Writing Summaries – Posters & Sentence Starters for ELLs & Other Writers

Item description

Give your students support in writing summaries of fiction and non-fiction texts! This resource will help English Language Learners and other students write good summaries of both fiction and non-fiction texts by offering organizational frameworks and sentence starters for fiction and non-fiction summaries. The organizational frameworks show what kind of information should be included when writing a summary. The sentence starters offer a variety of writing prompts that students can use to write summaries. In addition, information explaining what a summary is, why a summary is written, and types of text that can be summarized is provided on 2 posters that are 8.5” x 11” in size.

Resource at a Glance:
★ What will students learn?
* What a summary is; how to write summaries for fiction and non-fiction texts; some useful phrases for writing summaries.
★ Who is it for?
* English Language Learners; other students who need support when writing summaries.
★ How does it help teachers?
* Ready-made posters provide info about summaries that you can share with your students; give or display the sentence starters to students to help them begin writing.

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What you get in this product:

★ Table of contents for easy reference (1 page)
★ Notes to the Teacher with background information (2 pages)
★ List of ELA Common Core standards addressed by this resource (2 pages)
★ General information in color about a summary, in color (2 pages)
★ How to write a summary of a fiction text, in color (1 page)
★ Sentence starters page in color for summarizing fiction texts, in color (1 page)
★ How to write a summary of a non-fiction text, in color (1 page)
★ Sentence starters in color for non-fiction texts, in color (1 page)
★ General information about a summary, in black-and-white (2 pages)
★ How to write a summary of a fiction text, in black-and-white (1 page)
★ Sentence starters for fiction texts, in black-and-white (1 page)
★ How to write a summary of a non-fiction text, in black-and-white (1 page)
★ Sentence starters in color for non-fiction texts, in black-and-white (1 page)

More Information:
English Language Learners, as well as other students, often have difficulty summarizing a text because they think the more information they give the better. Finding and expressing the main idea can be problematic for ELLs whose language skills are not highly developed. Figuring out what details are the most important can also be hard. Often, many students also erroneously include their opinion when writing a summary. This resource explains the type of information to include so your students are able to write good summaries.

This resource will help English Language Learners at WIDA Levels 2, 3 and 4 (approximately high beginning to intermediate levels of English proficiency) write good summaries of both fiction and non-fiction texts by offering an organizational framework and sentence starters for each type of summary. Native English-speaking students and ELLs at a higher level of proficiency who need support with their writing will also benefit from the information provided.

Both color and black-and-white versions of all pages are included in this resource. The color pages can be posted on a bulletin board or be used in centers as references. The black-and-white pages can be photocopied for each student to use as a resource when working independently or at home.

Being able to summarize a text effectively is an important skill and this resource will help your students learn how to do that.

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Thank you and happy teaching!

Common Core Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Any claims of correlation or alignment to the CCSS Standards or WIDA ELD standards are solely those of The ESL Nexus and have not been evaluated or endorsed by the NGA. The ESL Nexus is the sole creator of this product and does not claim endorsement or association with the creators of the CCSS or WIDA standards.

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