Summary Reflection Shelves

Summarizing seems to be one the hardest skills for 5th graders to grasp or is it just my kiddos!? so I incorporate it often into social studies. In this lesson, the students work as a group or in partners to CLOSE read one of the major events that led to the Revolution (Boston Tea Party, Boston Massacre, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Proclamation of 1763) then pull out key vocabulary words and use those words to create a summary of the event. 

Once they have established a written summary, students than create their own, independent "shelf" out of paper. 

I have them add 5 vocabulary words to one triangle (I tell them to think of words that a 3rd or 4th grader might not know because you always have those couple kiddos who "know all of these words, they aren't even hard." grrrr....ha!) 

In the second box, they illustrate the event or create a symbol to represent what they summarized. Finally, the third triangle should include their final summary. 

I really like how these turn out, and I like the independent reflection the students have to put into of the historical event. I find that it helps them remember it better. They could be used for anything - reflecting on a reading story, historical event, scientific discovery/method, etc.