Summarising - Day 2

I have had a chat with Tom on our blog about summarising. He told me that it gives him shivers just thinking about it because he find it difficult.

I explained to Tom that one of the best ways to approach summarising is to imagine that after reading an article, someone asks you to tell them in 30 seconds what it was about.

What would you include from the article?
What would you leave out?

You summarise all the time without realising it:
- When I ask you how sport went in the weekend
- When you tell someone about a good book or movie that you saw
- When someone asks you what you did in the weekend

In each of these situations you are choosing the most important or relevant information to share with your audience (the person/people you are talking to).

If you click on this link there is a really good BBC lesson on summarising:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/literacy_7_11/text/newsid_1694000/1694088.stm



1. Read through the different stories, starting with the one about windpower.
2. Think about the questions that you are asked and how you would answer them.
3. Now read the article about Harry being made an honourary Bradford City fan and answer the who/what/where/why/how questions.
4. Find another article of your own and use the same process to summarise the article.