How to Write a Summary of a Book
Students will read a book and learn how to write a summary of a fiction book.
This lesson will take about an hour to discuss what to do and to choose a book. Then, students can read their book and write their summaries. You may assign this for homework.
First, you will explain the definition of a summary.
A summary is restating in your own words the main points of the book. The summary should include the protagonist, the conflict, and the resolution. It should be at least three paragraphs: Beginning, Middle, and End.
Summaries should also not give away the ending of the story. You want readers to read the book, but not know what happened without reading it.
Summaries do not include your own opinion. They are different from book reviews.
Book reviews include the writer’s opinion of the book they read as well as a short summary.
Then, you will explain to the students that they need to jot down important information about the book in their spiral notebook or on notecards so they can have it ready to write their summary.
After you have explained to the students what they need to do, they will read their books and take notes. Then, they will write their summaries.
This assignment will take them more than an hour.
You can assign this lesson and have them complete it in a day or two depending on how large the book is they have chosen to read.
You can grade the students'summaries on sentence structure, paragraph structure, and the content of their summaries.
100 to 90 = A
89 to 80 = B
79 to 70 = C
69 to 60 = D
Below 60 = F
- Art
- Computer
- Games
- Geography
- Health
- History
- Language
- Literature
- Mathematics
- Music
- Other
- Physical Education
- Reading & Writing
- Science
- Social Studies
- Special Education
- Comparing and Contrasting CharactersThe students will read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. As they read the book, they will choose two characters from the book and compare and contrast those characters. ...
- Writing a Book Review of the Hound of the BaskervillesIn this lesson, the students will write a book review of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You might need to explain to the students about writing book reviews before they...
- Compare and Contrast Two BooksStudents will read two books and write a comparison and contrast paper on their views of the two books. They can discuss a specific element of fiction such as plot, theme, characters, or...
- The Hobbit by J.r.r. TolkienThe students will read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. As they read the book, they will select the main character, Bilbo Baggins, and one other character such as Smaug, who is evil, and compare and...
- Making PredictionsThe students will read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Before they read the whole book, they will read Part One and write a short paragraph of what they think might happen in the next part. Then,...