What should the focus be when teaching summarization skills?

The focus when teaching summarization skills should be on capturing the main ideas and supporting details. This approach encourages students to distill the essence of the text, allowing them to recognize the most crucial information conveyed by the author. By honing in on main ideas, students practice critical thinking and develop the ability to discern relevant information from extraneous detail. Supporting details help in providing context and greater understanding of the main ideas, making the summary richer and more informative.

In contrast, identifying every detail in the text may overwhelm students and detract from the skill of summarization, as it encourages a focus on minutiae rather than overall comprehension. Reading the text multiple times without summarizing does not reinforce the importance of extraction and synthesis of information, which are core components of effective summarization. Highlighting all text without synthesis misses the goal of summarization entirely, as it promotes marking rather than understanding and internalizing the content. Therefore, focusing on main ideas and supporting details best supports the development of summarization skills.