Stuart Little Chapter Summary

Stuart Little is a great book to practice summarization on both the chapter level and the story level. As the chapters are styled as vignettes, students who are working on beginning summarization may benefit from focusing on one chapter to practice summarizing. This could also be a helpful tool for comprehension of the entire story if each chapter is summarized. It is helpful to limit the number of cells students can use, to help them be more concise.

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 for the storyboard to help them be concise. After planning on a template, students can compare the important events they chose with a partner's, and the class could discuss why different events in the story were included in the storyboard over others.

Here is an example of chapter level summary storyboard:

Chapter 9: A Narrow Escape

• Beginning: Stuart accidentally gets picked up by a garbage truck while trying to hide from a dog on his way to find adventure.
• Middle: Stuart thinks his life is over when the truck arrives at the river and begins dumping its trash to be towed out to sea.
• End: Margalo comes to the rescue and flies Stuart home!

Student Instructions

Create a storyboard summarizing a chapter in Stuart Little.

1. Use the template provided by your teacher.
2. Identify and describe the beginning, middle, and end of the chapter.
3. Illustrate each scene with appropriate characters, scenes, an items.