I’ll never forget the day I brought in a stack of university textbooks to show my reading class what was eventually waiting for them.
Fahad picked up a biology textbook, flipped through a few pages, and his face went pale. His TOEFL score had just improved a lot, and he could practically taste the end of ESL classes. He wanted to be in university, but he hadn’t put much thought into what would happen once he was there.
“This is…this is what they will give me?”
“Yep. And professors will assign multiple chapters at a time.”
He looked genuinely panicked as the book dropped to the table. “How do I remember everything?”
Here’s the thing: Fahad had never learned to summarize. Not in Arabic. Not in English. Not ever. And he’s not alone.
Your University-Bound Students are Walking into a Trap
Depending on your students’ educational backgrounds, summarization might be completely foreign to them. Maybe it wasn’t emphasized in their culture. Maybe their schooling focused on memorization instead of synthesis. Whatever the reason, they’re headed to university without one of the most essential reading strategies they’ll ever need.
And that’s a problem.
Because university professors don’t care that your students never learned this. They’re going to assign six chapters for Tuesday, four more for Thursday, and expect everyone to show up ready for a quiz. Your students will try to memorize every single detail, burn out by week three (if they even make it that far), and wonder why no one else seems to be struggling.
Right or wrong, that’s the reality.
So, What does Summarization Actually do?
When students learn to summarize, they’re learning to figure out what’s essential and what’s just supporting information. They’re training themselves to spot keywords and main ideas instead of drowning in details.
They’ll use this at university when they study for exams, write papers, or take notes during lectures. They’ll use it in the workplace when they need to brief their boss or skim a 40-page report. They’ll use it when they’re reading instructions, news articles, or literally anything longer than a text message.
But try explaining that to a student who’s never had to do it before.
Show Them Why it Matters…with real university textbooks
My favorite way to make this real? Bring in actual university textbooks. Bonus points if you can get ones that match your students’ intended majors.
Give them a few minutes to flip through the books. Let them see the dense paragraphs, the technical vocabulary, the sheer volume of information packed onto every page.
Then tell them professors will assign multiple chapters at a time. Watch their faces.
“Do you think you’ll remember everything after you read six chapters?”
“Would you be ready for a quiz on all of that?”
“Or would it help to have summaries of each chapter so you’re not drowning when it’s time to study?”
I like to make it personal. Find out what your students love doing in their free time, then use it.
“Mohammed, would you like to re-read the whole book to prepare for your final exam? Or would you rather just read the summaries you made for each chapter? Which would give you more time to spend camping with your friends?”
That’s what I asked one of my students. He got it immediately.
Okay, But Just How Do You Teach This?
Start with an oral summary. Seriously. Get everyone comfortable with the concept before you throw a text at them.
Ask a volunteer to tell you what she’s done that day, starting from the moment she woke up. Then interrupt constantly to make her include EVERY detail.
- “Did you get the toothbrush wet before or after you opened the toothpaste?”
- “Did you close the toothpaste?”
- “Did you brush up and down or side to side?”
- “Which tooth did you start with?”
It won’t take long before she’s visibly frustrated by the absurd level of detail. Perfect. That’s the point.
Now ask her to start over and tell you only the ten most important things she did.
Boom. She just created an oral summary.
Give Them a Framework They Can Use
Once they’ve got the general idea, try this with a short fable or story from different cultures. Have them answer these questions in groups:
- Who?
- Did what?
- When/Where?
- Why?
- What was the result?
Challenge groups to see who can create the shortest summary without leaving out anything important. Make it a game. Snacks make good bribes. I mean prizes.
And remind them that using their own words helps them avoid plagiarizing AND makes their summaries more concise. This lets them meet two goals at the same time.
But I Don’t Have Time to Add Another Strategy to My Curriculum
I hear you. You’re already juggling speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and about seventeen other things your program director insists are essential.
But here’s what I’m saying: summarization isn’t extra. It’s a tool your students will use across all four language domains. When they summarize a lecture, that’s listening. When they summarize their goals or a reading passage, that’s speaking and writing. When they condense a news article, that’s reading.
You’re not adding more to your plate. You’re teaching them a strategy that makes everything else more manageable, including your class.
Start small with one lesson. A fable. A demonstration with the toothbrush story. See how it goes.
The Bottom Line
Your students might not thank you now. But when they’re sitting in their first university lecture hall, furiously trying to take notes while the professor speeds through a PowerPoint, they’ll remember that you taught them how to sort the essential from the noise.
And that’s worth something.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
Need a bit more, like something you can print?
These are available in my TpT store:
Summarizing Skills: a Logical Order Activity
Summarizing: Graphic Organizers and Activities
Read more about teaching adult ESL!
3 Reasons Why Your Adult ESL Students Can’t Remember Vocabulary & What To Do About It
Three High-Impact Activities for Teaching Facts and Opinions in Adult ESL
Why Your Adult ESL Students Still Write Like Beginners…and how to fix that
Linguistic Investigations: Teaching Students to Teach Themselves
Are Connectives the Missing Links in Your Adult ESL Writing Classes?
