Standard 2: Reading and Writing Process

Students will use a variety of recursive reading and writing processes.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students summarize a story or text using the events or plot.
• Students summarize using a structure such as somebody Wanted But So Then (SWBST), which is a guide for students to summarize a fiction story in sequence and includes a beginning, middle, and ending.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

Reading Rockets Articles and Strategies on Teaching Summary (website)

Six Main Types of Reading Comprehension (pdf)

• Summarizing is reducing large selections of text to their base essentials: their gist, key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering.

• Summarizing should also include relevant supporting details, which include reasons, examples, facts, steps, or other kinds of evidence that backs up and explains the main idea.

• Details are pieces of information revealed by the author or speaker that supports the attitude or tone in a piece of poetry or prose. In informational text, details provide information to support the author’s main point.

• The plot is the sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, drama, or narrative poem.

• Conflict is the struggle or clash between opposing characters, forces, or emotions.

• In nonfiction/informational text, the event/topic is the subject of the entire paragraph/text selection.

• In fiction, the main idea is the central thought or premise of a reading passage. The main idea answers “Who?”, “What?” and “What did the character do or learn?”

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.