Active Learning Activities for Summary Writing
Active learning engages your students and helps you make sure they truly understand the assignment. Working closely with your class, either as a whole or in small groups, you can have them create a solid summary of their reading assignments. You can make these activities engaging and interesting while still ensuring that the students grasp the contents of their readings completely.
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Active Writing Assignments
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The Florida State University Center for Professional Development suggests having students write a summary of the works they have read or a speech that the teacher has given. You can make sure that students understand the issues or major points of interest by asking them to give a thorough summary of what occurred in a selected passage. A good summary should cover the setting, plot, characters and developments that have taken place for both fiction and non-fiction pieces. Once your students hand in the assignment, have them exchange it with a classmate. The classmate should then write a one-paragraph summary describing what events the first student's summary describes. If the first summary is complete, the second summary should be accurate.
Close Reading Summary
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To have your students do a close reading summary, start by explaining to them how to interpret a passage word by word. It is a good idea to keep the section you select for the students to summarize as short as possible being that students must give their opinion or viewpoint on every word and punctuation choice. Close-reading is ideal for confusing, ambiguous or unclear sections of a book or a poem your class is reading. Have your students work in pairs or groups to come up with a close reading summary of a short piece. Ask them to limit their interpretations to one page that describes the setting and development of a piece. This activity is especially beneficial for poetry summaries.
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Collaborative Learning Groups
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Kathleen McKinney, a professor of sociology at Illinois State University and Cross-Chair for the Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology, recommends having students work in collaborative learning groups in order to create a single summary. This activity works well with small groups of between three and six students, in which each student gives his or her input into the completed summary. Students should complete a reading assignment for homework and come to class ready to discuss it. Each group will prepare one summary to present to the class and choose one writer, presenter and so on. To ensure that every student participates in the collaborative effort, the person who compiles the summary should not be the same person who presents it to the class. Another way to keep this activity interesting is to consider choosing a different section for each group to summarize, although they may be from the same work.
Summary Completion and Revision
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Students can be assigned to read and summarize a poem, story or book in common and each bring the summary to class. Students should then exchange his or her summary with a classmate, who reads it over and makes notes on any missing details. This activity ensures that each student has a complete summary and allows them to see how others may have interpreted the same text. You can also have the student review and revise the other student's summary by explaining how to edit the writing and the criteria for grading. This activity shows students how to give criticism in a helpful, constructive manner.
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References
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