Summarizing

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Summarizing

• The Five Finger Summary Strategy

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What is summarizing?

• Summarizing involves taking large sections of
  text and reducing them into shorter, concise
  passages.
• Summarizing involves the key ideas or the gist
  of the story or article.
• When summarizing, you should use your own words
  without changing the meaning of the writing, and
  you should maintain the plots sequence.
• Remember to focus on only the most important
  details.

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The Five Finger Summary Strategy

• The five finger summary is an easy method to
  quickly summarize any narrative piece.
• It can be used for a page, for a chapter, or for
  an entire book.

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Lets Practice
http//www.toonjet.com/cartoon/285/WaltDisneyClass
ics/Three-Little-Pigs/
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Somebody

• This is the person considered the main character.
• This character drives the action of the story.
• It can be a group.
• In the Three Little Pigs, the somebody is the
  three little pigs.

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Wanted

• What is the main character trying to do?
• What is the goal of the character?
• This usually leads to the problem.
• In the Three Little Pigs, the pigs wanted to have
  their own homes.

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But

• This is the main problem of the story.
• It is usually in the middle of a story.
• It is the challenge facing the main character.
• In the story The Three Little Pigs, the wolf
  keeps blowing down the pigs houses.

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So

• This is the main consequence of a story.
• It is also usually found in the middle of the
  story.
• It can sometimes come before the but.
• In The Three Little Pigs the pigs run to each
  others houses to escape the wolf.

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In the end

• This represents the solution or resolution of the
  story.
• It is usually at the end.
• In The Three Little Pigs the pigs were safe in
  the house of bricks.

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Example of the Five Finger Summary

• The three little pigs wanted to build their own
  houses, but a wolf kept blowing them down one at
  a time. So, each piggy escaped to his brothers
  house for safety. In the end, all three pigs were
  safe in the last pigs brick house.

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Lets practiceWilma Rudolph

• Wilma Rudolph was the first American female
  runner to win three gold medals in the Olympic
  Games. Her performance was all the more
  remarkable in light of the fact that she had
  double pneumonia and scarlet fever as a young
  child and could not walk without braces until age
  11.
• Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in St.
  Bethlehem, Tennessee, the 17th of 19 children,
  and soon moved with her family to Clarksville. At
  an early age, she survived polio and scarlet
  fever, only to be left with the use of one leg.
  Through daily leg massages administered in turn
  by different members of her family, she
  progressed to the point where she was able walk
  only with the aid of a special shoe. Three years
  later, however, she discarded the shoe and began
  joining her brother in backyard basketball games.
  At Burt High School in Clarksville, while a
  sophomore, Rudolph broke the state basketball
  record for girls. As a sprinter, she was
  undefeated in all of her high school track meets.
• In 1957, Rudolph enrolled at Tennessee State
  University and began setting her sights on the
  Olympic Games in Rome. In the interim, she gained
  national recognition in collegiate meets, setting
  the world record for 2000 meters in July of 1960.
  In the Olympics, she earned the title of the
  "World's Fastest Woman" by winning gold medals
  for the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash
  (Olympic record), and for anchoring the 400-meter
  relay (world record). She was named by The
  Associated Press as the U.S. Female Athlete of
  the Year for 1960 and also won United Press
  Athlete of the Year honors.

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Lets try the Five Finger Summary

• Who is the somebody?
• Wilma Rudolph
• What did she want?
• She wanted to walk and run.
• But?
• She was sick with polio and wore a leg brace.
• So?
• Her mother and family massaged her legs daily,
  and she exercised her muscles every day.
• What happened in the end?
• In the end, Wilma was able to walk and run so
  well that she won three medals at the 1960
  Olympics.

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The Summary

• Wilma Rudolph wanted to walk and run like a
  normal child, but she had polio and had to wear a
  leg brace. So her mother and family had to
  massage her legs daily. Wilma also exercised. In
  the end, Wilma not only learned to walk and run
  without her brace, she became a three time
  Olympic gold medal winner.

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On Your Own

• Now read the story Why the Sky Is Far Away.
• Use the Five Finger Strategy to summarize the
  story.
• Be prepared to share your summary.