I just finished teaching elements of fiction, sequencing, and summary. I feel like the kids really gained an understanding of these skills so why not share how I implemented it?!
During the 1st week of school, I read all of these fabulous books with my kids.
Have you heard of books bloggers love? It’s where 12 teachers blog about their favorite monthly read alouds.
Check out the August link up {HERE}
After reading these books we discussed how fictions stories have specific characteristics.
I completed an anchor chart with them while they complete a foldable at the same time.
I really like when the kids are sitting at the carpet (or desks if they prefer) writing in their foldable as I’m filling out the anchor chart. It keeps them engaged and it kills two birds with one stone! 😉
After the kids have had some instruction, it was time to see if they could pick out the elements of fiction in partners. I hardly ever use the basal our school provides except for using the stories inside. It’s a fabulous way to ensure every kids has a book!
Once the kids understood what exactly a fiction text is, we learned that all stories have order. Then it was time for summarizing. Our plan was to front load summary for a week and then explicitly teach it longer in a few weeks. This is how we did that:
*Disclaimer–>This idea was totally thought up by my amazing teammates! I love our collaboration. I wanted to note that this idea was not created by me, but I still implemented it! *
I begin by bringing my kids to the carpet. I told them that I was going to tell them a story.
I told a story that took about 4 minutes. It was SO BORING. I kept talking and talking and the kids were not paying attention (I wanted this to happen!)
THEN, I told the kids the same story but SUMMARIZED my story. I polled the class to ask them which story they liked better. I got a mix of responses. Some liked the first story because it was more detailed while other liked the second because it got straight to the point.
This led me into a great conversation with them about
As with any good lesson, we started by reading A Bad Case of Stripes, because David Shannon loves teachers and writes with teachers in mind. This book is packed with so much content I just want to say—You Da Man, David!
After reading the book, I gave them a long strip of paper. Each long strip had every event that happened in A Bad Case of Stripes. I asked the kids to scratch out events that are not necessary in the story. I asked them to keep only the events that were so important that if they weren’t there, the story would change drastically.
*I didn’t expect the kids to know exactly what to choose, this was more of me wanting them to explore their own understanding of important events in a story*
We then discussed each other’s main events that we chose to keep. Thankfully, most groups had the right idea and similar events. It was great conversation to have as they explored their learning.
I completed an anchor chart with the class while the kids completed the anchor chart in their interactive notebooks.
After this, it was lot of practice generating the summary of fiction texts. They used the story mountain and somebody/wanted/but/so/then handout to practice. Once we were comfortable with this idea, they took one as a quiz!
To successfully teach summary in a multiple choice format I began with an opportunity for students to explore their understanding of main idea and summary.
I picked a non-fiction STAAR passage (rigorous reading selection), and cut up the story to where each subtitle section was on it’s own page.
I gave each kid a section and asked them to find the main idea of their selection.
Note, they were only finding the main idea of a subtitle section in the story.
Every section was given a specific colored index card (I cut in half to save paper).
Prior to the activity, I pre-determined the groups and the matching color to the section.
Next, I placed the groups together. I told them to stand in order by telling them the colors of the index card and the order they should be in by color.
I asked them to read the main ideas in order as if it was one big story.
We had a discussion about how a summary is the main points (or main idea) of the big chunks of the sections.
Finally, I gave the kids the actual summary question from the passage and asked them to circle the the correct summary after reading their own generated summary.
We discussed that for the multiple choice question to be correct, it has to have the main points from beginning to end.
I hope this was a PeppyZesty idea for you!
You can snag all of these handouts by clicking the image below!
Pin this image so you can save these ideas for later!
Amber is veteran teacher that built a successful TPT business before being recruited to lead social media and content marketing strategy for two Ed-Tech brands.
She loves using her unique knowledge of the teacher marketing space to help teachers grow and scale their business with the right digital marketing strategies.
Jamee Chandler
October 1, 2015 at 2:50 amGreat idea about eliminating the non-essential details must try it