Garden City School Library: Summarizing Nonfiction

• Review: Remind the students that we discussed summarizing last year. Ask what is needed for a nonfiction summary (main idea and key details). 
   
• Discussion: Blah blah blah
  
  Mr. Nussbaum - Amazon Rainforest Reading Comprehension (Main Idea Focus) - Online (mrnussbaum.com)
  
  IXL | Determine the main idea of a passage | 4th grade language arts
   
• Assessment: Students who contributed to the discussion receive participation points.

Source: https://www.tes.com/lessons/FcvkTvalJmG5QA/copy-of-nonfiction-text-features

• Review: Ask the students to explain the two important elements of a nonfiction summary (main idea and key details). 
   
• Group work: Hand out the short article about XX. Give the students several minutes to work together at each table to condense it into a summary. Review answers and work to craft a solid answer (i.e., "XX.")
  
  
• Assessment: Students who contributed to the discussion receive participation points. Students with good summaries get a check for that standard.

• Review: Ask the students the standard RICBA questions: How many books are on the list? (20) How many do you need to read to vote? (3) How many do you need to read to participate in the Rooster Games? (7) What are the Rooster Games? (City-wide trivia contest) 
  
  Pass out the RICBA summary sheets (see below) so everyone has one before you start reading.
   
• Readaloud: Read a nonfiction RICBA book; for this timeframe, I did Inky's Amazing Escape (which was a nice followup to the mimic octopus article). When you're done, remind the students that their summary should include a main idea and a couple of key details.
   
• Assessment: Students who have a main idea and key details get a check for this standard. If they already had a check from last week, add a plus.
  

• Prep: Pull a variety of student-written summaries into a document with questions for critiquing them (see below). I ended up with 18: 6 pages with 3 on each.
   
• Review: Ask the students to explain the two important elements of a nonfiction summary (main idea and key details). 
   
• Individual Work: Hand out the critique document and go over what they're looking for in order to score the summaries. Once everyone is done, have them share out.
   
• Assessment: Students whose scores make sense get a check for this standard. If they already had a check from last week, add a plus.