Stuart Little is a great book to practice summarization on both the chapter level and the story level. As the chapters are styled as vignettes, students who are working on beginning summarization may benefit from focusing on one chapter to practice summarizing. This could also be a helpful tool for comprehension of the entire story if each chapter is summarized. It is helpful to limit the number of cells students can use, to help them be more concise.
Consider having students plan their storyboard using a blank template prior to creating the full storyboard online. Students should begin with the narrative in each box before adding character dialogue. This will allow them to focus on the purpose of summarizing and determining importance, before getting distracted by the details of the storyboard. Students can also be given a set number of frames to use for the storyboard to help them be concise. After planning on a template, students can compare the important events they chose with a partner's, and the class could discuss why different events in the story were included in the storyboard over others.
Here is an example of chapter level summary storyboard:
Chapter 9: A Narrow Escape
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a storyboard summarizing a chapter in Stuart Little.