Summarising, step by step
A summary is short and covers the whole thing. This frame does both.
- SOMEBODYWho is the main character?
- WANTEDWhat did they want?
- BUTWhat got in the way?
- SOWhat did they do about it?
- THENHow did it end?
worked
- Somebody: a hungry caterpillar
- Wanted: to eat
- But: he ate too much and felt ill
- So: he ate a leaf and built a cocoon
- Then: he became a butterfly
A summary leaves out your opinion and the small details. If it is as long as the book, start again.
Questions about the Summarising poster
- What’s on the Summarising poster?
- 5 numbered steps, with a full worked run-through. A summary is short and covers the whole thing. This frame does both. SOMEBODY — Who is the main character?; WANTED — What did they want?; BUT — What got in the way?; SO — What did they do about it?; THEN — How did it end?. A summary leaves out your opinion and the small details. If it is as long as the book, start again.
- Who is the Summarising poster for?
- Summarising is filed under 4th Grade (ages 9–10), so it matches what that year asks a child to remember. It is equally useful to an older student revisiting literacy, and to the parent or teacher answering the question at the kitchen table.
- When should you use the Summarising poster?
- Retell a whole book in five sentences using this frame. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Summarising belongs on the wall where that literacy work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Summarising?
- Commas in a List, Editing Checklist and Figurative Language sit alongside Summarising in the 4th Grade set. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Commas in a ListEditing ChecklistFigurative Language
- Is the Summarising poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Summarising downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the 4th Grade set. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Summarising poster print at?
- Summarising is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Summarising loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Summarising on the same wall.
Browse every 4th Grade poster, or start from the full catalogue.