What skill do students develop by summarizing what they have read?

Summarizing what students have read directly contributes to their comprehension skills. This process requires them to distill information down to its most essential elements, allowing them to demonstrate their understanding of the material. By summarizing, students must identify the main ideas, supporting details, and the overall message of the text, which demonstrates that they have not only read the material but also grasped its meaning. This skill is integral to effective reading as it reinforces the retention of knowledge and aids in building connections between new information and existing knowledge. The act of summarizing ensures that students can articulate what they have learned, indicating a deeper level of processing and integration of the content they have encountered.