Let’s explore a video

The following episode of TVOK News spotlights the way people around the world are changing their behaviour to help the environment. As you explore, keep track of the main points using a method of your choice. What is this oral text mostly about?

What is a summary?

Creating a summary involves extracting the important elements from any text, including an oral text. The purpose of a summary is to quickly give the reader and/or listener an idea of what the text is about.

Summarizing is also a helpful way to check that you understand a text. That is, if you can summarize the key ideas in a text, you likely have a good understanding of the information that is presented in it. There are different strategies you can use to break down larger pieces of text into a concise summary. Let’s explore the Five W’s and H strategy.

Five W’s and H

Before you create your summary, it’s important to categorize the information that you have explored. When it comes to nonfiction texts, you can use the Five W’s and H strategy to help you identify important information about a topic.

The Five W’s and H are a group of simple questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to create your summary!

The questioning frame below, provides examples of various question forms that you can use for each of the Five W’s and H.

• Who? Who participated? Who is involved? Who is affected?
• What? What is the topic of the oral text? What happened? What is the problem? What are the issues?
• Where? Where did the event take place? Alternatively, where is the event taking place?
• When? When did the event occur? When did the problem begin?
• Why? Why did the event, issue, or problem occur?
• How? How is the issue important? How does it affect those involved?

Let’s return to our video from the Minds On section. What was it about? Explore the episode again with the Five W’s and H in mind. Keep track of information that you can use to answer the six questions. You can practice recording your ideas in the Nonfiction Summary Template in your notebook or using the following fillable activity document. You can also record your answers using any method of your choice.

Cross-reference your observations with the filled-in and completed template.

Summarize the following video

Use the Five W’s and H strategy to summarize another oral text about turning food waste into something called, “bio-plastic.”

Respond to the Five W’s and H questions. Once the questions have been answered, organize the information to create a summary. Complete this activity in the Nonfiction Summary Template in your notebook or using the following fillable document. You can also record your thoughts using a method of your choice.

Share and reflect

Reflection

How do you feel about what you have learned in this activity?  Which of the next 4 sentences best matches how you are feeling about your learning? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

Now, record your ideas about your feelings using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.

Press ‘Discover More’ to extend your skills.

Discover More