Last week we learned how to analyze and summarize nonfiction readings - things like newspaper articles, essays, textbook chapters. However, using the Chain of Main Ideas technique is only really useful with these kinds of readings. It won't work for stories. Therefore, we need a separate tool to analyze and summarize stories. So, this week's procedure focuses on locating and understanding the essential parts of all stories.Why should I learn this?
Good question. I think, for most people, learning to summarize nonfiction text is more important - for high school subjects, college, and jobs - than summarizing stories. However, between right now (the beginning of eighth grade) and your freshman year of college, you'll probably be expected to understand about a hundred stories between now and then. Plus, most people LOVE stories - reading novels, watching movies and fiction television shows - and learning how to understand how stories work makes stories more fun, just like practicing a sport should, in the end, make it more fun to play. The picture for this theme is of O. Henry - a master of the classic short story, which is a well-made machine to deliver smart fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment