2nd - 8th Grade Summarize and Retell Worksheets

Use the templates to assemble and stage a puppet show based on the story.

Introduce your little reader to some classic childhood literature, with Rudyard Kipling's charming story "The Crab That Played with the Sea."

Children learn to use the "Somebody Wanted But So Then" method to write a short summary in this literacy worksheet.

Paraphrasing is all about summing up a lengthy text, and it can be a great way to help your child hone reading comprehension skills.

Young readers respond to the books they have completed with this versatile worksheet template.

Teach your students to write a simple summary using an easy-to-follow set of keywords.

Use this resource to read a nonfiction passage about sharks and write a summary.

Children are introduced to a helpful, five-word mnemonic device for remembering what to include in a fiction summary.

Introduce readers to the poem “When I Was One-and-Twenty” by English poet A. E. Housman with this sixth-grade worksheet! 

Your students will work together to find new vocabulary words and create a short summary of a nonfiction text related to the butterfly life cycle. Use this worksheet as an introduction to the Create a Nonfiction Text Summary lesson plan.

Help students build key reading comprehension skills by creating a story map for a book that they read. Students practice retelling, identifying characters, and making connections.

Students will use the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then structure to summarize a short fiction text.

Unwind the complicated language of the Declaration of Independence with this paraphrasing activity!

Help students master summarizing using keywords with this reading comprehension worksheet.

Use this simple organizer to help students track and record key ideas when reading and summarizing nonfiction texts.

Introduce readers to the poem "The Song of Wandering Aengus" by William Butler Yeats with this poetry analysis worksheet!
 

Use this worksheet to encourage critical thinking and support students’ literacy development by asking questions before, during, and after reading.

Practice writing nonfiction summaries as you read and learn about an interesting ocean creature.

The class watched an exciting movie about a castle adventure. But now the students need help recalling the details of the film.

Make sequencing stories more interesting than just beginning, middle, and end! This "handy" graphic organizer can be used with all fiction to help set up a concise but thorough summary using a five finger strategy.

Have your movie lover read about the history of movies, and then test her reading comprehension as she arranges the events to complete a timeline.

Read about the westward expansion of the United States and respond to questions about the informational text.

Help your students retell a simple fictional text using a paragraph frame for support! In this activity, students will read a short story about a family's camping trip and then summarize it by filling in the blanks.

Tuck this chapter summary chart into reading workshop folders to help students keep track of longer chapter books. When they finish the book, have them look back at this to create a whole-book summary!

Use this exercise with your students to create short summaries with transition words.

Use this half-sheet graphic reading log to help students write simple summaries.

Here's a chapter summary guide where your child can jot down the characters in a chapter, his favorite character and even predict what will happen next.

Stretch student understanding of story sequencing into a summary with this graphic organizer. Students will start by jotting down quick notes to remember each part of the story, then they'll use their notes to write a complete summary of the text.

Children will practice using a text to create a timeline in this engaging worksheet.

Young readers will practice synthesizing information from multiple sources on the same topic in this reading comprehension worksheet.