Summarize Information

A summary is a short statement that gives the main ideas of a selection. It does not include all of the details as in a retelling. The essence is that it is brief; it focuses on key ideas of the text. Readers condense information into a summary of key ideas to reveal their level of comprehension. In order to summarize a text, readers filter out less significant or repetitious details, identify a general term for a list of specific details, combine ideas into a broad category, and create a sentence that reveals the key focus.

Guiding Questions:

  • What do you think is the BIG IDEA of this article? Of this paragraph?
  • What two words would you use to describe the “gist” of the text?
  • When students read, they think about what most of the sentences are describing. Is there one sentence that describes the main idea for this topic?
  • What was the focus of this reading selection?
  • How can you condense the information described in this article using key ideas?
  • Which details were most significant? Which details were less significant?