Success Homeschool

Primary 4 English · Summarising texts

Name: ______________________

Date: ____________

1. Which is the best summary of the sea turtle text?
- ☐ (a) Sea turtles have flippers.
- ☐ (b) Sea turtles live and travel in the ocean, but females lay their eggs on beaches, and the babies hatch and go to the sea.
- ☐ (c) A female turtle lays around one hundred eggs at night in a hole on a sandy beach.
2. Which of these is a minor detail that could be left out of a summary of the turtle text?
- ☐ (a) Sea turtles live mostly in the ocean.
- ☐ (b) Female turtles lay their eggs on land.
- ☐ (c) A female lays around one hundred eggs.
3. A good summary is…
- ☐ (a) longer than the original text
- ☐ (b) copied word for word
- ☐ (c) shorter than the original and in your own words
4. Which question helps you find the key ideas in a text?
- ☐ (a) What is this mostly about?
- ☐ (b) How many words are there?
- ☐ (c) What colour is the cover?
5. Which is the best one-sentence summary of the Ella story?
- ☐ (a) Ella got three new books from the library.
- ☐ (b) Ella's tyre went flat on the way to the library, but the librarian lent her a pump so she could ride home.
- ☐ (c) The library has a back room.
6. In the turtle text, where do female turtles lay their eggs?
7. What word does the turtle text use for the baby turtles? Type one word.
8. In the 'Somebody wanted, but, so, then' frame, which word introduces the problem? Type the word.

Answer sheet

1. Sea turtles live and travel in the ocean, but females lay their eggs on beaches, and the babies hatch and go to the sea. — It covers all the key ideas briefly. The other options are single details.
2. A female lays around one hundred eggs. — The number of eggs is an interesting detail, but the summary makes sense without it.
3. shorter than the original and in your own words — A summary is brief and paraphrased.
4. What is this mostly about? — Asking what a text or paragraph is mostly about points you to the key ideas.
5. Ella's tyre went flat on the way to the library, but the librarian lent her a pump so she could ride home. — It includes the character, the problem and the solution.
6. on a sandy beach — 'A female crawls up a sandy beach, digs a hole and lays around one hundred eggs.'
7. hatchlings — 'The hatchlings dig their way out and race to the sea.'
8. but — Somebody wanted…, but (the problem)…, so…, then…. The word 'but' introduces the problem.