The Art of Summarizing

This power-packed writing resource accompanied me to Texas this week.  I appreciate how well Aimee summarizes summarizing.   She reminds us in chapter five that summarizing in writing is just as essential as it is in reading.  "Students should have a concise idea of what they are writing" (p.87). As she teaches summarizes as a reading skill, she flips it into a writer's tool for revision.  <Reading and writing reciprocity at its best right here, folks!>


She tells her readers the best way she has learned to help children synthesize information and summarize just about anything is by asking these simple questions:  (And she means SIMPLE!)


Who? (Who is the character?)
Wants what? (What does the character want in the story?)
But? ( What is the problem? What gets in the way of the character getting what she or he wants?)
So? (So, what does the character do to solve the problem?)
Then? (And then what happens?  What's the wrap-up? how does the reader know the character moves on?)

When students write a narrative or piece of fiction, the reader should be able to summarize the story. Students ask themselves the above questions about their work.  The questions they can't answer, based on the stories they wrote, let them know how they must go back and revise their drafts (p. 89).

I can see how following this framework can certainly support teachers with teaching the art of summarizing.  Thank you, Aimee!