Author: blog0rama

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Writing Summaries

Putting It All Together…

Last week, we worked on writing summaries. Remember, summaries have some key elements:

  1. They are not copied word-for-word. You must re-state in your own words. You may use some key words from the text, but always put in your own words.
  2. Summaries have a TAG: Title, Author, and Genre. (The T.A.G. doesn’t have to be in that order).
  3. A summary is not your opinion — just the facts, M’am. However, you might use a summary to start a persuasive piece of writing.
  4. A summary includes the important details, main message or theme of the piece.

For more information, there are many websites that can help:

http://wwwfac.worcester.edu/owl/teacher/writing_summaries.htm

http://www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/menusp.htm

“Chicken Little” artwork from http://disney-clipart.com/Chicken-Little/Chicken-Little-Clipart.php

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The Road Ahead

The first big assignment of the year is part of our “Reading Road Trip” journey,and September’s focus is realistic fiction and non-fiction reading. The students were assigned finding a newspaper article that interested them, and then writing a summary. The second part of the assignment was to read a realistic fiction book (no page number minimum was required). The “one-pager” assignment is due on or before September 28. The “one-pager” includes a drawing, a paragraph summary, and one quote from the book that the student thinks demonstrates the meaning of the theme of the book.

Remember –everyone must turn this in to earn points towards the class’ “Freaky Fridays.”