Summarizing

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Summarizing
By Dawn

At a reading inservice I attended this summer, I learned a neat trick. It was called SWBS, which stands for Somebody Wanted But So. You have the kids summarize by telling:
"somebody" (the main character, usually)
"wanted"
(their motivation or purpose in the book or story)
"but" (the conflict--what stood in the way of what they wanted)
"so"--what the character did to solve the problem; a.k.a. the resolution.
You can model it by teaching with the Cinderella story:
Somebody (Cinderella)
Wanted (to go to the ball)
But (she had evil stepmother and stepsisters who wouldn't let her)
So

(her fairly godmother stepped in and helped her go to the ball)

You could also model it using the other characters in the story (like the prince), and it would help teach the differenct characters' point of view and motivations.

It keeps it short and simple--I plan to use this in my class a lot this year.