There is one skill which nearly all other skills rely upon; the ability to write summaries of a text, whether these be argument, narrative or informative. It’s also a life skill: your friends do not want you to tell them the plot of the entire film you saw last night, only what it was about in a couple of sentences.
The ability to summarise is also an important skill in the study of both language and literature, and it can be a device for checking the understanding of your pupils:
- Making them assess what is important
- Developing the skill of taking notes from written or spoken texts
- Broadening their vocabulary to include more mature words
- Improving and varying their style
- Making them conscious of sentence structure and its importance for accuracy and effect
The Cambridge IGCSE™ First Language English series gives a lot of attention to summary, and opportunities to practice it. These are some of the extra ways in which students can use and improve their summary skills in the classroom.
Summary Activities
- Summarise a text just read in class, including only the key ideas. This can be done orally or in writing but must be just one sentence.
- Write a synopsis of a language or literature text in only 50 words, drafting and editing until it is exactly the right number of words, with no omissions or repetitions.
- Turn a paragraph of simple and/or compound sentences into one complex sentence, using a range of connectives. Compare with other versions and see how the emphasis and meaning changes slightly depending on the order of clauses and choice of connectives.
- Write a short story of only 50 (or 10, or 5) words. Listen to each other’s and judge their effectiveness. This can be a humorous and fun exercise.
- Turn a list of notes / points into continuous prose, using as few words as possible.
- Reduce a summary even further by making grammatical and vocabulary changes, without losing meaning.
- Underline key words and phrases in a text (and no unnecessary surrounding words).
- Change list of key words and phrases into your own words where possible, using fewer words (e.g. ‘She took charge of the situation’ could become ‘She managed’ / ‘directed it’).
- Organise a list of phrases / words into logical groups so that the ideas can be used in the same sentence.
- Summarise orally what they have done and learnt at the end of a lesson.
- Write two sentences giving a brief assessment of your own performance in English, one sentence about a success and one sentence about an area needing improvement.
About the author
Marian Cox is an experienced examiner and author of Cambridge IGCSE™ First Language English. In her spare time Marian puts her language skills to good use in Italy, where she is restoring a farmhouse.