Summarization: Why and How

Mary RoberdsELA ISS

AMS Improvement PlanGoal 1: By June 2015, Antilles Middle School will increase the percentage of students scoring “at or above standard” on TerraNova and local assessments by 5% in reading comprehension.

Measurable Objective 1: A 5% increase of All Students will demonstrate a proficiency in comprehension in Reading by 06/01/2015 as measured by TerraNova and local assessments.

Strategy 1:Summarizing – Antilles Middle School will use summarizing strategies to analyze text, identify main idea and supporting details, and improve reading comprehension.

Definition

• A summary is a short restatement of the most important ideas in a text

Why summarize?

• For students in grades 3-12, writing summaries about text showed a consistently positive impact on reading (.33 average weighted effect size for middle and high school students; .79 weighted effect size for elementary students) Reading to Write, 2010

• Across 17 experimental/ control studies that teachers conducted, we found that using summarizing strategies, on average, increased students' understanding of content by 19 percentile points (see Haystead & Marzano, 2009).

DoDEA and CCSS

DoDEA ELA Standards Common Core State Standards

5E2b.6, 6E2b.7, 7E2b.4, 8E2b.7Write summaries of reading materials that:Include the main ideas and most significant details.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2

Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

Teach the Strategy

• “…teaching adolescents to summarize text had a consistent, strong, positive effect on their ability to write good summaries.” (see Writing Next, 2007)

Summary Strategy

1. Divide the selection into sections2. For each section:

a. Highlight or underline the most important information in the text. Note important words and ideas.• Delete trivial information and redundancies.

b. Write 2-3 big ideas that you would include in a summary of the text.• Use your own words as much as possible

3. Write a 2-3 sentence summary of the text. Include important ideas from all sections.

Model Strategy ---- Guide StudentsSection Notes (important words and main ideas)

Summary Statements(2-3 big ideas per section)

Summary StatementWrite a 2-3 sentence summary of the text.

RubricAdvanced Proficient Partially Proficient Unsatisfactory

ImportantInformation

Clear, complete representation of essential information from text.

Some essential information included; may be missing one important detail.

Partial but incomplete information. Some important points missing.

Information does not connect to the original passage.

Unimportant Information

Includes no unimportant information or details. Focuses only on the main points.

Includes little unimportant information or details.

Unimportant details included but do not interfere with important information.

Includes information in the original passage or that is disconnected from original.

Use of Own Words

Effectively paraphrased or in writer’s own words throughout summary.

Occasionally uses phrasing from text but mostly in writer’s own words.

Several instances of direct copying from original text. Some paraphrasing.

No attempt to write in own words. Copied from original text.

Writing Conventions

Well-structured with no errors in sentences or mechanics.

Clear structure with minimal errors in sentences and mechanics.

Errors evident but only minimally distracting to the reader.

Serious convention errors that render writing incoherent.

Comments: ____________________________________________________________

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Independent Practice

• Tips– Underline only those ideas that seem most

important– Cross out details that repeat information– Use your own words as much as possible– Replace big word groups with a few words that

stand for the whole group