After I read through the Google Docs students have shared with me, I noticed they need help with summarizing. Today in sections 2 and 3, we reread Tom Sawyer. Then I wen through the outline of the Value of Work essay to show them what they need to do.
But I mostly wanted students to practice summarizing a story in three sentences. These are the basic pieces of information I wanted them to include in the summary:
Set in_____
Character ______
Does/is challenged by _____________
Explain the basic story in three steps ____, _____, _____.
In the end ________
Theme ________
Example: ·
Set in the 1800’s, Tom Sawyer was forced to paint a fence. He wanted to get out of it, so he planned to trick Ben. Not only did he trick Ben, he ended up tricking all the other boys into doing his work. He ended up having a great day and a lot of great stuff in his pocket and learned that work is what you are obliged to do.
We also watched an episode of the Twilight Zone called "The Shelter." I had the above list on the board. I checked off each part of the summary when I thought it was covered. I collected their notecard so I can see how they did. We will follow up on this tomorrow.
