Use the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then framework to summarize a short true story.
Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then is a simple plan for summarizing a story about a person: SOMEBODY (who is it about), WANTED (what did they want), BUT (what problem got in the way), SO (what did they do about it), THEN (how did it end). Five short steps, one clear summary.
Passage: A young inventor named Sara wanted to build a machine that could water plants automatically. But her first design leaked everywhere and never worked right. So she tested a new tube design over and over, fixing one leak at a time. Then, after weeks of trying, her watering machine finally worked, and she gave one to her grandmother as a gift.
Mastery looks like: They fill in all five parts of Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then accurately for a short narrative and combine them into one summary sentence.
Common stumbles: Skipping the "But" (the problem) and jumping straight to the ending; writing full sentences for each part instead of short phrases.
See it visually
Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.