Our students just finished the first three chapters of the novel Esperanza by Carol Gaab, of TPRS Publishing. So far, so good. I’ve been using the Teacher’s Guide, which is very helpful. And the audio book is a great support for comprehension.

At the end of chapter 3 and the end of the week, it was a a good time to stop and digest what we’ve read so far. I had my first two classes write a summary of each of the first three chapters. I then realized that perhaps some students needed some support in writing a summary.

So we talked about “Los Eventos Importantes” from each chapter. I gave students a statement from each chapter and we decided “Es importante” o “No es (muy) importante”. You could prepare a list ahead of time and have students circle the “important events”, star the “super-important” events”, checkmark the “maybe important events” and cross out the “not important events”. This gives them a framework going forward of what type of information to include in a summary.

If you would like a blank template for students to write their own summaries, or for your to type in the events of any story or novel you are reading as a class, you can download our free template, click on the picture below: