5Wsand1H - home

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The 5 W's and 1 H of reading 
 
 
Introduction and Objective: 
In this lesson, you will learn a strategy to help you become a better reader. 
 
When you are done with the lesson, you will be able to: 
<ul><li>Know what the 5 W's and 1 H of Reading are and how to find them when you read.</li><li>Know how to give a summary (capture the main points,) of what you read by using the 5 W's and 1 H.</li><li>Know that summarizing helps you to understand what you read.</li></ul> 
o, let's get started! 
 
 
 
 
 Ways in Which We Improve Reading Comprehension 
 
To improve Reading Comprehension (understanding what we read,) we use strategies. Many of these strategies we do without even thinking, but for some, we need to practice. Here is a list of some of those strategies (Don't worry if you don't understand all of them right away, remember, today's lesson is about one strategy. This part is just to help activate your thinking.) 
 
<ul><li>Visualization (see a picture of what we read in our minds.)</li><li>Asking Questions (checking to see how much we know while we read.)</li><li>Making Connections (connect what we read with information we already know from our personal lives, the world, and other texts we've read.)</li><li>Making Inferences (using information in the text to figure out what may not be said in the text like determining a character's personality by what he does instead of how the author describes him.)</li><li>Making Predictions (making an educated guess of what may happen based upon what has already been read.)</li><li>Retell the story*</li><li>Summarize* (capture and restate the main ideas of the text.)</li></ul> 
 
 
<ul><li>You may be thinking to yourself that Retelling and Summarizing are pretty much the same thing, but that's not true. Retelling is actually giving back information from the story, sometimes word for word, from beginning to end. It can be very detailed and very long. Summarizing, on the other hand, is very short, to the point, and gives just the main details in your own words.</li></ul> 
If you're still not sure, think about this: 
Retell can take up a whole page or more. 
Summarizing should take up no more than half a page.* 
 
Did you know, it's harder to Summarize than Retell? 
Summarizing shows you've read the text, really understand it, and can tell someone else about it in your own words. 
 
Whe 5 W's and 1 H? 
Okay, so now that you've activated your thinking, you're probably wondering how reading comprehension strategies, particularly summarizing, are related to this idea of the 5 W's and 1 H. In fact, you might be wondering just what are the 5 W's and 1 H? 
 
Well, the answer to that question is easy. The 5 W's and 1 H are 6 simple questions you can ask yourself during and after reading to check if you understand the main points of the text 
<img src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:EP8ZUQxtupq-WM:http://completeresources.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/lightbulb.jpg" alt="" title="" style="height: 20px; width: 15px;" align="left" /> 
Remember that Summarizing is capturing and restating the main points of a text, so when you find the 5 W's and 1 H, you can Summarize your reading! 
 
 
The 5 Ws and 1 H are: 
<ul><li>ho (Who is the text mostly about?)</li><li>What (What is the Who doing or has the Who done?)</li><li>Where (Where does this take place?)</li><li>When (When does this take place?)</li><li>Why (What is the reason or cause the Who did it?)</li><li>How (How does it occur?)</li></ul> 
 Finding the 5 W's and 1 H 
 
So, now it's time to learn how to find the 5 W's and 1 H while you're reading. Let's go ahead and begin. 
 
To help with the process, we are going to use fairy tale passages. Most people are familiar with fairy tales* and are going to be easier to read and summarize (so when you're ready to take on new texts, you'll feel confident in applying the strategy!) 
 
Okay, our first example is going to be from Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight and Cinderella runs from the ball: 
 
Cinderella had a wonderful time at the ball... But, all of a sudden, she heard the sound of a clock: the first stroke of midnight! She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Prince's arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her slippers, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up! If the last stroke of midnight were to sound... oh... what a disaster that would be! Out she fled and vanished into the night. 
 
To begin, let's find our Who? to do this, we will look for Who the text is mostly about? So, let's re-examine our passage and see who comes up. Since we're looking for a who, it's a good idea to find all the possible references to people we could find. All the people mentioned in this passage are highlighted, each with their own color, to show the references to each person. 
 
Cinderella had a wonderful time at the ball... But, all of a sudden, she heard the sound of a clock: the first stroke of midnight! She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Prince's arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her slippers, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up! If the last stroke of midnight were to sound... oh... what a disaster that would be! Out she fled and vanished into the night. 
 
From finding all of the people references and highlighting all of them in different colors, one stands out - the yellow which is all the reference for Cinderella. So, it's safe to say that since the passage is mostly about Cinderella, she is our Who? 
 
Now that we know Who, let's find out What she is doing or has done. To do this, we look at all the verbs (action words,) in the sentence and see what makes the most sense. 
 
Here is a list of all the verbs in the passage: 
 
<ul><li>had</li><li>heard</li><li>remembered</li><li>said</li><li>slipped</li><li>ran</li><li>ran</li><li>lost</li><li>dream</li><li>stopping</li><li>were</li><li>fled</li><li>vanished</li></ul>(&quot;ran&quot; is listed twice because it appears twice in the passage) 
 
Now, let's look at our list of verbs and find the ones that occur most often. We are also looking for words with the same or very similar meanings because remember, authors like to vary their meaning. Here is a list of the verbs that are used most often: 
 
<ul><li>ran</li><li>ran</li><li>fled</li></ul> 
It's safe to say that when a verb happens more than once in a passage, that's the major action that's going on. So, in this passage, we will say that Cinderella, our Who?, ran, our What? 
 
Our Where? and When? can be found together. We look for place and time references. In this passage, it seems almost a piece of cake! Cinderella was at the ball (Where?) and ran when the clock struck midnight (When?) 
 
Let's review what we have so far: 
 
Who: Cinderella 
What: Ran 
Where: The Ball 
When: At Midnight 
 
Super easy so far, right? Well, now it's on to the Why? and How? These two questions are always a little bit tougher because they make us use our brains a little bit more. To find the Why?, we have to look for a cause for the action (what made the Who? do the action.) To find the How?, we have to find describing words (adjectives and/or adverbs,) that tell us in what manner the action was carried out or how the Who? was feeling. This means we may have to re-read the text one more time and try to figure out something that may or may not be told to us directly in the text. Here is where we are detectives and use clues from the text to help us. 
 
 
 
 
Let's take one more look at that text looking for clues that might tell us &quot;Why would Cinderella run from the ball at midnight?&quot;: 
 
Cinderella had a wonderful time at the ball... But, all of a sudden, she heard the sound of a clock: the first stroke of midnight! She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Prince's arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her slippers, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up! If the last stroke of midnight were to sound... oh... what a disaster that would be! Out she fled and vanished into the night. 
 
 
When we look for Why?, we look for cause. Usually when something happens, what happens before caused it to happen. Since we see here that Cinderella remembered what the fairy had said before she ran, it is more clear that remembering what the fairy said is our Why? 
 
Now, we just have our How? left to find. To figure this out, let's look for clues to tell us how Cinderella ran. Here's the passage one last time with some clues highlighted that describe how Cinderella ran from the ball. 
 
 
Cinderella had a wonderful time at the ball... But, all of a sudden, she heard the sound of a clock: the first stroke of midnight! She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Prince's arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her slippers, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up! If the last stroke of midnight were to sound... oh... what a disaster that would be! Out she fled and vanished into the night//. 
 
 
As we can see from our highlighted sections, Cinderella left without saying goodbye, lost a slipper, and did not even stop to pick it up. Clearly, she must have been in a hurry so it is safe to say our How? can be in a hurry. 
 
 
A Great Summary 
 
Now, we have all of our 5 W's and 1 H complete and having all of those pieces allows us to put together a great summary for this passage. 
 
In a hurry, Cinderella ran from the ball at midnight because she remembered what the fairy said. 
 
 
This one sentence captures the main points of the passage so we understand what the passage was about without saying every little detail. In fact, what the passage said in five (some very long and complex,) sentences, we were able to say in just one. Pretty impressive! 
 
 Your Turn 
 
 
Now that you've learned how to find the 5 W's and 1 H, it's time to practice on your own. 
If you're still feeling a bit afraid to do this, take a quick break and watch this 
Here's a passage from &quot;The Three Little Pigs&quot;: 
 
&quot;I'll make you come out!&quot; growled the wolf angrily, and puffing out his chest, he took a very deep breath. Then he blew with all his might, right onto the house. And all the straw the silly pig had heaped against some thin poles, fell down in the great blast. Excited by his own cleverness, the wolf did not notice that the little pig had slithered out from underneath the heap of straw, and was dashing towards his brother's wooden house. When he realized that the little pig was escaping, the wolf grew wild with rage. 
 
Do your best to see if you can find the 5 W's and 1 H in this passage (if you need help figuring it out, use the depiction of the wolf in the video to help you.) Click <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1MA-9942iP5J84FvLP4cJgE2Qgk_aLIokP59FO8PC1og&amp;hl=en&amp;authkey=CNrX3aQJ" rel="nofollow">here</a> to record your answers.^ 
 
When you are done recording your 5 W's and 1 H in this passage, hold them until you are done with this page. Then click the &quot;Discussion&quot; button at the top of this page and send a message with your one sentence summary and your first name. 
 
 
Review Time 
 
Okay, one more time. The 5 W's and 1 H of a text are the: 
 
<ul><li>Who? (Who is the passage about?)</li><li>What? (What is the Who doing or has the Who done?)</li><li>Where? (Where it happens?)</li><li>When? (When it happens?)</li><li>Why? (Why it happens?)</li><li>How? (How it is done?)</li></ul> 
When we find the 5 W's and 1 H, we have captured the main points of the passage and use them to make a great summary. When we make a great summary, we show that we understand our reading well enough to restate it in our own words. 
 
 Give Your Feedback 
 
Help make this lesson the best it can be! Please take a moment to complete this <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="https://spreadsheets0.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dC1fSXBLNnhoLUdyS1RaN1E2NzhIeVE6MQ" rel="nofollow">survey.</a> Or, feel free to post any questions or comments using the &quot;Discussion&quot; tab at the top of this page. Thank you. 
 
 
 
*All fairy tales courtesy of : Ivy's Domain <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://ivyjoy.com/fables/" rel="nofollow">Fairy Tales</a> Page 
^To check answers to &quot;The Three Little Pigs&quot; passage, click this <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1_eVEOtN0-Qpns8f3Ovx2fP51TVyhgL8-rxBZU0XC7pY" rel="nofollow">Answer Key</a>