The summary assignment in the upper elementary and middle school classrooms often doesn’t get talked about much in professional development materials, but it is one of the MOST assigned assignments during a given school year. Teachers are focusing on skills surrounding retelling, comprehension, and checking for understanding regarding genre. Summary writing is one of the cornerstone types of assignments that need to be mastered before moving to more complex material. Often, as a new teacher, you may not know where to begin. This post is an introduction to teaching the narrative summary and the nonfiction summary in grades 4-8. You will find the difference between narrative and nonfiction summaries, strategies for tackling both assignments, and then example assignments you can use now.

An awesome quick strategy to teach narrative summary writing combines the video elements of Pixar Shorts and the application of Somebody Wanted But So Then. Somebody Wanted But So Then is a widely taught strategy for teaching summary while reading fiction. While the materials for SWBST are vast, I often find the easiest way to teach this memorable technique is through the use of quick shorts or Pixar shorts that are available on YouTube. I use the gradual release of responsibility model that focuses no I Do, We Do, You Do. This technique is best applied as a scaffolding technique to reach a higher-level goal. This post will outline the strategy for teaching summary writing with fiction texts, and it will also link some of my favorite Pixar shorts or clips to use in my middle-grade classroom.