A summary is a brief statement of a text's most important information. Summaries are written in ones own words - you shouldn't copy anything directly from the text.
For example, if I summarized the story of Red Riding Hood, I would say, “A girl named Red Riding Hood walks through the woods to her grandmother’s house and meets a wolf. The wolf hurries ahead to the grandmother’s house and eats her. He tries to trick Red Riding Hood into thinking he is the grandmother. A nearby woodsman kills the wolf and frees the grandmother from inside the wolf.”
Notice that I didn’t mention anything about why the girl is called Red Riding Hood. I also didn’t tell the part where the she says, “What big teeth you have, Grandmother.” Those details aren’t important enough to include in a summary.
Have your child read a story or part of a story aloud to you. After reading, have them retell the story in a summary. Start at the beginning and work your way to the end. Help them determine what is an important detail to include and what is not important. Remember, a detail is considered unimportant if it is left out of the summary and does not affect the plot in any way. Your child can practice summarize paragraphs, chapters or even entire stories. Encourage them to use their library books.
A story's theme is its central idea or what the author wants readers to remember after they have finished a story. Sometimes the theme is obvious. The author may have a character state it in the dialogue, or there may be a moral (lesson) that identifies it at the end. More often, however, a theme is developed over the course of a story and readers must use relevant details to infer a theme on their own.
For example, if I read the story The Tortoise and the Hare the theme of the story is "Consistent effort and focus can lead to success, even if it may take longer than expected."
Notice that the theme does not include any characters or events. The events however, help the reader to understand a lesson that the characters learned but are not included in the theme itself.
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