Writing an outline from textbook

[bookfiend]

At what age is it generally appropriate to expect a child to be able to summarize key points in an outline from from textbook reading? I had a lengthy discussion about this over the weekend and was informed that DS is MUCH too young to be synthesizing material in this manner. True?

[Hedgehog]

Which one are we talking about - 11yo or 8yo? Depending on your kids, it might be a stretch for the younger one but the older one could probably do it fine. How did they get on with narrations? Outlining is supposed to be the next step.

[ReneTL]

SWB suggests 5th grade begin outlining text at top level only - Roman numeral I, II, III, etc. for each paragraph. 6th grade will add level A., B., C., etc.

[johnandtinagilbert]

I know this may seem early to many, but after my dc can identify the simple subject and simple predicate of a sentence, I teach them outlining by pulling the SS and SP. I find using encyclopedias more difficult b/c they jam so much info. into one paragraph, so we don't use ency., but living books. As we learn to identify others parts of speech, I can expand their knowledge of outlining, using those parts of speech.

 

I do believe it's a skill that can wait, but they've learned it just fine this year (2nd and 3rd graders).

[5LittleMonkeys]

My dds had never outlined before so I started outlining with them at the end of last year and after sitting and doing it with them twice a week for a couple of months they are able to do a 2 level outline by themselves now from the KFH (Roman Numeral with one supporting detail). About a month ago I had them start doing a rewrite from the outline and they had no problem with it. (Even dd11 who is writing phobic had no problem stringing the points together.)

 

I think a 10 year old should definitely be able to do a one level outline

alone after a period of having someone do it with them. Even my dd7 can pick out what the main idea of a paragraph is when I do it orally with her. Simply reading a paragraph and asking what is this paragraph telling us is the pre-cursor to doing an outline.