Description

Help your 4th and 5th-grade students master how to write a summary this who, what, when, where, and why worksheet bundle. The How to Write a Summary resource helps with summarizing in upper elementary.

Many upper-elementary students struggle to pull out the essential information in a text and then write a summary that is both complete and concise. This bundle gives you the tools to teach summarizing in two stages:

1. Reinforce the “5 Ws” (Who, What, When, Where, Why) so students can identify important details.
2. Then teach the next step: how to organize those details and write a clean 4 – 5 sentence summary of a fiction passage.

What’s Included in How to Write a Summary:

•12 original stories/trifolds

•12 summary hand

•Blank trifold for printing

•Blank page summary hand

•20 original short stories written for upper elementary readers

•“Who, What, When, Where, Why” graphic organizers for each story

•Summarizing Anchor Charts

• What Summarizing Is
• Do’s and Don’ts of Summarizing
• Summary Sentence Starters

•Blank Page to use your own story.

•Sentence Strip activity with directions, tabs & rubric

•Answer keys for teachers

How this bundle works together

• First, use the 5 Ws resource to help students identify and extract the essential elements of a text: the characters (Who), setting/time (when/where), event (What), and reason/motivation (why).
• Then, transition to the summary-writing resource to show them how to organize those details and craft a coherent, concise summary.
• The scaffolding builds students’ confidence in identifying information →, sequencing the story →, and producing a polished summary.
• Because both resources are included, you save planning time and maintain instructional consistency across your summarizing unit.
  

Teacher-friendly features

• Easy to print and use right away — minimal prep required.
• Adaptable for different modes: whole-class modeling, independent worksheets, small-group intervention, homework, or station work.
• Student-friendly visuals and scaffolded organizers help reluctant writers and ELLs.
• Assessment-ready: Use the sentence-strip activity and rubric from the second resource for summative evaluation.
• Aligns with many upper-elementary ELA standards (main idea/detail, summarizing, writing, reading comprehension).

Suggested use

1. Launch with a mini-lesson: What is a summary? Why do we use summarizing? Use anchor charts from Resource 1.
2. Practice with the short stories and 5Ws chart from Resource 1, guiding students to fill out Who, What, When, Where, and Why for each story.
3. Model how to move from the chart to a summary sentence or paragraph, showing how to leave out unnecessary details.
4. Transition to Resource 2: Use the foldable/trifold to guide them through story elements and then write their summary.
5. Extend: Use the sentence-strip activity to allow students to physically manipulate story events. Then, write a summary and assess it using the included rubric.
6. Review/Assess: Independent summary writing, using any story (teacher-provided or class read-aloud), leveraging the blank organizers included.

Geared towards Upper Elementary

In fourth and fifth grade, students are expected to move beyond retelling into summarizing — selecting and conveying the most important information in a shorter form. This bundle scaffolds how to write a summary with structured supports and gradually increases independence.

Click here for additional ➡️ SUMMARY PRACTICE

Copyright © Marcy’s Mayhem

All rights reserved by the author

Permission to copy for single-classroom use