Summarising the Summary

Students write a summary of a text, pass it to another group who halves the length, then pass again for a further halving — progressively distilling the key ideas.

Procedure

1. Divide students into three groups (or sets of three groups for large classes). Each group writes a summary of a text the class has recently studied, with a maximum of 70 words.
2. They pass their summary to the next group, which must reduce it to half its length (35 words).
3. This reduced version is passed to the third group, which halves it again (approximately 17 words). Each group is thus involved in reducing all three summaries.
4. Final versions are read out and changes discussed.

Tips

• Works with almost any text: coursebook readings, articles, stories, essays
• Each round forces students to identify and retain only the most essential information
• Do this in class rather than as homework to prevent AI tool use
• For fun, compare students' summaries with an AI-generated one afterward and discuss differences