S UMMARIZING …the mystery explained

W HAT IS A SUMMARY ? Summarizing helps you remember the important information in a text. It also helps you to check to see if you understand what you are reading. When you summarize, you write the text’s MAIN IDEAS. A summary is always much shorter than the original text. When you write a summary, use your own words and some KEY WORDS from the text. As you are writing the summary, always remember WHY you are writing it. Before you summarize, ask yourself these questions: What happened? What are the main ideas?

W HAT ’ S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MAIN IDEA AND A DETAIL? MAIN IDEA: The common idea or ideas in a section of text DETAIL: Idea or ideas that add to the meaning of the main idea EXAMPLE: “They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked; so they wrapped him in cotton wool and warmed him over a little fire, and he opened his eyes and sneezed.” Main Idea: They took him inside and cared for him. Details: into the house, big man picked him up, between his finger and thumb, said he was not dead but half choked, they wrapped him in cotton wool, warmed him over a little fire, he opened his eyes and sneezed

L OOK AT THIS TEXT. W HAT IS THE MAIN IDEA ? W HAT ARE THE DETAILS ? Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head of Nagaina, Nag’s wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed. He came down almost across her back, and if he had been an old mongoose, he would have known that then was the time to break her back with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing return stroke of the cobra. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough, and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn and angry.

MAIN IDEA: Rikki and Nagaina fight, but he doesn’t kill her because of his inexperience. DETAILS: he jumped up in the air as high as he could go just under him whizzed by the head of Nagaina Nagaina is Nag’s wicked wife she had crept up behind him as he was talking he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed he came down almost across her back he was afraid of the terrible lashing return stroke of the cobra he bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough he jumped clear of the whisking tail he left Nagaina torn and angry All of these DETAILS help us to understand the MAIN IDEA

S UMMARIZING VERSUS R ETELLING AND P ARAPHRASING Paraphrasing: You give ALL of the details in YOUR OWN WORDS Retelling: You THINK about what you’ve just read. Then, you write some notes about what you read so that you don’t forget the information. These notes can be a COMBINATION of both main ideas and details. SUMMARIZING: WRITE THE MAIN IDEAS OF WHAT YOU READ. GIVE THE READER A CLEAR PICTURE OF IT, WITHOUT WRITING A LOT OF SUPPORTING DETAILS.

S TEPS FOR S UMMARIZING 1. Read a small section of the assigned reading 2. Ask, “What do all of the ideas in this section have in common?” 3. Write that main idea down. 4. Now do that with another small section, and another, until you have written down all of the main ideas in the assigned reading. 5. Put these main ideas together to form a clear, coherent summary of the assigned reading.

P RACTICE Read the following section of text Identify the main ideas for each paragraph and write these on your graphic organizer Identify the details for each paragraph and write these on your graphic organizer Put the MAIN IDEAS together, using logical transitions to create a clear, coherent summary of the text

Bremen Town Musicians Once upon a time in a village so small that you can't even find it on a map there was a small farmhouse standing on the corner of a hay field. If you looked very carefully and squinted your eyes just a bit you would see that right next door to the house there was a wooden stable even tinier than the tiniest house. In the stable there lived a donkey named Chanter. Chanter had worked very hard and for many years. One day the farmer said to him that he should travel and see the world before the very sad day his eyes would close forever. The farmer patted him on his back, gave him a bag of corn, and wished him good luck. Chanter smiled and said goodbye to the farmer and began walking along the dusty road. He was walking toward the famous city of Bremen where all of the finest musicians in the world lived. He thought he would become singer. Chanter walked along the road for more than an hour. Suddenly a howl came up from the ground. He hadn't been looking where he was walking and had stepped right on the paws of dog! The dog jumped up as fast as an old dog can jump. They looked at each other and Chanter quickly apologized for stepping on the dog's paw, as his hooves were quite large, much larger than paws. The old dog began to calm down and introduced himself as Anciano. They became friends and since Anciano was a baritone they decided to sing together and off they went to Bremen.