Using pictures to jumpstart summary writing
After reading a story or selection in the reading series, many teachers have students retell the story by writing a short summary. Woodburn Elementary second grade teacher Pam Weesner jumpstarts her summary writing with a strategy that targets her visual learners and reluctant writers.
Before reading Nutik, the Wolf Pup, a story in the reading series, Pam gave her students pictures of polar bears. They wrote about what they saw, felt, and knew about polar bears. “I gave each of them a small picture of a polar bear that I’d printed from the computer, and they glued it in their response journals before they started to write. It just helps the reluctant writers get enthused about their writing.”
What a fabulous idea to get kids writing about what they know before reading. You could also use the strategy after reading to prompt a simple summary. Thanks, Pam!
Generate simple summaries rather than regurgitations
Summaries should demonstrate the students’ thinking; they should be more than regurgitations. That said, using a “pyramid” approach (as shown below) gets students to first think about the reading. Then, using the ideas from their pyramids (words and phrases they listed), they draft a simple summary.
