Reading Strategy: Determine Importance

As you read nonfiction, decide what is important so you can remember it. One way to do this is to summarize as you read.

Reading Strategy Determine Importance
    How to Summarize Nonfiction

  • 1. Read the title, headings, and first paragraph. Look for clues that tell you what the selection is mostly about.

  • 2. As you read, pause after each paragraph to decide what the author wants you to know about the topic. Record your ideas.

  • 3. Then use your notes as guides to tell what the author mostly is saying about the topic.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student summarized.

Look Into the Text

Bonds of Slavery

section heading

In 1830, Josiah Henson was 41 years old. A life of slavery was all he had ever known. Born in Maryland, Henson was taken from his family as a child. He was bought and sold many times.

Henson lived on a plantation, or large farm, in Kentucky. He had a wife and four children. He tried to buy his way out of slavery, but his owner, Amos Riley, tricked him. Riley kept the money that Henson paid for his freedom, but he did not let Henson go.

Summary Planner

Title: Escaping to Freedom

Topic: Slavery

Paragraph 1:
Josiah Henson was bought and sold many times as a slave.
+
Paragraph 2:
+
(to end of selection)
=

Summary of Selection:_______

“The heading tells me that the topic is slavery.”

“These important details about Henson’s life relate to the topic.”

Practice Together

Read the passage again, and summarize the second paragraph. Follow the steps in the How-To box.