Writing Effective Conclusions

Mentor Texts for Writing Endings

One goal of many primary teachers is to help students finish their drafts with an ending other than “The End” (or “they lived happily ever after”). Katie DiCesare shows her first graders many alternative examples, and she begins early in the year.

Teaching Summary with Book Blurbs

Katherine Sokolowski finds her fifth graders can give detailed retellings during conferences, but struggle to come up with succinct summaries. Writing book blurbs is her creative solution for building summarizing skills.

Discussion and Summary As a Prelude to Fiction Writing

Endings Minilesson with Second Graders

Cathy Laker uses her own writing as a mentor text with her second-grade students to demonstrate options for endings.

The Sponge Summary Lesson Part 1

In this sequence of videos, Heather teaches a fourth-grade class, using the analogy of a sponge to explain how summaries work. In this first video excerpt, Heather reviews the work the class has already done on understanding the attributes of good summaries.

Main Ideas, Summaries, and Notes in a Reading Conference

In this conference with a fourth grader, Aimee Buckner tackles text choice, notes, and main ideas all in less than five minutes. You’ll notice teachers observing in the background; the conference is part of a demonstration lesson sequence.