Teaching 3rd graders the practice of summarizing will be useful not only to the students but also to you as a teacher. It allows you to supervise student's reading comprehension to be sure that they are understanding and retaining the information they are reading. Giving a summary on written materials teaches students to be concise and accurate. A summary is written in your own words and should include all necessary information included in the text that supports the main idea.
Things You'll Need
Short, age appropriate poem, story or article
Writing paper
Pen or pencil
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Instructions
Summing It Up
1
When reading to your students, speak slowly and clearly.
Read selected poem, short story, newspaper article or magazine article aloud to students. Choose something that will capture the students' interest. Be sure to read slowly and use a clear speaking voice.
2
Instruct students to summarize the material by determining the following: who, what, where, why and when. By answering these questions they will acquire the basic summary. The answers should then be used to put together a written summary, using the students' own words.
3
When having students write their summary, limit them to 50 words or less.
Have students write their own summary. Limit the amount of words that can be used to 50 or less. Writing in a short, concise manner teaches children to think and write more clearly.