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Alabama ELA Standard: 5.LF.23.b

Summarize a story or drama, describing how the plot unfolds and how characters respond to challenges or change their thoughts and actions and citing textual evidence.

Summarize In Haiku: Power
Summarize In Haiku: Power
Can your students fit a whole story into seventeen syllables? Now do it from inside a character’s head. Then once more, following the power.
Shrinking A Summary
Shrinking A Summary
Can your students shrink a whole story down to one sentence? Every cut reveals what is truly essential.
Comparing Characters
Comparing Characters
Your young students will compare how two characters have changed in a story.
A Character’s Challenges and Changes
A Character’s Challenges and Changes
Your 1st and 2nd graders will analyze how a character responded to a challenge.
Writing Sample: A Christmas Carol (Cold)
Writing Sample: A Christmas Carol (Cold)
A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.
Romeo and Juliet Summary
Romeo and Juliet Summary
Romeo and Juliet in just about five minutes.
“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary
“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary
Shakespeare’s Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!
Twelfth Night Summary
Twelfth Night Summary
An animated summary of Shakespeare’s utterly ridiculous “Twelfth Night.”
Hamlet Summary
Hamlet Summary
It’s Hamlet in just about five minutes!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Nothing could possibly go wrong with a love potion on the loose!
Writing Summaries in Haiku
Writing Summaries in Haiku
Let’s write a summary. A very short summary. With VERY strict rules.
Better Stories Part 5: Plot Structure
Better Stories Part 5: Plot Structure
Ever read a student’s story that was just event after event after event and then a very sudden ending? They lack an understanding of a plot’s structure. With the help of Finding Nemo, I break down how to set up a well-structured plot.