Learning Center
reading
Summarize texts by creating Found Poems
December 18, 2013
Common Core Reading Standard #2 references students’ abilities to summarize a text’s main ideas and details. However, evidence of this standard doesn’t have to be revealed in a traditional after-reading summary. Teach students to craft Found Poems.
A Found Poem is created when students comb through the text a second time and locate words and phrases that sum up the story. Determining important from unimportant information, students select which words and phrases best tell the tale. Check out these examples.
- Found Poem generated from Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late.
- Found Poem generated from Frindle.
Found Poems provide a creative way to assess comprehension and summarization. This same strategy can be applied to informational text. Students decide which words best capture the main idea of the original passage.
- Found Poem generated from Animals in Camouflage.
- Found Poem generated from Fingerprint Wizards.