Summarize Information Back to 20 Best-practices Reading Strategies A summary is a short statement -- usually a few sentences -- that gives the main ideas of a selection. A summary does not include all of the details as in a retelling. The essence of summary is that it is brief; it literally focuses on the key ideas of the text. Readers condense information into a brief summary of key ideas to reveal their level of comprehension. In order to summarize a text, readers filter out less significant or repetitious details, identify a general term for a list of specific details, combine ideas into a broad category, and create a topic sentence. Questions that help students summarize information: What do you think is the BIG IDEA of this article? Of this paragraph? What two words would you use to describe the “gist” of the paragraph? selection? When students read, they think about what most of the sentences are describing. Is there one sentence that describes the main idea for this topic? What was the focus of this reading selection? How can you condense the information described in this article using key ideas? Which details were most significant? Which details were less significant? This Season Teachers Kids Orientation Registration Search Copyright 1997-2008 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Questions or comments? Contact us.