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Grades level iconsGrades 9–12
Genre information iconNarrative
Resource type iconSparks

Scene vs. Summary

by the Programs Team at 826 Boston
How is a scene different from a summary? In this Spark, students will explore the answer to that question and put both techniques into practice.
What Your Students Will Learn

Students will learn how to identify a scene vs. a summary.

What You Will Do

Content Note: For students to get the most out of this activity, they need to be comfortable with “show, don’t tell,” the golden rule of writing. If you’d like to practice this concept before beginning this activity, we suggest completing STEP 1 of “Writers’ Moves and the Golden Rule.”   STEP 1 Ask students to turn to a partner and talk about their favorite movie scene: They should try to share every detail they can remember about it—the setting, the characters, the dialogue. . . If students can’t think of a movie scene, that’s OK; any type of media works,...

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