Summarizing

The comprehension CAFE strategy of "Summarizing" for first graders involves the ability to identify and condense the main ideas and important details of a text. Students learn to extract essential information, organize it in a logical sequence, and express it concisely. Summarizing helps students grasp the key elements of a story or informational text, enabling them to communicate the text's essence in their own words. This strategy promotes comprehension, critical thinking, and the development of concise language skills in first-grade students.

Goals for Summarizing:

• Goal 1: Identify Main Ideas 

  • Students will learn to identify the main ideas or key events in a text, extracting essential information to create concise summaries.

• Goal 2: Key Details 

  • Students will practice identifying and including important details in their summaries, ensuring that their summaries capture the essential elements of the text.

• Goal 3: Sequencing 

  • Students will learn to summarize texts by organizing the events or information in a logical sequence, demonstrating an understanding of chronological order or cause and effect relationships.

• Goal 4: Summarizing Across Texts 

  • Students will compare and summarize information from multiple texts on the same topic, synthesizing key ideas and details to create comprehensive summaries.

• Goal 5: Concise Language 

  • Students will develop the skill of summarizing information using concise language, effectively condensing the text while retaining its main ideas and important details.

Read Aloud Books:

• "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle 

  • This classic book follows the journey of a caterpillar as it eats its way through various foods before transforming into a butterfly, allowing students to summarize the caterpillar's progression.

• "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault (retold by various authors) 

  • This beloved fairy tale can be summarized by highlighting the key events such as Cinderella's mistreatment, the magical transformation, the ball, and the happy ending.

• "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina 

  • This humorous story about a cap peddler and mischievous monkeys lends itself to summarizing the peddler's encounter with the monkeys and the outcome.

• "The Little Red Hen" by Paul Galdone 

  • This classic tale teaches the value of hard work and cooperation. First graders can summarize the hen's journey as she plants, harvests, and bakes bread with no help from her animal friends.

• "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff 

  • This circular story about a mouse's ever-growing demands can be summarized by focusing on the cause-and-effect chain of events that occurs after the mouse receives a cookie.

• "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats 

  • Students can summarize this winter-themed book by highlighting the main activities and experiences of the protagonist as he explores the snowy outdoors.

• "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst 

  • This book tells the story of Alexander and his seemingly never-ending string of mishaps, providing opportunities for students to summarize his unfortunate events.

• "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein 

  • Students can summarize this heartwarming story about a tree's selfless love and the boy's life journey, capturing the tree's acts of giving throughout the years.

• "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka 

  • This humorous retelling of the classic tale allows students to summarize the events from the wolf's perspective, highlighting his version of the story.

• "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister 

  • Students can summarize the journey of the Rainbow Fish as it learns the importance of sharing and friendship, emphasizing the transformation of the fish's scales.