Summarizing Worksheet

Summarizing is the skill of pulling the most important ideas out of a text and retelling them in a few clear sentences of your own. Fourth graders meet longer stories and articles every day, and they need a reliable way to separate the big ideas from the small details. This Summarizing Worksheet gives them that method, using a five-question graphic organizer built around who, what, where, when, and how. When students answer those five questions first, the summary almost writes itself, and the guesswork disappears.

This 4th grade graphic organizers worksheet opens with an original story called The Fourth-Grade Food Drive, written at a fourth-grade reading level. Students read the story on page one, then move to page two and complete the organizer, filling in one card for each of the five questions. Once the cards are finished, they use their own notes to write a two- or three-sentence summary on the lines below. Use it as guided practice after a mini-lesson, as independent seatwork, as a reading-center task, or as a quick check before a comprehension assessment. A complete answer key is included so grading takes only a moment.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 1 original fourth-grade story, a 5-question who/what/where/when/how graphic organizer, and a guided summary writing task

There are three reasons this Summarizing Worksheet helps kids learn the skill. First, the organizer breaks an abstract task into five concrete questions, so a student who freezes at “write a summary” always has a place to start. Second, writing the answers down before drafting forces students to choose what matters, which is the real thinking work of summarizing. Third, the directions ask students to leave the small details out, so they practice judgment rather than simply copying sentences from the story.

Teachers and parents can stretch this skill in plenty of other ways. Try summarizing a chapter of a read-aloud out loud at the end of each day, or challenge students to retell a favorite movie in exactly twenty words. Cut a familiar story into strips and have partners sort the key events from the extra details. Newspaper headlines make wonderful models, since a headline is a summary in a handful of words. Finish the week by having students summarize each other’s writing and compare notes.

Related Resources

• Summarizing Organizer Worksheet
• Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer Worksheet
• Note Taking and Summarizing Graphic Organizer
• Story Elements Song by Have Fun Teaching