How to Teach Summarizing: Tips & Strategies for the Classroom

“Why is summarizing so hard for students?” It’s a question teachers often ask when they see summaries that are either too long or miss the main point entirely. Learning how to teach summarizing effectively is essential because it helps students focus on key ideas and understand texts deeply. Summarizing is a foundational skill that supports reading comprehension, critical thinking, and communication.

This blog will explore the importance of summarizing and provide practical strategies and activities to help students master it in engaging ways.

What is Summarizing?

Summarizing means condensing the main ideas of a text into a shorter version while leaving out unnecessary details, examples, or opinions. It focuses on the “big picture” of the content.

How Summarizing Differs from Paraphrasing and Retelling:

• Summarizing: Focuses on the main idea and key details in a concise form, using fewer words than the original text.
• Paraphrasing: Rewriting the text in your own words but keeping all the details and length similar to the original.
• Retelling: Recounting all events or details in order, often in a longer or more narrative form.

7 Effective Tips to Teach Summarizing to Students 

Teaching kids to summarize effectively involves using structured approaches and engaging activities. This guide highlights summarizing techniques for students, summarizing strategies, and creative activities like graphic organizers, headline writing, and sorting main ideas to help build comprehension and critical thinking skills.

1. Teach Students to Identify the Main Idea

Identifying the main idea is the first step to summarizing. The main idea is what the text is mostly about—the central point the author wants to communicate.

How to Teach It:

• Use topic sentences: Start with paragraphs where the main idea is in the first or last sentence to help students recognize patterns.
• Ask key questions: Teach students to ask, “What is this text mostly about?” or “What’s the one big idea here?”
• Use worksheets to practice identifying the main idea:

Worksheets provide a structured way to help students focus on the main idea. By using guiding questions like “Who is the story about?” and “What is the conflict?”, they simplify the process of identifying key elements. Graphic organizers and prompts, such as selecting a title for nonfiction texts, encourage clarity and critical thinking. These tools make summarizing more accessible and effective for students.

• Highlight repeated ideas: Help students notice words or ideas repeated throughout the text.
• Graphic organizers: Use a simple chart to separate the main idea from supporting details for clarity.

2. Focus on Supporting Details

Once students identify the main idea, they need to determine which details support it. Supporting details explain, clarify, or give evidence for the main idea.

How to Teach It:

• Define supporting details: Explain that these are the facts, examples, or reasons that directly connect to the main idea.
• Ask guiding questions: Teach students to ask, “Does this detail explain or prove the main idea?” or “Is this detail essential, or can it be left out?”
• Use highlighters: Have students highlight the main idea in one color and supporting details in another to visually separate them.
• Focus on Supporting Details

Supporting details clarify and strengthen the main idea. Worksheets like these guide students to identify key details by asking summarizing questions like “What supports the main idea?” and offering multiple-choice options. Visual tools like highlighting and graphic organizers help separate main ideas from details, ensuring students focus on essential information for effective summarizing.

• Graphic organizers: Use “Main Idea and Details” charts to help students group details under the correct main idea.
• Practice eliminating irrelevant details: Give students sample paragraphs and ask them to cross out details that don’t connect to the main idea.

3. Introduce Summarizing Frameworks

Using structured frameworks makes summarizing more manageable for students by giving them a clear process to follow.

Effective Frameworks to Teach Summarizing:

1. Somebody-wanted-but-so-then (SWBST):
   • Ideal for summarizing fiction.
   • Helps students identify key elements:
     • Somebody (Who is the story about?)
     • Wanted (What did they want?)
     • But (What problem did they face?)
     • So (How was the problem solved?)
     • Then (What happened at the end?)
2. 5 W’s and 1 H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How):
   • Best for nonfiction texts.
   • Guides students to focus on the core facts without unnecessary details.
3. First-then-finally:
   • Great for younger students or beginning summarizers.
   • Encourages summarizing events in sequence: “First this happened, then this, and finally…”
4. GIST (Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text):
   • Students write a 20-word summary of a text, forcing them to focus only on the most important ideas.

How to use frameworks:

• Introduce frameworks one at a time with clear examples.
• Provide graphic organizers to guide practice.
• Gradually reduce scaffolding as students gain confidence.

These structures make summarizing clear, consistent, and easier to grasp.

4. Model Summarizing with Think-Alouds

One of the best ways to teach summarizing is to model it step-by-step using think-aloud. By talking through the process, students can see exactly how to identify key ideas and condense information.

How to Do It:

• Choose a short passage: Start with a simple, manageable text that clearly has a main idea and a few supporting details.
• Think aloud your process:
  • Say things like:
    • “Let’s find the main idea. What is the text mostly about?”
    • “This sentence is just an example—I don’t need it for my summary.”
    • “These two details are key because they explain the main idea.”
• Write a summary in real time: Show how to combine the main idea and key details into a short, clear summary.
  • Example: “The main idea is that plastic pollution harms oceans. The key details are how it affects animals and how it’s increasing worldwide.”
  • Summary: “Plastic pollution is harming oceans by endangering animals and growing rapidly.”

5. Scaffold Practice with Shorter Texts

Starting with shorter texts helps students build confidence and master the basics of summarizing before moving on to more complex material.

How to Do It:

• Begin with simple paragraphs:
  • Use short paragraphs or simple stories with clear main ideas and a few supporting details.
  • Example: A paragraph about a dog rescuing its owner in a storm.
• Provide sentence starters:
  • Offer prompts like:
    • “The main idea is…”
    • “This passage is mostly about…”
    • “The key details are…”
• Use fill-in-the-blank summaries:
  • Example: “This paragraph is about ______. The main idea is ______, and the supporting details are ______ and ______.”
• Gradually increase complexity:
  • Move from one-paragraph texts to multiple paragraphs, then longer nonfiction or fiction passages.
  • Use scaffolded graphic organizers that students can rely on as they progress.

6. Teach Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Students often struggle with summarizing because they fall into common traps. Teaching them what to avoid is just as important as teaching what to include.

Common Pitfalls and How to Address Them:

• Including too many details:
  • Example:
    Original: A passage about the water cycle.
    Poor Summary: “The water cycle has evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. In evaporation, water turns into vapor because of heat. Condensation happens when vapor cools. Then precipitation happens, like rain, snow, or hail.”
    • Fix: Remind students to focus only on the main idea:
      • “The water cycle involves three steps: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.”
• Leaving out the main idea:
  • Example:
    Original: A paragraph about Abraham Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War.
    Poor Summary: “Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky and loved reading.”
    • Fix: Teach students to ask, “What is the text mostly about?”
      • Correct Summary: “Abraham Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War and preserved the Union.”
• Adding opinions or interpretations:
  • Example:
    Poor Summary: “I think climate change is bad, and the text gives reasons why we need to fix it.”
    • Fix: Teach that summaries should only include what the author wrote, not personal opinions:
      • “The text explains how climate change is causing global temperatures to rise and affecting weather patterns.”
• Copying text word-for-word:
  • Example:
    Poor Summary: A student lifts entire sentences from the text.
    • Fix: Encourage students to use their own words and practice paraphrasing key points.
• Being too vague:
  • Example:
    Poor Summary: “This passage is about animals.”
    • Fix: Teach students to include the main idea and essential details:
      • “This passage explains how animals adapt to survive in the wild.”

7. Make Summarizing a Daily Habit

To help students master summarizing, incorporate it into everyday classroom activities. Regular practice makes summarizing a natural part of their reading and comprehension process.

How to Do It:

• Daily reading summaries:
  • After independent or group reading, ask students to summarize the main idea and key details in 1-2 sentences.
  • Use prompts like, “What was this text mostly about?” or “Sum it up in your own words.”
• Exit tickets:
  • At the end of a lesson, have students write a quick summary of what they learned that day.
  • Example: “Today, we learned about photosynthesis. The main idea is how plants make food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.”
• Summary challenges:
  • Give students a 20-word or 1-sentence limit to summarize a text. This encourages conciseness and precision.
• Summarize across subjects:
  • Encourage summarizing in all subjects, not just ELA. For example:
    • Science: Summarize the steps of an experiment.
    • Social Studies: Summarize key events in a historical timeline.
    • Math: Summarize a problem-solving process.
• Classroom discussions:
  • After a discussion or group activity, have one student summarize the key points shared by the class.

Related Reading: Effective Reading Strategies for Students of All Grades

Why is Teaching Summarization Important?

1. Boosts Reading Comprehension: Summarizing helps students focus on the main idea and key details, improving their understanding of texts.
2. Develops Critical Thinking: Students learn to evaluate what’s important versus what can be left out, sharpening their analytical skills.
3. Supports Writing Skills: Writing clear, concise summaries translates to better essay writing and communication.
4. Prepares for Assessments: Summarization is essential for answering questions like, “What is the main idea?” on standardized tests.
5. Real-World Applications: From workplace reports to everyday conversations, summarizing helps students express ideas clearly and efficiently.

4 Activities to Teach Summarizing to Students

1. Practice Worksheets for Summarizing

Free Summarizing Practice Worksheets Works

Provide students with summarizing worksheets that include short passages and guided prompts like “What is the main idea?” and “List two supporting details.” Worksheets can also feature fill-in-the-blank summaries where students complete missing parts, or highlighting activities where they mark main ideas and key details in different colors. 

2. 20-Word Summary Challenge

Provide students with a short passage or paragraph to read. Their task is to summarize the passage using exactly 20 words—no more, no less. This forces them to carefully identify the main idea and the most critical supporting details, ensuring they leave out unnecessary information.

3. Sort the Main Idea

Give students a list of sentences that include a mix of main ideas, key details, and irrelevant information. Students will read these sentences and sort them into three categories: “Main Idea,” “Supporting Details,” and “Unnecessary.” This hands-on activity helps them practice distinguishing between essential and nonessential information in a text.

4. Headline Creation

After reading a passage, students create a newspaper-style headline that clearly captures the main idea of the text. Then, they write a one-sentence subheading that summarizes the key supporting details. This activity reinforces summarization skills while encouraging creativity and precision.

Conclusion

Teaching summarizing is an essential skill that helps students understand and communicate ideas clearly. By using structured frameworks, engaging activities, and consistent practice, students can master summarizing effectively. These tips for summarizing provide a strong foundation for building comprehension, critical thinking, and lifelong learning skills.

Related Reading: Teaching Text Structure: Types, Examples, Tips & Activities

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the 5 steps to summarizing?

1. Read the text carefully.
2. Identify the main idea.
3. Highlight key details.
4. Remove irrelevant information.
5. Write a concise summary in your own words.

What makes summarizing fiction and nonfiction texts challenging for students?

Students often struggle to distinguish between essential details and minor information, and nonfiction requires identifying factual key points, while fiction demands a focus on plot and themes.

How can summarizing improve comprehension?

Summarizing helps students focus on key ideas, reinforcing their understanding of the text while improving retention and critical thinking skills.