Students’ age range: 08-10

Topic: Reading Comprehension

 

Description: Ask the students to write 4 lines about something you did over the weekend. When you are finished underline what line you think best describes the main idea of your paragraph
Have you ever wondered what the big deal with this main idea is? Like why is my teacher spending so much time teaching me about the main idea when so frequently I have to find out so much other information besides the main idea? Well that is because knowing the main idea is important. When we know the main idea we are really understanding the just of what we are suppose to be learning about. We have an idea about the topic and what we are going to learn from our reading. Frequently we are asked to answer questions about the main idea, or rename a title of a passage, which is also another way for teachers to figure out if we know what the main idea is. When we figure out the main idea, we can actually do three things to realize that we are really strong readers.
When we think of a main idea, we ask ourselves what is this mostly about? While we are asking ourselves that think to yourself, we can actually answer some important questions about main idea. When we know the main idea we can more than just identify what the passage or story is mostly about. We can also identify the topic, can create a new title, and can write a sentence that supports why you have chosen your main idea. When we have a clear vision of our main idea we are able to state three things that show we have a strong understanding as readers. Today we will learn how to declare the main idea of a passage, article, book, or reading, and then be able to state the topic, create new or main idea centered title, and then write a sentence the supports our choice in a main idea. When we can support our main idea we can confirm our findings and support our thinking that is what makes us good readers.
Distribute copies of your reading to my students. Read aloud the passage with the students , read it once thoroughly and then read it again using out loud thinking, jotting down notes, questions, and highlighting important information. Talk out how you would generate a main idea.
Then do another reading, have students do think aloud, highlight, add questions and talk through information. Have them come up with the topic, title, and sentence to support.
Divide students up into groups and complete the worksheet that is the same as what I modeled using different types of passages. Distribute different passages to different students to differentiate
Pose the following question:
What are three things we can also determine when we determine the main idea of a passage?