Why Teach Summarizing?

An earlier blog post focused on the importance of writing (Paolucci, 2018). Academic research and educational journals on the topic confirm our regard for this skill.  Writing has been shown to “promote thinking and learning across the curriculum” (Hill, 1991) and be “critical to student success in postsecondary education” (USDOE, 2011).  Knowing its importance, Smithfield schools have engaged in a multi-year partnership with Collins Writing to improve the frequency and quality of student writing across all grades and subjects.  

To be clear, summarizing has long been known to be an important tool for both comprehension of subject-matter and for improving overall reading and writing skills. In fact, as a chemistry teacher in the 90’s, my own professional development had focused on reading and writing in the content areas and had included summarizing as a tool for use in content-area classrooms.  A Google search on summarizing results in a number of articles written in the 1990’s, including the Hill article, cited above. While I’ve thrown away dozens of college textbooks, the one that still sits on my shelf and continues to have value is Manzo and Manzo’s text, Content Area Reading:  A Heuristic Approach (1990).  

Collins Writing provides a consistent approach to the teaching of writing to enable teachers to use common vocabulary about writing and ensure that students have multiple, consistent experiences practicing writing.  After a short training held before the start of the school year, middle and high school teachers embarked on applying what Collins Writing refers to as “10 percent summaries,” since their goal is to be about 10 percent of the length of the original text (Collins, 2017).    

Ten percent summaries are designed for nonfiction text that is 700-3,000 words in length and should connect with the learning goals for the course or class. The structure provided by Collins Writing includes a beginning sentence that comprises the source of the text, the title, authors, and the topic, preceded by a verb that describes the author’s purpose. Main ideas then follow in the order presented in the text, omitting the writer’s opinion.  

Not everyone has a strong love for writing but all want their students to learn whatever content is being taught and want students to be college and career ready.  Using 10 percent summaries enables a deeper understanding of course content if the content of the article or text is connected to the course objectives. Moreover, such skill development can improve PSAT and SAT scores and make more students college and career ready.

Collins, J. (2017).  Summary writing as a critical school improvement strategy. Unpublished manuscript.

Hill, M. (1991). Writing Summaries Promotes Thinking and Learning across the Curriculum: But Why Are They so Difficult to Write? Journal of Reading, 34(7), 536-539. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40014578

Manzo, A. & Manzo, U. (1990).  Content area reading: A Heuristic approach.  Columbus, OH: Merrill Publishing Company.

Paolucci, J. (2018, November 11).  Re: Writing – A key to academic success [Web log message].  Retrieved from http://judypaolucci.edublogs.org/2018/11/23/writing-a-key-to-academic-success/

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. (2011). Just Write! Guide. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/ teal/guide/teachsumm

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