Duck Overboard Summary

Summarising the Main Idea

L.I. To look for keywords and phrases

Good readers notice key words.  Here are some clues to help you find key words:

• Key words are directly connected to the topic
• Key words are often repeated in the title and the text
• A key word helps you to remember an important idea

Use this table to help you summarise the main ideas in a text in your own words.  It is important that you use your own words to show your understanding and to avoid plagiarism.  If you don’t know what some words mean, look them up.

Keywords from the title Duck

Keywords from sub headings Duck Overboard

New words I need to look up invaluable aid corroded

Read the text and record key words/phrases that answer these questions:

What? Ship was hit and 3 containers of rubber bath toys spilled spreading around the world.

Where? Ocean.

When? January 1992.

Who? Ebbesmeyer, Mr Ebbesmeyer

Why? A storm hit a ship causing 3 containers to spill from it, the containers were filled with rubber bath toys.

How? A storm

Now using the words you wrote down summarise the text in 25 words or less.

In 1992, a storm hit a ship causing containers of bath toys to spill. They spread different direction, and were used to mark the ocean.

L.I to identify the main ideas in a text.

For this weeks activity we had to write the 5 W's and 1 H to the story - Duck overboard - which we read about a week ago. We then had to write a summary using the words we wrote in 25 words or less. We also wrote what we thought the key words from the title were, key words from the sub heading, and new words we didn't know the meaning of. I learnt more about being able to explain what the main idea was using skim and scan strategy.