Students learn to summarize — shrinking a whole passage down to its most important points in a few sentences, keeping the big ideas and leaving the small details behind.
Students will be able to…
How do you retell a whole page in just a sentence or two — without leaving out what matters, or getting stuck on tiny details?
Project this passage and have students tap the sentences that belong in a short summary. The tool shows which are big points and which are just details.
Tap any phase to open the teacher moves and student actions.
Retell a movie in one sentence — what do you include?
Teacher models summarizing.
Class uses Build a Summary.
Students summarize a new text.
Students share summaries.
Aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.
Determine a theme of a story and summarize the text.
Refer to details and examples when explaining what a text says.
Write informative/explanatory texts to convey ideas clearly.
Preview the three formative checks. Tap “Sample answer” to see what mastery looks like — hide them before you print for students.
Have students write a 2–3 sentence summary of each chapter as they read a book, then combine them into a whole-book summary. A printable chapter-summary log is in the ELA library.
Tap a card to flip it, then rate whether you knew it. Built from this lesson’s vocabulary.
A quick self-check with instant feedback, drawn from this lesson’s key terms.
A print-and-go review sheet with a built-in answer key. Tap “Show answer key” to reveal answers, or print the clean version for students.