Pinterest Inspiration: Summary Poster

Much like Twitter and Facebook, it took me a while to really "get" Pinterest.  Like any other social media, it's hard to know where to start.  You're not sure what you want to share, and you're not sure who to follow.  Then I heard it was great for teachers.  I started following a few teachers from TPT, and suddenly it all made sense!  Photos of classroom decor, products aligned to the Common Core, funny "vent about how draining teaching can be" sentiments, and anchor charts that I just have to duplicate for my own students.  I'm hooked. 

So here is one of my first Pinterest-to-real-life anchor charts.  You may have seen the original pin here or here.  I updated it with a few of my own favorite fonts and classroom colors:

What a fantastic way to teach summarizing!  I remember when I was a kid, I would write 5 pages about a book I'd read.  I KNEW I was writing too much, I knew I was making more work for myself than I needed to, but when my teacher told me, "Write only the important information," I could not distinguish what was unimportant.  The events in my favorite books were sewn together into a complex tapestry and if you removed a bunch of the threads, well, you get the idea.  Focusing on answering these 5 questions just makes so much more sense.

The other thing I love about it is the combination of simplicity and complexity.  Just 5 words to memorize, plus an explanation of each for kids who need it.  Post Its that allow for students who might be stuck on the "wanted" but know the "but" (problem) can fill in what they know instead of waiting to write that part until they figure out the part above.  That's how juvenille-writer's-block sets in.  Yes, I expect that this poster is going to get a lot of miles on it.  I'd better laminate it on Monday!

[Edit]  I've gotten a number of requests from readers who would like a copy of this poster.  I'm unable to post a product for it in my TPT store since the fonts I used are not permissible for commercial use.  I've decided instead to put a copy of this summary poster in my Google Drive.  Thanks for the feedback, everyone!  It's awesome to know how many people like my design.  :)