are not included in a good summary.

Usually, we want students to incorporate what they already know about a topic. We even take time in class to activate prior knowledge, knowing that students will better understand what they have read if they can relate to it.  We want them to make meaningful connections to the text.

But when summarizing, students aren’t supposed to incorporate any additional information – only the information that the author chose to include.

Including and Justifying Your Own Opinion is NOT Included in a Good Summary

Usually, we encourage students to think for themselves. We want students to share their opinions, and to justify that opinion.   We want students to learn how to disagree with an author and learn that authors aren't always right.  We want students to ask meaningful questions.

But when summarizing, students aren’t supposed to have their own opinion – they are simply supposed to explain what the author says and thinks.

A Lot of Interesting Details Are NOT Included in a Good Summary

Usually, we want students to share as many details as possible. How many times have you told a student that they need to add more details, write more, or make it longer? The more details students include, the better – except for in summarizing.

But when summarizing, students are supposed to only include the most important information. Which means students have to have a firm handle on how to find the main idea. No wonder students struggle with summarizing text!

What Makes a Good Summary

There are a lot of different things that make up a good summary - some things that should be included in a summary, and some things that should not be included. I've found that 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students struggle most with these aspects of summarizing fiction and informational texts:

• Summaries should only include information from the passage
• Summaries should not include your opinion
• Summaries should only include the most important information
• Summaries are not copied from the passage

Also, fiction summaries generally should include the problem and solution of a text.

Practicing each of these aspects of summarizing in isolation as mini lessons can help students become better summarizers.  However, just telling upper elementary students what makes up a good summary is not enough.

How to Teach Summarizing - An Important Activity Idea

Since summarizing goes against what students will naturally want to do, we can’t just tell students what makes a good summary and expect that to be enough. Students don’t just need to see examples of good summaries - they also need to see examples of BAD summaries and be able to understand what makes it “bad.”

Before your summarizing lesson, write several different summaries of a reading passage. Make a couple of these summaries deliberately BAD – include a summary that has all sorts of unimportant information, and another summary that includes opinions that aren’t from the text. Make sure you also have one “good” summary.

After reading the passage with your class (or in a small group setting), show students the different summaries. Have the students discuss in small groups or partners which summary is best, and what is wrong with the other summaries. Repeat this activity several times with different reading passages.

Incorporating “bad summaries” into your summary lessons will keep your students from making those same mistakes when they begin writing summaries. Although writing out extra summaries takes extra prep time, it will keep you from having so many frustrated and confused students later in the school year.

A No Prep Option for Your Summarizing Lesson Plans

If you don’t have the extra time to prepare both “good” and “bad” summaries (and what teacher DOES have extra time?), then you might like a no prep option. I have summarizing resources for both fiction and nonfiction texts, or get both of them for a discount. 

These resources provide reading passages with plenty of “bad” summaries and “good” summaries to help your students develop a better understanding of summary writing. The resources are also hands on, with several cut and paste activities and a scavenger hunt.

Or, you can find both the Summarizing Fiction and Summarizing Nonfiction resources at my TPT store.

Want Some Free, No Prep Main Idea Activities?

Awesome hands-on activity. Helps make this concept more concrete for students!

Thank you! I am a newer teacher and this was very insightful.

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Free Printable Summarizing Nonfiction Texts Worksheets for 3rd Grade

Summarizing Nonfiction Texts: Discover a collection of free printable worksheets for Grade 3 Reading & Writing teachers, designed to help students effectively summarize nonfiction texts and enhance their comprehension skills.

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Explore printable Summarizing Nonfiction Texts worksheets for 3rd Grade

Summarizing Nonfiction Texts worksheets for Grade 3 are an essential tool for teachers who want to improve their students' reading and writing skills. These worksheets focus on helping young learners develop strong reading comprehension strategies by teaching them how to effectively summarize the main ideas and supporting details of nonfiction texts. With a variety of engaging topics and formats, these worksheets are designed to make reading fun and accessible for third-grade students. By incorporating these worksheets into their lesson plans, teachers can help students build a solid foundation in reading, which will ultimately lead to success in all areas of learning. Summarizing Nonfiction Texts worksheets for Grade 3 are an invaluable resource for educators looking to enhance their students' reading abilities.

In addition to Summarizing Nonfiction Texts worksheets for Grade 3, Quizizz offers a wide range of resources that can help teachers create interactive and engaging learning experiences for their students. Quizizz is an online platform that allows educators to create quizzes, polls, and other activities to assess student understanding and reinforce key concepts. With its extensive library of pre-made quizzes and the ability to customize content to meet individual needs, Quizizz is an excellent complement to traditional worksheets and other classroom materials. Teachers can use Quizizz to track student progress, identify areas for improvement, and provide targeted support to help students develop strong reading comprehension strategies. By incorporating Quizizz into their teaching toolkit, educators can create a dynamic and effective learning environment that promotes success in reading and writing for their Grade 3 students.

Home » Anchor Charts » 9 Summary Anchor Charts Created By Teachers To Help Your Students Learn

9 Summary Anchor Charts Created By Teachers To Help Your Students Learn

It’s easier to write something longer than something short. We are usually much better at elaborating than getting to the point. This is why summarizing is an important skill for students to learn. You can help them do so with the aid of summary anchor charts.

In this unit, you will learn about using summary anchor charts in the classroom. I have also selected some good, useful examples of charts for you to use or to refer to when you make your own.

The elements that should go into a good summary anchor chart

The point of a summary anchor chart is to indicate to students the steps to take to write a concise version of a text. This means that a good anchor chart must make these very clear.

For all summaries:

• Pick out only the main points.
• Write in your own words.

For a nonfiction text:

• Don’t include extra details and quotes.
• Follow the structure of the text.
• Give the main idea of the text as the first sentence.

For a fiction text, follow the SWBST structure:

• SOMEBODY is involved
• They WANTED something
• BUT something/someone got in the way
• SO this is what they did
• THEN this is what happened

 A really great summary anchor chart will provide space for students to work with an example on the chart itself.

Different ways of using summary anchor charts

Most summary anchor charts use different fonts and colors to identify the steps to take when writing a summary. Students work from this to summarize a text.

You can turn this around, so that the students begin with a text and work on a summary. They can then report about how they worked. Make an anchor chart with the common steps they took. Then, give them a reference anchor chart to compare their list to. This will help the students to see what they can add to, or take away from, their own method of writing a summary.

One of the anchor charts in the post uses an image of a hand to give the students the tips for writing a summary. This is a great approach, which makes the process more organic than putting the steps in a chronological order. Some students do work better with very specific, incremental steps, which are also used in some of the sample anchor charts.

Examples of anchor charts and how to use them

• Summary Tick List By Richard Hillyers

This summary tick list anchor chart is a great way to make sure your students have all the points.

This is an excellent anchor chart to use with any grade. It gives the students a guide to check their own work when they have written the summary. The font and layout look as though they have been taken out of a student’s notebook.

• Summarize Fiction From Crafting Connections

Your students can learn to summarize fiction with this chart.

An anchor chart that is color coordinated and set out in point form is easy for students to read. This is a great resource to act as a template. The red and black points and questions remain constant, while the blue (examples) can change. You can create your own anchor chart with only the points and questions. The students then fill in the examples from the text they are reading.

• Summarize Non-Fiction From With A Mountain View

They can also learn how to summarize non-fiction with this chart. Students will often be expected to summarize a nonfiction text, especially in the higher grades. This anchor chart is a very important resource. You would use it as a reference from which the students can work on their own summaries.

• How To Write A Summary From Teaching Expertise

With this anchor chart, you can teach grade 4s (and other grades) How to write a Summary.

What is valuable about this resource is the integration of an example with the guiding points. This makes it especially useful for students. Techniques have been used to draw attention to the different aspects, such as colors and outlines. You will need to work on different texts with this anchor chart, so that the students learn to apply the points when they work with a nonfiction text.

• Writing A Summary From We Are Teachers

With this anchor chart, your students will learn about writing a summary from an example.

This anchor chart contains the same information as the previous one, but uses a different example. The points don’t stand out dramatically, but they are presented clearly and are easy to read. Being able to replace the example on the actual chart is a great strategy. You can guide your students to create their own basic anchor charts, then apply them to different texts.

• Summary SWBST From Teacher Karma

This anchor chart is absolutely guaranteed to catch the students’ attention, with the superheroes . It uses the SWBST pattern, relating it to the characters so that it almost looks it is telling a story. The font is simple and clear and the students will not struggle to read the points.

• Retell Vs Summary From Think Grow Giggle

Teach your students about Retell vs Summary with this anchor chart. Often students fall into the trap of simply retelling the contents of the text to give what they think are the main points. This anchor chart compares retelling and summarizing, which makes it a valuable resource to teach them the differences between the two.

• Writing Summaries From Teaching With A Mountain View

These two anchor charts give a great strategy for writing summaries.

It is the combination of the two anchor charts that makes this such a useful resource. The first gives instructions about how to write the whole summary. The second chart elaborates on the SAAC statement, which is also an important skill to master. You can rework the details of the examples from individual passages. If you develop your own set of anchor charts, I suggest putting the examples on separate pieces of paper, so that you can stick them on, then replace them as the students work.

• Summarizing Hand From First Grade Buddies

The summarizing hand technique helps your students remember the stages of summarizing.

Resources that teach students to use something close by to remember approaches and rules are very effective. This anchor chart uses the fingers of the hand to teach students to remember the five points of working on a summary. When you create your own, I suggest using a larger font for the questions. Some color would also make the different points stand out.

Summarizing summary anchor charts

The most important thing about summary anchor charts is that they must clearly and concisely state the basic points to follow when summarizing a text. The most effective charts are those that give space for sample and practice texts to be added. This gives the students the information and examples right next to each other.

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Jane B has been in education for 37 years, teaching at all levels of school and at university, with extensive experience in developing educational resources.

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Last Updated on August 24, 2023 by Teach Simple