Summary writing is challenging at best for native speakers let along English language learners who often resort to copying huge amounts of text from the original source feeling they can’t paraphrase due to their lack of vocabulary.
Last semester and again now this semester actively, I started a new practice of asking students to focus on using the ten survival words in their summary and limiting the number of sentences they could use. This has resulted in a noticeable improvement in my students’ summary writing in general. The summaries are shorter, less copying from text, and more on point. I have now tried this with my low-intermediate to advanced writing courses with much success.
It is important that students understand what a “survival word” is. These are the content words which one would need to discuss the article; the words themselves develop the topic. For example, the students just read an article (attached) called “You Can Grow Your Intelligence,” and selected the following words: grow, intelligence, brain, stronger, practicing, exercise, smart, dumb, connections, muscles. The assignment was then to write a summary of this article, following our summary checklist, also attached. An example of one summary was:
According to the article “You Can Grow Your Intelligence” by National Association of Independent School,” you can grow your intelligence and make your brain stronger by learning new things, by practicing, to be in challenging situations and training the brain like muscles when you exercise. The article also states, notions like “smart” and “dumb” are abstract concepts and rather depend on learning or not learning. By learning, one’s brain cells get larger and connections between neurons stronger; even though many people for some reasons do not use the chance to grow a stronger brain.
So, a summary lesson would look like this:
Review summary characteristics and checklist.
Review title, subheadings.
Read the article aloud (I like students to read a loud for practice)
Ask questions about uncertainties in the article;
Chunk the article by groups (student groups each assigned a paragraph to summarize main idea in one-two sentences).
Write chunks on the board for review by the class.
Vote on survival words (students all contribute one and then we vote as a class for the top ten)
Students assigned to write a summary of article using ten survival words, underlining each. Words may be used in different parts of speech. <You Can Grow Your Intelligence > < SummaryEval > <Survival Words >
Hi, I’ve been a professor of ESL at Yuba College since 2003. In that capacity, I teach our advanced writing courses and VESL-related courses; i.e., Computer Skills for ESL and English for Employment. Prior to Yuba College, I have lived and taught in The Czech Republic, Turkey, Kuwait, and England. My interests are sports such as skiing, hiking, biking, and traveling for long periods to anywhere I have not been.