I helped my son with homework for the first couple of weeks of school. Their writing work is actually pretty fantastic: on day one they have to read a chapter in their book, then write a very short summary of the chapter, and choose one thing that happened that reminded them of something that happened to them and explain. Day two they have to read another chapter and then briefly explain what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the chapter. Day three they read the next chapter then have to do a venn diagram of a character/them. Day four they have to read another chapter then do a longer summary.
My son had a lot of trouble with summarizing things. He would want to recount the entire chapter! So we would sit and talk that through the first few weeks. He's gotten a lot better at it now.
