Outcome: Summary Skills

Identify Summary Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Being able to accurately summarize a reading to someone else is the ultimate demonstration that you understand the reading’s contents.

Consider this fun example of a summary from the “30-Second Bunny Theater” series:


This recap of the well-known movie Star Wars is a blend of major plot points and fan-favorite scenes. In other words, it conveys all the major points of the film. It also adds a couple of supporting details to capture the flavor of the entire movie. Plus bunny ears.

What You Will Learn to Do

  • identify annotation strategies
  • identify strategies to paraphrase a text’s thesis statement
  • identify strategies to identify and quote significant passages from a text
  • identify strategies to distinguish a text’s major claims from minor ones
  • identify strategies to convey the essential features of a text to someone who hasn’t read it

The Learning Activities for This Outcome Include

  • Text: Annotating
  • Text: Paraphrasing a Thesis Statement
  • Text: Choosing Appropriate Quotes
  • Presentation: Major and Minor Details
  • Video: Summarizing
  • Self Check: Summary Skills
  • Try It: Summary Skills