Creating Comic Book Summaries: An Engaging Way to Practice Summary Writing!

We worked on a super fun project at the end of last year and I just want to take a few minutes to tell you about it. The students in my reading groups had so much fun they even took it home (I think that is saying a lot when you look at the population of students I work with!). Comic book or Graphic Novel Summary Books! 

The idea behind comic book/graphic novel summaries is pretty simple. The students get to read a chapter book and then turn it into a graphic novel (which are all the rage at my school with our 4th and 5th grade students!). It's super engaging, yet acts like a book report! 

Here how we make them! 

First the students read a chapter book. We used assigned books for our first time, but after that the groups got to choose a book (just like in a traditional book club). At the end of each chapter the students stop and jot a summary of the chapter. We use a graphic organizer to keep track of those summaries. We also use a strategy called Who? What Happened? to help with summaries. Take a look at this blog post if you need a summary writing strategy. 

After they have written all of their chapter summaries (completed reading the book), they then pick out graphic novel pages (making sure to have enough boxes for each chapter, or more if they want to add things in), and write one summary per box. They also include pictures to go along with the summary. It is a quick and easy way to complete a project about the chapter books we are reading! 

We've used this project a few times in class and I've learned a few things.....

1. Before starting show a few examples of actual graphic novels. Especially ones that were a chapter book to begin with and are now graphic novels. The Boxcar Children and Babysitters Club are great series to use (I used the EPIC! app to many examples). 
2. Model to the students how to pick the graphic novel templates. I counted chapters, then counted the templates and asked them "Do I have enough?" 
3. Sometimes the students fall in love with template pages that have too many of the boxes. We talked about what to do then. Use a box for the title, add pictures, maybe do the words for one chapter in a box and then the picture right after it ..... you get the idea. They want to be creative, but sometimes get stuck without some guidance!

​I also created a rubric for quick and easy grading. In my intervention groups we don't do actual grades, so I just use Outstanding, Satisfactory, or Needs Improvement. But, you can customize the rubric to meet your needs! 

This project is super fun and my students love completing it! Win-Win! Interested in trying this project with your students? Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers page!