Nonfiction Summary Literacy Center ⎮Animal Task Cards

Nonfiction Summary Unit

Task Cards

How do you get your boys attention during reading? You summarize unusual animals! The topics are high interest boy topics; but the girls in my class also liked the topics.

This is a two week unit, 31 pages in all, teaching summarizing using high interest boy topics. My focus while writing these was to find unique animals that my students might not have heard of.

Topics: Narwhal, Inland Taipan Snake, The King Cobra Snake, The White Tiger, The Goblin Shark, The Killer Whale, The Loch Ness Monster, The Venezuelan Skunk Frog, The Poison Dart Frog, and the Banded Piglet Squid.

There are ten summary cards with a full page graphic that goes with each one. There are also directions for the mini-lessons and the literacy center.

You can use these worksheets and cards however you see fit. I have literacy centers set up, so these just fit perfectly. I use them to introduce summarizing informational text, and then as a literacy center for partner and individual practice. You could also use it as a guided reading skill lesson.

I have included full page outlines and paragraph frames and half page. I use the half-page ones to save on paper. You could even duplex them so there is an outline on one side, and a paragraph frame on the other.

Also, if you like this lesson, you should check out some of my others:

Close Reading Killer Whales

Are the Bees Disappearing? Close Reading Lesson

Close Reading Yellowstone Wolves

The Loch Ness Monster Close Reading Unit

Megalodon Shark Close Reading Unit

Do Mermaids Exist? Close Reading Unit

Shark Controversy Close Reading Unit

Bigfoot Close Reading Unit

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