Non-Fiction Summarizing

Our district is switching over to the Common Core Standards little by little this year by starting with the writing standards . . . I'm trying to make the switch in reading this year as well. 

I've always been a big proponent of teaching my kids how to really read non-fiction so I was happy to see a big shift in the CCS towards non-fiction both in reading and writing. The document above is a graphic organizer I created to help my students learn how to summarize non-fiction. 

In my class we are going to start a new science Storyline* soon and the majority of our reading (and writing) in our Storyline is non-fiction so I'm prepping the kids with some non-fiction mini-lessons. (*If you are curious about Storyline, click HERE.)

We're lucky to have salvaged some old SRA boxes . . . do you remember these? (When I was a 5th grader, I always loved finishing my work so I could go read the short stories or  essays, answer the questions and correct my own paper! Thrilling stuff. i know you're shocked I became a teacher!) 

Anyhoo, I explained the graphic organizer to my kids, pulled and read-aloud an SRA card that was a non-fiction piece of writing.  I then Modeled  by doing a think-aloud as I completed the graphic organizer. I frequently went back to the SRA card and skimmed and scanned to demonstrate my thought processes and methods of answering the questions on the graphic organizer. 

Next I gave the students copies of a different SRA non-fiction card (all students given the same card so we could share/compare) and a copy of the graphic organizer so they could have some Guided Practice (gotta love Madeline Hunter!).  They will have other opportunities in coming days for Independent Practice. 

Common Core Standard for Fifth Grade: RI 5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text. (This graphic organizer can of course be used with many other grade levels.)