Summarizing and Drawing Well-Supported Conclusions

Remember from Grade 4

In Grade 4 you summarized the main idea and supporting details in sequence and added a simple conclusion. You used Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then for stories.

In Grade 5 your conclusion must be well-supported: you will back it up with more than one piece of evidence and explain how the evidence proves it. You'll also explain which strategies helped you most.

Hook: The 20-word challenge

Can you tell what a whole movie or book is about in 20 words or fewer? Try it with a movie you know. It's harder than it sounds! You have to choose only the most important ideas. That's summarizing.

Nature's Engineers

This informational text was written for this website.

Beavers are among the few animals that change their environment in a big way. Using their strong front teeth, beavers cut down trees and branches. They pile the branches across a stream and pack them with mud and stones to build a dam.

The dam blocks the water and creates a pond. In the pond, beavers build a lodge, a home of sticks and mud with underwater entrances. The water protects them from predators, such as wolves.

The new pond and the wet land around it become a wetland. Wetlands are home to frogs, fish, ducks, insects and many plants. Moose come to eat the water plants. Wetlands also store water like a sponge, which can help slow down floods and keep streams flowing in dry weather.

Beavers can cause problems, too. Their dams sometimes flood roads, farm fields or trails. Some communities use special pipes that let water flow through a dam, so the beavers can stay and the flooding stops.

The beaver became an official symbol of Canada in 1975. It appears on the Canadian five-cent coin.

Drawing a well-supported conclusion

A conclusion goes beyond the summary. It's a judgment you make after thinking about all the information. A well-supported conclusion has:

1. A clear conclusion statement.
2. At least two or three pieces of evidence from the text.
3. An explanation of how the evidence proves it.

Weak: Beavers are good. (No evidence. Good is vague.)

Well-supported: Beavers are important to other living things. Evidence: their dams create wetlands that are home to frogs, fish, ducks and insects; moose eat the plants that grow there; and wetlands store water that keeps streams flowing in dry weather. Explanation: many animals and plants depend on the habitat that beavers create.

Check your conclusion: Does the text give evidence against it? The text says dams can cause flooding. A careful conclusion might add: Beavers sometimes cause problems for people, but those problems can often be solved.

Reflecting on strategies

After reading, think about how you understood. Which strategy helped most?

• Visualizing: I pictured the lodge with underwater doors, so I understood how the water keeps beavers safe.
• Predicting: I predicted beavers would cause problems too, so I watched for that part.
• Summarizing: Summarizing each paragraph in one sentence helped me remember the order.
• Connecting: I've seen a beaver pond on a hike, so I understood how big it can be.

Then set a next step: Next time, I will stop after each paragraph and summarize it in my head. Knowing your strengths and goals is part of being an engaged learner.