Summarization Activity
Example
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Cinderella is a great book for teaching students beginning-level summaries. Students are often familiar with the tale, but will need to use the details from this version to create a successful summary storyboard. This is a great stepping stone to summarizing lengthier chapter books. The storyboard format will help students practice being concise and will enable them to think critically about the importance of certain events.
Consider having students plan their storyboard using a blank template prior to creating the full storyboard online. Students should begin with the narrative in each box before adding character dialogue. This will allow them to focus on the purpose of summarizing and determining importance before getting distracted by the details of the storyboard. Students can also be given a set number of frames to use as a guide towards conciseness. After planning on a template, students can compare the important events they chose with a partner, and the class could discuss why different events in the story were included in the storyboard over others.
Cinderella Summary Example
Beginning
- Cinderella lives with her father and sisters. She is constantly put to work.
- Cinderella’s sisters are invited to the ball but she is not.
Middle
- Cinderella meets her fairy godmother and is transformed for the first time. She leaves the ball before the magic wears off.
- The second night of the ball, Cinderella is transformed again and makes it back just in time.
End
- The third night of the ball, Cinderella is transformed again, but leaves right at midnight and loses her shoe.
- The prince searches high and low and finally finds Cinderella.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Use This Assignment With My Students", change the description of the assignment in your Dashboard.)
Lesson Plan Reference
Grade Level 2-3
Difficulty Level 3 (Developing to Mastery)
Type of Assignment Individual or Partner
Type of Activity: Parts of a Story
Common Core Standards- [ELA-Literacy/RL/3/2] Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
- [ELA-Literacy/RL/3/5] Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.
Student Instructions
Make a storyboard summary of Cinderella.
- Click the "Use This Template" button to open the storyboard.
- Make pictures that show two main events from the beginning of the story.
- Make pictures that show two main events from the middle of the story.
- Make pictures that show two main events from the end of the story.
- Write a sentence under each picture.
Example
(Modify this basic rubric by clicking the link below. You can also create your own on Quick Rubric.)
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