Summarizing Strategy Quiz

Test your understanding of the Summarizing metacognitive reading strategy

Open ELA Chapter: Summarizing Strategy

Learning Objectives:

  • Appropriately paraphrase and summarize texts.
  • Evaluate arguments in a text, including the validity of the reasoning, and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

Overview:
Our next metacognitive reading strategy is summarizing what you've read. This is a powerful way to improve overall comprehension of text.

The ability to summarize information requires readers to sift through large units of text, figure out what's important, and then create a new text that reflects only the important information. This is a difficult task. When you do it, you are practicing and strengthening the toughest comprehension skills.

Today, we'll discuss three steps for summarizing effectively:

  • Gathering metadata
  • Sifting out key information
  • Putting ideas into your own words

Gathering Metadata:
The first step in effective summarizing is to gather as much metadata as you can about the text. This means getting information about the nature and structure of the text. Before you start summarizing, you will want to know:

  • Is this reading for information or literature?
  • What type of writing is this? What are its basic goals?
  • Will this text have keywords, topic sentences, or bold terms?

You will also need to think about the levels of this text. You should be gathering information about:

  • Individual sentences
  • Each paragraph
  • The text as a whole

Sifting:
The next step is to sort the information so that you know what's most important. The most effective way to do this is to consider what is the main idea and what is supporting details.

You'll need to consider what each sentence is trying to accomplish. You can ask yourself questions like:

  • What is the author trying to convey?
  • If there were one main takeaway, what would it be?
  • How would I teach this to someone else?

Once you've separated the main idea from the supporting details, decide which of those are key details, ones that are best at supporting the main idea. You also want to set aside details that are less important.

In Your Own Words:
The hardest part of summarizing is putting ideas into your own words. However, this is also the most rewarding part of the process, as it creates new neural-pathways and greatly assists with your comprehension of a text.

  • Consider the main ideas and supporting details
  • Make a bulleted list in short-hand of the bare minimum of information someone would need to understand this passage
  • Think about synonyms for some of the vocabulary introduced in the text
  • For each item, try to find different words and phrases that could convey the same thing
  • Read your summary and double check that it makes sense and covers everything you wanted to cover

Passage from Tuck Everlasting

Miles seemed to sense that she was watching him. He looked up from the bait jar and his eyes, returning her gaze, were soft. "Remember I told you I had two children?" he asked. "Well, one of 'em was a girl. I took her fishing, too." His face clouded then, and he shook his head. "Her name was Anna. Lord, how sweet she was, that child! It's queer to think she'd be close to eighty now, if she's even still alive. And my son—he'd be eighty-two."

Winnie looked at his young, strong face, and after a moment she said, "Why didn't you take them to the spring and give them some of the special water?"

"Well, of course, we didn't realize about the spring while we was still on the farm," said Miles. "Afterwards, I thought about going to find them. I wanted to, heaven knows. But, Winnie, how'd it have been if I had? My wife was nearly forty by then. And the children—well, what was the use? They'd have been near growed theirselves. They'd have had a pa close to the same age *they* was. No, it'd all have been so mixed up and peculiar, it just wouldn't have worked. Then Pa, he was dead-set against it, anyway. The fewer people know about the spring, he says, the fewer there are to tell about it. Here—here's your pole. Just ease the hook down in the water. You'll know when you get a bite."

Winnie clutched her pole, sitting sidewise in the stern, and watched the baited hook sink slowly down. A dragonfly, a brilliant blue jewel, darted up and paused over the lily pads, then swung up and away. From the nearest bank, a bullfrog spoke.

"There certainly are a lot of frogs around here," Winnie observed.

"That's so," said Miles. "They'll keep coming, too, long as the turtles stay away. Snappers, now, they'll eat a frog soon as look at him."

Winnie thought about this peril to the frogs, and sighed. "It'd be nice," she said, "if nothing ever had to die."

"Well, now, I don't know," said Miles. "If you think on it, you come to see there'd be so many creatures, including people, we'd all be squeezed in right up next to each other before long."

Winnie squinted at her fishing line and tried to picture a teeming world. "Mmm," she said, "yes, I guess you're right."

Suddenly the cane pole jerked in her hands and bent into an arch, its tip dragged down nearly to the water's surface. Winnie held on tight to the handle, her eyes wide.

"Hey!" cried Miles. "Look there! You got a bite. Fresh trout for breakfast, Winnie."

But just as suddenly the pole whipped straight again and the line went slack. "Shucks," said Miles. "It got away."

"I'm kind of glad," Winnie admitted, easing her rigid grip on the butt of the pole. "*You* fish, Miles. I'm not so sure I want to."

Question 1
According to the Open ELA chapter, what are the three steps for effective summarizing?
Correct Answer: A) Gathering metadata, Sifting out key information, Putting ideas into your own words
The chapter explicitly states these are the "three steps for summarizing effectively" and provides detailed explanations for each step.
Question 2
What does "metadata" mean in the context of summarizing?
Correct Answer: B) Information about the nature and structure of the text
The chapter defines metadata as "getting information about the nature and structure of the text" including whether it's informational or literature, its goals, and its structural elements.
Question 3
In summarizing the Tuck Everlasting passage, which would be considered the main idea rather than a supporting detail?
Correct Answer: C) Miles explains why he didn't give his family the immortal water
This represents the core emotional and plot content of the passage. The other details (dragonfly, fishing, frogs) are atmospheric or minor plot points that support the main focus on Miles's painful choice about his family.
Question 4
According to the chapter, why is putting ideas into your own words the most rewarding part of summarizing?
Correct Answer: D) It creates new neural pathways and greatly assists comprehension
The chapter states that putting ideas into your own words "creates new neural-pathways and greatly assists with your comprehension of a text," making it both challenging and rewarding.
Question 5
Which question from the "Sifting" step would be most helpful when summarizing this passage?
Correct Answer: A) If there were one main takeaway, what would it be?
This is one of the specific questions listed in the "Sifting" section for determining what's most important. It helps focus on the central message rather than peripheral details.
Question 6
When gathering metadata about this passage, you would identify it as what type of text?
Correct Answer: B) Literature (fictional narrative)
This is a passage from a novel, making it literature rather than informational text. Identifying this as metadata helps determine how to approach the summary - focusing on character development, themes, and plot rather than factual information.
Question 7
Which detail would be most important to include when summarizing Miles's explanation about his family?
"My wife was nearly forty by then. And the children—well, what was the use? They'd have been near growed theirselves. They'd have had a pa close to the same age they was."
Correct Answer: A) The awkwardness of an immortal parent with aging family
This captures the main concept Miles is explaining - the social and emotional problems that would arise from an immortal person trying to reconnect with their now-aged family. Specific ages and names are supporting details.
Question 8
According to the chapter, what should you create when putting ideas into your own words?
Correct Answer: B) A bulleted list of the bare minimum information needed to understand the passage
The chapter specifically recommends "Make a bulleted list in short-hand of the bare minimum of information someone would need to understand this passage" as part of putting ideas into your own words.
Question 9
What philosophical point does Miles make about death that would be essential in a summary?
Correct Answer: D) Without death, the world would become overcrowded
Miles explains that if nothing ever died, "there'd be so many creatures, including people, we'd all be squeezed in right up next to each other before long." This represents his key philosophical insight about the necessity of death.
Question 10
According to the chapter, the ability to summarize requires readers to do what with "large units of text"?
Correct Answer: D) Sift through them and figure out what's important
The chapter states that summarizing "requires readers to sift through large units of text, figure out what's important, and then create a new text that reflects only the important information."