Lessons from Third Grade

I have a third grader who doesn't like to read. (I'm a writer and he doesn't like to read, I'm also a chef and he is the world's pickiest child...ah, my little changeling.) His teacher and I have been working hard to help him with his reading comprehension, especially as there are some important standardized test coming up.

His teacher recently told me about some techniques that they use in class so that I can use the same at home with him. One was the prompts for creating a summary:

Sombody...wanted...but...so...then.

I had to laugh. For all the hundreds of posts out there on how to write a summary (read: query) the answer was in Third Grade the whole time.