Teaching Kids How to Summarize
Write an Interview to Help Process and Remember Information
Oct 26, 2009
By taking biographical information about a fictional character or a real life role model and turning the biography into an interview, students have a fun way of learning new material and picking out main and supporting ideas. This activity also aids in reading comprehension, formatting questions, and summarizing.
Start With a Popular Fictional Character or Real Life Role Model
Pick a popular fictional character or a real life role model that the students like or are familiar with.
Locate or print out biographical information about this character or person. Some things to look for are:
- Where does this person live?
- What does he or she eat?
- Who are his or her friends?
- What does he or she like to do for fun?
- Where does he or she work?
Before having the students read the biography, ask them what would they like to know about this character or person. (This will often be the main idea of the interview.)
Have the Students Read the Information About Their Favorite Character or Person
Once the students have read about their favorite character or person, have them write out interview questions based on the information given to them. These questions should enable the reader to determine the main idea and supporting details. They should ask when, what, where, why, and how.
The main idea tells what the topic is about. In this case, the fictional character or person is the main idea. Students should ask themselves, "What sets this character or person apart from others?" to help them come up with the supporting details.
Supporting details follow the main topic and give additional details, facts, and examples. They also make the main idea stronger.
In order to have the students pick out important information they can do one or more of the following:
- Outline the Information
- Take Notes on the Information
- Use Idea-Grams
- Organizational Charts
- Four Square Method
- Skim for Details
- Write a summary
Together the class will decide on several questions to ask in the interview. The students will then fill in the answers based on the biographical material supplied or printed for them. They will now have their questions and answers.
Students Write the Material in Interview Format
Have one student be the interviewer and the other the interviewee. If time permits, have the students take turns in each role for additional fun. Teachers can also break students into groups of two and have them work on writing the interview together. This is a good way to determine if the students have a a clear understanding of the main idea and supporting details, and are able to summarize. This is also great activity to do during a review.
Students are more likely to remember information if it is presented in a fun and informative way. Basically the students will read information about a particular subject and paraphrase what they read by writing question and answers to create an interview.
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