About this strategy
Summarising and evaluating require students to identify the most important ideas in a text and express them concisely in their own words. Students often default to copying notes or texts verbatim, which requires little processing and results in less comprehension. These activities teach students to distinguish between main ideas and supporting details, and to condense meaning without losing accuracy — skills essential for academic writing and critical thinking.
The four activities
Each activity includes detailed teacher instructions, student-facing instructions, a worked example, reflection prompts, and extension ideas in the book.
Guided Summary
A structured five-step process: (1) underline passages containing main ideas, (2) write a list of the main ideas, (3) combine similar ideas together, (4) organise by order of importance, and (5) write the summary as a paragraph. Initially modelled by the teacher, responsibility is gradually released to students.
- Teacher instructions
- Student handout
- Worked example
- Reflect & Extend
Key Idea Paraphrase
Students identify five key terms or ideas from a text, optionally find synonyms, and then use those key terms to write a new paragraph entirely in their own words. This goes beyond summary by requiring students to present key information in their own language.
- Teacher instructions
- Student handout
- Worked example
- Reflect & Extend
10 Words or Less
Students must summarise the key ideas of a text in a single sentence of 10 words or fewer. This forces extreme precision and accuracy with language. Different students will focus on different aspects — plot, theme, values — revealing varied but valid readings of the same text.
- Teacher instructions
- Student handout
- Worked example
- Reflect & Extend
Elevator Pitch
Students "sell" the main idea of a text using a three-part pitch structure: "You know how…" (identify the problem), "Well, the author suggests…" (the argument or solution), and "In fact…" (summary of supporting evidence). This blends summarising with persuasive techniques.
- Teacher instructions
- Student handout
- Worked example
- Reflect & Extend
Get the full activities
The book includes complete instructions, reproducible student handouts, real student examples, reflection questions, and extension ideas for all four activities.
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