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Hi bloggy friends!  Here's a quick post with two freebies for you.  The first is what I called "Spooky Suffixes."  We used these in a literacy center and the kiddos basically played Concentration with the cards.  You could easily use the cards to play Suffix Go Fish or just a simple matching game. 

The next is a graphic organizer that I typed for my students to use with the Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then Summarizing Strategy.  I was introduced to this strategy by Kathy Bumgardner (http://kbumreading.com/)
six or so years ago and it's the best thing I've found to help my students summarize fiction stories.  Some of my students don't need the actual organizer and create their own but others benefit from the help of the premade organizer.  Hopefully, some of your kiddos can use it too!

If you download either document, please leave a quick comment on how you plan to use (or even improve on my idea).  I love to hear feedback!  Thanks and have a terrific week!

88 comments

  1. I was thinking as a transition activity.


    Jennifer

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  2. This is perfect. I have kids who are struggling with the idea of SUMMARY vs. retell. They value length over depth atm :(

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  3. Thanks for the summary organizer!! Our entire school is focusing on this for the first trimester.
    Julie
    Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher

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  4. Love your summary organizer! I plan to use it with my guided reading books....and whatever else comes to mind!!!

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  5. Love these. Can't wait to use them. Thanks for sharing.
    Tanya
    www.lewislearninglibrary.blogspot.com

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  6. I believe that this would be perfect for small guided reading groups. I like that students could also use this as a guide for their own writing!

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  7. I use the hand in my classroom with these exact words. I love the graphic organizer as a follow up step. Thank you!

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  8. Thanks for all of the positive comments! I'm so glad that I could share something that's helpful for all of you! =O)

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  9. Love your freebies and in honor of your great ideas, I am nominating you for the Blog on Fire Award. Visit my blog @
    aseriesof3rdgradeevents.blogspot.com
    to get the details!
    Patti :)

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  10. I love the summary organizer. Thanks so much for sharing!

    I'm your newest follower!

    Kylie
    Down Under Teacher

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  11. Our strategy focus for our current story is summarizing. My students are having a difficult time with this skill. I think this organizer will definitely help them. Thank you for sharing!

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  12. Thanks for the summary organizer. We have been really working hard on this! It will help so much!

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  13. thanks for the page! i plan to use it this week as we dig deeper in our book club groups in writing complete sentences as we respond to reading!

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  14. The organizer is perfect for my reading station. Thanks!

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  15. We sooo love your organizer!! Do you have one for non-fiction or know where we could find one? Thanks so much for sharing!!
    Julie
    Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher

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  16. I downloaded your summary organizer to send home with one of my advanced kinders as a companion to her reading homework. Thanks so much!

    Sarah
    www.akindergardeninbloom.blogspot.com

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  17. This is perfect! I am going to be working on using SWBS with my guided reading groups over the next few weeks since they need a lot of work on summarizing.

    Thanks.

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  18. After teaching my students how to use it write a summary, I will put it in the Listen to Reading station.

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  19. I love the summarizing sheet, but the space for actually writing the summary on the bottom is just great! Thank you for sharing.

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  20. I plan to use this will one of my English language learners who is still very limited in English writing skills. Thanks for the download!

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  21. Great organizer!!! I was actually going to make something similar this weekend. You saved me the work!

    Angelia
    http://extraspecialteaching.blogspot.com

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  22. I duplicated this on chart paper and filled it in with the class after reading Elmer, by David McKee. We combined the first two parts in one sentence, the second two parts in another sentence, and the last part made a great final sentence for a summary!

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  23. I'm so glad that y'all could use the summarizing organizer! Thanks for all of the comments!

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  24. Just what I was looking for...thanks!
    Nancy

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  25. I love these! Suffix activities aren't common, and summarizing is something my students are really struggling with. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  26. You're welcome, Nancy! Luckeyfrog, I have a few other suffix activities that I'll have to try to post soon.

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  27. I was going to make one of these for my summarizing mini unit this week! I guess I don't have to now! Thanks to you and thanks to Pinterest!

    I am your newest follower.

    Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

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  28. Exactly right for writing brief summaries! Love the format.

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  29. Amber and Mrs. B, I'm glad you could use the organizer! Amber, I follow you! Thanks for all your great ideas!

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  30. Thanks for the summary organizer. We're homeschooling this year and struggling with getting our son to write about his reading; he just feels too overwhelmed. I think this will help him to organize his thoughts.

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  31. Hi Tallmorleys and Carla, I'm glad you find the organizer useful. It definitely helps my students focus and narrow their ideas.

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  32. I love the organizer. I found it via pinterest andI'm going to use it to help my daughter review her chapter book before taking the Accelerated Reader test on it.

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  33. Thanks for the wonderful freebies!
    Bea

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  34. This will definitely help my students who struggle!

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    Replies
    1. Breanna, it's a great way to help them focus their ideas!

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  35. So great! I have been using this strategy for years with my struggling readers, and I love your Graphic Organizer. Thanks!

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  36. The organizer is such a great companion for some of the story mapping posters out there. Thank you!

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  37. Plan on using it as a response when students are reading to themselves as part of daily 5.

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  38. I was going to use this in my guided reading groups to help the lower level kids practice the strategy of summarizing. THANK YOU so much for this.

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  39. thank you for the great freebie, looking forward to using it!

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  40. Going to use your summarizing organizer, as a writing plan for a narrative!

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  41. Love this! we're doing summarizing as a segway to theme... did a week on main idea/details, 2nd week on summarizing & third week is how they both help is determine theme. This is perfect!

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  42. Thank you for sharing your summary organizer!

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  43. This is great. I was going to make one like this with the summary area included on the organizer, but now I don't have to! Some of my kids have a hard time going from their organizer to a different sheet of paper. Thank you!

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  44. I will be using this organizer in my writing workshop class.

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  45. So glad that you all have been able to use this summarizing organizer! =O)

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  46. I plan on using this during our test prep week with "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle for language arts. Then we're headed right on to math for elapsed time and time to the minute. Thanks for sharing Wendy!

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  47. This is perfect for use with my middle school intervention students! They have been struggling with summary writing.

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  48. I use Into the Book Web Site to teach reading strategies
    http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/strategies.html
    I will use this sheet with the books that are good for teaching summaries.
    http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/summarizing/summarize_books.html

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  49. Thank you for this! My daughter wanted to work on improving her summary skills so we'll be doing this over the summer. Thanks!!

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  50. I teach freshmen, but it is shocking how many of them have no clue how to write a summary correctly! I love SWBST charts because it lays it out for them. Thanks so much!

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  51. I am so happy I found this! My daughter is having trouble writing summaries and I, admittedly, am not very good at explaining anything having to do with writing. My forte is math. I am hoping that this will help end our 2-3 hour battles over a 3-5 sentence summary as well as help my daughter understand summaries a lot better. Thank you!

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  52. My students struggle with this all year long, which is terrible because they must do it every night for homework. I hope to do this with my students for the first few weeks of school and hopefully their summaries will be looking awesome in no time!

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  53. Thanks so much for this printable. I am excited to use it with my 4th Grade class to help them better understand what summarizing means.

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  54. Thanks so much! Using this for homeschooing my 1st, 2nd and 6th grader :)

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  55. I am using it for my 5th grader for writer's workshop. It is the same one his teacher uses. I am making a master to keep as I am sure we will be needing many more. Thank you.

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  56. Fabulous organizer! Using it to review summary writing.

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  57. This is great! I'm using it to help show the students in my internship another strategy for monitoring while reading. Thanks!

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  58. I love this GO! I used it last year and I am using it again this year. Thanks so much!

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  59. I already use SWBTS for a 5 finger oral retell. Your super cute G.O. will give me something to hand to my students so then can use this to transition between the oral retell and written summary. Thanks so much!

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  60. I love your summarizing organizer. We are working on this skill in class this week.

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  61. Thanks for the summarizing organizer. It looks fantastic! It will be great in my ELL context to help students understand what makes for a good summary.

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  62. I love your organizor! I have a bilingual class and would like to translate it in, if you could email it me I would be able to edit it & send it bck to you if you'd like. lorraineramos@hebisd.edu

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  63. Thank you for the organizer! My 8 year old is bad at coming up with what to say, so I plan on having him use this for the books he reads over the summer to help him learn to organize his thoughts :)

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  64. This is great! I use it with my middle schoolers and it really helps them focus on what's important. It's also great for checking writing to make sure you have all the important elements of plot!

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  65. Thanks for this resource. We are getting ready to write summaries in my 5th grade class. We will be putting this to use.

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  66. Thanks for this resource. We are getting ready to write summaries in my 5th grade class. We will be putting this to use.

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  67. Thank you for this great idea! I am going to use it on Monday. :).

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  68. Thank you! I'm planning to use this as a tool for my Girl Scouts for their playwriting..😊

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  69. Thank you! I'm planning to use this as a tool for my Girl Scouts for their playwriting..😊

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  70. Thank you! This summary sheet is great!

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  71. Thank you for this useful resource. I plan to use it with my middle secondary class to give them guided structure for writing chapter summaries while we're reading our novel.

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  72. Thanks for the summary sheet! I plan to use it to help my advanced ELL students with summarizing.

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  73. Thanks for the SWBST graphic organizer. I plan to use it with 4th grade inclusion students.

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  74. Using the Summary organizer to use for guided/independent practice. So glad to see space to put it all together in a paragraph at the bottom of the page.

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  75. I love this graphic organizer for summary! I am using this for small group and independent reading, as well in my lessons on summary this week! I will also likely use this as a model to make a spanish version for my DLE kids.

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  76. I am a 4th grade teacher in a Literacy Collaborative classroom. We have used this format for summarizing fiction text for years but never had a really good organizer to use! Thanks so much for this! I will be using it in mini-lessons this week and in guided reading and writing as the year goes on.

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  77. I am a professor in a teacher prep program. I intend on referencing your blog and Somebody Wanted But So Then template for a session on narrative comprehension strategies. Thank you.

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  78. I teach ELL and will be using it with my 5th graders to summarize Number the Stars.
    Thank you so much! This is very well made.

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  80. I'm a parent who unfortunately feels my 6th grade son has not had enough "how to" taught on summarizing. Although he is expected to know the structure. Thank you for this organizer. It's a great foundation!

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  81. Just using this in our homeschool for our 4th grader who is learning how to summarize longer fiction books. Thanks!

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  82. Hi. I'm using your summary graphic organizer with my son. He's on February "ski break" and I want him to get a little work in : ) Thanks!

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  83. Thank you! This looks awesome. I'm looking for a graphic organizer to get my middle schoolers started on some "First Impression" summaries/write-ups for the books they've chosen.

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  84. thanks for the organizer! Using for my daughter's homeschooling. :)

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  86. I admire your resilience and optimism; your blog reminds me to always find the silver lining! Whether at school or the office, io games are your gateway to fun. Play today!

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