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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 8 of 12

Summarizing Texts

Find the main ideas and put them in your own words.

What your child practices

Practices summarizing: grouping related ideas, separating important from less important information, paraphrasing and keeping the author's message.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 9.25; 9.R1 · finding central ideas and summarizing in your own words

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Find the main ideas: topic sentences and key terms help.
  2. Leave out small details and examples. Group related ideas.
  3. Use your own words and keep the author’s message. Test it: would someone who hasn’t read it understand?

Example: Which belongs in a summary of a flood news story: what happened, where and the main effects, or every person’s quote? A summary keeps only the most important points. Every quote is too much detail. Answer: what happened, where, and the main effects

Summarizing Texts in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 8 of 12 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Forms & Features and before Form & Composing.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which is a less important detail to leave out of a summary?

    • the main conflict
    • the color of a minor character's coat
    • the solution

  2. Question 2

    When you summarize, you should keep the author's…

    • message
    • font
    • spelling mistakes

  3. Question 3

    Putting an idea in your own words while keeping its meaning is…

    • paraphrasing
    • summarizing a title
    • quoting

  4. Question 4

    Which belongs in a summary of a news story about a flood?

    • every quote word for word
    • what happened, where, and the main effects
    • the reporter's lunch

  5. Question 5

    A reader's summary changes the author's message. What should the reader do?

    • keep it as is
    • reread and revise the summary to match the text
    • delete the text

  6. Question 6

    Which pair of words signals an important idea in a text?

    • in conclusion
    • by the way
    • meanwhile

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