The Five Finger Summary Strategy

Pre-Summary
Write a quick summary of the play.

What is summarizing?
Summarizing involves taking large sections of text

and reducing them into shorter, concise passages.

Summarizing involves the key ideas or the gist
of the story or article.
When summarizing, you should use your own
words without changing the meaning of the
writing, and you should maintain the plots
sequence.
Remember to focus on only the most important
details.

The Five Finger Summary

Strategy
The five finger
summary is an easy
method to quickly
summarize any
narrative piece.
It can be used for a
page, for a chapter,
or for an entire book.

Lets Practice

http://www.toonjet.com/cartoon/285/WaltDisneyClassics/Three-Little-Pigs/

Somebody
This is the person considered the main

character.
This character drives the action of the story.
It can be a group.
In the Three Little Pigs, the somebody is the

three little pigs.

Wanted
What is the main character trying to do?
What is the goal of the character?
This usually leads to the problem.
In the Three Little Pigs, the pigs wanted to

have their own homes.

But
This is the main problem of the story.
It is usually in the middle of a story.
It is the challenge facing the main character.
In the story The Three Little Pigs, the wolf

keeps blowing down the pigs houses.

So
This is the main consequence of a story.
It is also usually found in the middle of the

story.
It can sometimes come before the but.
In The Three Little Pigs the pigs run to each

others houses to escape the wolf.

In the end
This represents the solution or resolution of

the story.
It is usually at the end.
In The Three Little Pigs the pigs were safe in

the house of bricks.

Example of the Five Finger

Summary
The three little pigs
wanted to build their
own houses, but a wolf
kept blowing them
down one at a time.
So, each piggy
escaped to his
brothers house for
safety. In the end, all
three pigs were safe in
the last pigs brick
house.

Lets practiceWilma
Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was the first American female runner to win three gold

medals in the Olympic Games. Her performance was all the more
remarkable in light of the fact that she had double pneumonia and scarlet
fever as a young child and could not walk without braces until age 11.
Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, the 17th
of 19 children, and soon moved with her family to Clarksville. At an early
age, she survived polio and scarlet fever, only to be left with the use of
one leg. Through daily leg massages administered in turn by different
members of her family, she progressed to the point where she was able
walk only with the aid of a special shoe. Three years later, however, she
discarded the shoe and began joining her brother in backyard basketball
games. At Burt High School in Clarksville, while a sophomore, Rudolph
broke the state basketball record for girls. As a sprinter, she was
undefeated in all of her high school track meets.
In 1957, Rudolph enrolled at Tennessee State University and began setting
her sights on the Olympic Games in Rome. In the interim, she gained
national recognition in collegiate meets, setting the world record for 2000
meters in July of 1960. In the Olympics, she earned the title of the "World's
Fastest Woman" by winning gold medals for the 100-meter dash, the 200meter dash (Olympic record), and for anchoring the 400-meter relay
(world record). She was named by The Associated Press as the U.S. Female
Athlete of the Year for 1960 and also won United Press Athlete of the Year
honors.

Lets try the Five Finger

Summary
Who is the somebody?
Wilma Rudolph
What did she want?
She wanted to walk and run.
But?
She was sick with polio and wore a leg brace.
So?
Her mother and family massaged her legs daily,

and she exercised her muscles every day.

What happened in the end?
In the end, Wilma was able to walk and run so well
that she won three medals at the 1960 Olympics.

The Summary
Wilma Rudolph wanted to walk and run like a

normal child, but she had polio and had to

wear a leg brace. So her mother and family
had to massage her legs daily. Wilma also
exercised. In the end, Wilma not only learned
to walk and run without her brace, she
became a three time Olympic gold medal
winner.

On Your Own
Go back to your summary of the play from the

beginning of class.
Re-write the summary
Use the Five Finger Strategy to summarize the
story.
Be prepared to share your summary.