Reading Strategy: Determine Importance

A good way to figure out what is important as you read is to summarize. When you summarize, you state only the most important ideas in a selection.

Reading Strategy Determine Importance
    How to Summarize

  • 1. Identify the Topic What is the paragraph mostly about?

  • 2. Find the Important Information What are the most important ideas about the paragraph’s topic?

  • 3. Summarize the Paragraph Tell about the topic and the most important ideas.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student figured out how to summarize what she read.

Look Into the Text: Mighty Muscle

Your heart works hard. It beats around ninety times a minute. Each minute, in fact, this powerhouse pumps your body’s entire supply of blood. That’s roughly 100,000 beats a day and 2.5 billion over a lifetime. Each beat sends oxygen and disease-fighting cells throughout your body.

This part tells the main idea.

These are the most important details.

Now look at how the student summarized what she read in a chart.

TopicImportant IdeasSummary
the heartIt pumps blood through the body. It fights disease.The heart works hard to keep the body healthy.

Practice Together

Start your own chart. As you read the selection, follow the steps in the How-To box to summarize each section.