RI.2-Objective Summary/Central Idea (Slides/Activity/Student Notes)

This resource contains links to three resources: a Google slides teacher presentation, a Google slides student presentation (guided note), and a PPT student notes edition (editable).

As an ELA teacher for nearly a decade now, getting students to write an objective summary is the hardest, easiest thing to do. It seems simple--just write a summary, right? However, most students find it very challenging to identify the text structure, the central idea(s), and the key ideas/details. Due to this, I have broken it all down in one Google slides presentation (includes a central idea activity) with accompanying student guided notes. Teachers can either assign the students the notes on an electronic platform, or they may choose to print the student notes ahead of time. I prefer to print and have my students to fill-in-the-blanks while I go through the presentation; however, it still works great for virtual learning!

$2 Central Idea Activity

The slides include an activity for students over crafting a strong opening sentence for their objective summaries. The $2 Central Idea activity asks students to write their opening sentence including Title/Author/Genre/Verb+Central Idea(s) and places a monetary value on each word's part of speech. After writing their sentence, students must determine how much money they spent. If they went over $2.00, then they have to decide whether or not they included too much information in their central idea(s). If so, they need to revise it. Drag & drop coins are included for students to place coins over their words.

Objective Summary Practice

This resource also includes a page for students to practice writing their own objective summaries. The practice includes a checklist for students to self-assess their work prior to submitting it.