Oral Summaries
An Overview
- An oral summary, like the written summary, involve a brief synopsis of the text read and includes the main points of the text. However, this method is done orally.
- Many ways to use the oral summary are similar to the written summary including summarizing a variety of length of sections including sections, chapter, or whole units and varying the length of the summary.
- A variation of an oral summary is a book talk, in which the presenter shares about a book and gives students interesting points to make others want to read the book (Miller & Veatch, 2011).
- Oral summarizing can be a higher level thinking activity because it requires comprehending, analyzing, and synthesizing (Kissner, 2006).
- Given that fact that children learn to listen and speak before they read and write, Fisher, Frey, and Rothenberg (2008) suggest that talking is an important stepping stone before student can write well. Therefore, an oral summarize is an effective way to summarize material as a preview to writing.
Reading Example
Use the oral summary method to do a book talk.
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Science Example
Use an oral summary to organize and convey information from smaller sections of text.
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The above video explains one effective way to do a book talk, including the purpose of a book talk. The presenter also includes an example of the book talk following the guidelines he gives.
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The above video is a student example of a student book talk. This student gives all essential components of a book talk, gets into character, and has props. She was well prepared and captures the attention of her audience.
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Writing Component
- One of the middle school writing standards for common core states: "Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters".
- The oral summary method is tied into the standard, specifically for the book talk variation. In a book talk, the presenter wants to give a good overview of the character and tell of interesting events to draw in the audience. The narrative techniques described in the standard also aid in making a better and more interesting book talk. Therefore, this standard is connected to this method, but in an oral way.
2. Another middle school writing standard for common core states: "Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content".
- This standard is also used in the oral summary method. Students do not write, however, they still must select the main points and organize the ideas. Students can still use something like a graphic organizer to help them visually and then summarize orally.