November 2025 Protocol: The Power of Summary

Happy Fall Greetings from Edumentality! The power of summary is this month's focus and I have two protocols for you to share with students.  In the era of AI, students may push back and claim that they do not need to learn summarization skills because ChatGPT, Gemini, or Co-Pilot can summarize vast amounts of information in seconds.  True, but thinking skills that are required to write a good summary must be exercised often. As they say, "Use it or lose it!"  Let me know in the comment section what you are doing to make sure those thinking skills are honed and ready.  


SUMMARY STEP-BY-STEP (Writing, Reading)

Description: Because students need to know writing a summary is more than just retelling; it also demonstrates their abilities to clearly and concisely explain a text's main idea. This concise three step plan was developed by ELLii.com.
 
Application: Students in English language arts, social studies, and science classes will benefit most from understanding the process of summarization.
 
Process: Before class, select relevant reading passage and create a summary. On class day, introduce concept by providing students with the pre-selected passage and ask them to summarize it. After completion, in whole group, project the teacher summary. Ask students to compare their summaries to the projected one and note summaries can vary and still be correct!
Share the three-step process for writing a summary, distilled to its most concise form:
 
Step 1: Understand the Text (Active Reading)
Read twice: first for general meaning, then to identify the thesis, key points, and central idea and highlight or annotate the most important claims and evidence.
 
Step 2: Write a Focused Summary (Order and Paraphrase)
Begin with the author’s name and the title of the source (In name of work by name of author. . .). Paraphrase 3 to 5 main points in the order they appear and use attributive tags (e.g., “The author explains…”) to credit the source.
 
Step 3: Revise for Objectivity
Keep the summary much shorter than the original. Check for accuracy and remove all personal opinions or interpretations and focus only on what the author 


​EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Writing, Reading, Discussion, Collaboration)

​Description: Executive summaries are used in professional, academic, and business settings to provide decision-makers the essence of a document without reading the full text. Learning to write summaries helps students develop key skills in analytical thinking, clear and concise expression, and recognizing cause-and-effect relationships
 
Application: Use summaries in social studies to distill key causes, effects, and implications clearly and concisely.  In science classes, use it to train students to extract essential data, interpret results, and communicate conclusions efficiently.
 
Process: Assign reading(s) and once complete, tell students to take a 3x5 card and summarize the information on one side (see Summary Step-By-Step) and on the other, explain why it matters and the factors involved, focusing on broader implications or lessons learned. Allow students to share summaries with each other and discuss
​