Teaching Main Idea and Supporting Details with Hands on Activities
With Common Core we are digging deeper into the standards {our district uses the term "digging
deeper" at most PDs} and sometimes that makes it difficult to find new and creative ways to
teach a standard we have already covered in the first nine weeks.
Main Idea can be a bit boring to teach and/or a little redundant. The first nine weeks we started
with our Interactive Notebook to teach Main Idea and what readers do before, during, and after
reading to find the main idea of a passage. We practiced a lot with Close readings and
highlighting, and task cards. This time around I wanted the students to do more activities and
application practice.
We started the week off with reviewing the definition of Main Idea, Supporting Details, and what
readers do while reading using our Interactive Notebooks. We also reviewed that the main idea
can often times be found in the first and last sentence of a passage or paragraph, but NOT
always.
For the week's Close reading passage we used a Scholastic Weekly Reader we received before
Thanksgiving break {I saved it for this week's lesson}. It had a great passage about endangered
animals, which also went along with our district's theme for reading. In the first lesson students
read the section about the bald eagle to find the main idea of that specific paragraph.
The second lesson I modeled how to find the main idea, supporting details, and summarized the
Where Are They Now? section of the passage. Each team member was then assigned a different
section of the article. They were to identify the main idea, supporting details, and summarize the
paragraph on a sticky note. I gave each student a different colored sticky note, so when we put
them together (see below) we could easily see the different parts of the article.
Each team member works on a different part of the text.
A student highlights the main idea and supporting details.
A student summarizes the text after identifying the main idea and supporting details.
Once all students had completed their summary I had all the students who read about the
alligator meet, all the ones who read about the bear meet, etc. to discuss and share their
information/summaries.
This group is sharing and discussing the main idea and their summaries about the American
Alligator .
Students then went back to their teams and shared their summaries with their teammates. If I
remember correctly this is similar to Kagan's Jigsaw cooperative learning structure. I told my
students instead of them reading the entire passage their teammates did some of the work for
them. Once I said this they had a clearer picture on what and why we were reading the passage
this way, they also liked having less work. :)
Students share their summaries with their original teams.
Finally, teams put their summaries together to create a summary for the entire passage. We
discussed that the summary should reflect the main idea of the entire passage. They used the
information from the previous day, my summary from the beginning of the lesson, and their
summaries to write their team summary. I heard many groans when I told them they could only
right two-three sentences. Once I made it a challenge between the teams to see who could come
up with the most accurate and shortest summary they were quickly motivated to complete the
task.
I provided each team with a piece of card stock labeled "What's the Main Idea?" and a large blue
lined sticky note cut in half.
A student writes her team's summary for the entire passage.
Two teams completed assignments.
On the third day I created Main Idea Bags (you can find them HERE) for my students to work
with for reviewing this skill. In each bag I placed pictures related to a topic. There were five
pictures in each bag. The pictures represented the details to the main idea.
Students took out the pictures identified the topic, chose three details (pictures), and a possible
main idea for the bag. Once students completed all ten bags they chose one bag to use to write a
paragraph using the main idea and details from the bag.
Students identified the topic, details, and possible main ideas.
Topic: Science lab/experiment
Details: safety goggles, microscope, notebook, scientist, & chemical
Main Ideas: Safety in the Lab, How to conduct a Science experiment, etc
My class loves all things Titanic. Many chose this bag to write about.
One student came up with the main idea "How to create a pretty in pink birthday party."
The fourth day of our Main Idea review we practiced reading passages and answering multiple
choice questions. I will post about how we do this soon! :)
For more Main Idea teaching ideas check out my friend Mandy from The 4th Grade Journey post
HERE. :)
Teaching Reading Strategies: Before, During
and After
Teaching reading strategies through intensive questioning not only develops meta-cognition, it
grows students faster than traditional worksheets and low-level question/answer types of
discussions.
Teachers at all grade levels know that they should be using comprehensive, evidence-based Tier
1 reading lessons with their students. Even if you work with 5 year olds, we ought to be
instructing your students how to make meaning of a text during an interactive read aloud.
As our students begin to read independently, we need to actively listening for more than just the
correct pronunciation of words.
We need to actively observe behaviors that show a deep understanding of the text and prepare
lessons that meet literacy behaviors that are not demonstrated. These lessons typically happen in
a guided reading group.
One of the most effective ways to instruct a reading group is
by using a series of scaffolded questions that are designed to
show students how to read with a purpose.
These are called "Before, During and After Reading
Questions." and they are aligned with best practices for
teaching reading comprehension.
Before Reading
Take a Book Walk to find:
o Title, chapters, heading, subheadings
o Pictures, graphs captions, maps, diagrams
o Bold vocabulary (use to pre-teach 4-5 vocabulary words)
o Prologue, preface, last chapter conclusion
o Highlighted or boxed information
Activate Prior Knowledge
o What do you already know about?
o What experiences have you already had about?
o Make a prediction
Create a Purpose for Reading
o Choose one strategy you will use during reading
o Why do you think the author wrote this book?
o What is your personal reading goal?
During Reading
Read Slowly for Metacognition
Mark text with Post-It Notes (teach the students to use the symbols below as a quick
formative assessment):
Use Graphic Organizers
o Venn Diagram
o Thematic Web
o Notetaker
o StoryBoard
o Cornell Note Taker
o Dialectical Journal
Use Think Alouds to model thoughts during and about reading
Develop questions to ask during reading
Make a Simple Salad
Clarify vocabulary
Analyze diagrams, charts and graphs
Incorporate a phonics activity that focuses on a particular skill or pattern
After Reading
Pause and Reflect
o Do I understand the main idea or topics?
o Can I explain this in my own words?
o How did the graphics, diagrams or pictures help me understand the text?
o Were my predictions correct?
o Is there another connection to my life, other texts or the world?
Re-Read
o Skim the text to look for specific information (Look for headings, bold text and
sub-headings)
o Slow down to get the details
o Find support for your ideas from the text
Decide what you like or dislike about the:
o Genre
o Author's style
o Theme
Tips for Teaching Main Idea
Teaching main idea? Here's a sure-fire lesson and video your students will love! There's also a
framework and worksheets for teaching this essential skill from the ground up.
Getting the main idea of a story or text is often a terribly difficult skill for students. So be ready
to spend some time (a long time perhaps!) working on these types of lessons.
Sometimes the big idea is explicitly stated, while other times it is inferred. Inferencing is a
higher-order skill that must be explicitly taught. So what do we do about it?
Teaching students how to summarize and quickly comprehend a text is one of the most common
and necessary reading "survival strategies" we need. We can break it down with 7 Specific Steps
to Scaffold Instruction for Finding the Main Idea, and these are grouped under 3 Big Ideas.
Initially your students will need a lot of support and scaffolding with this. Later you can provide
collaborative activities so children have to verbalize their thinking (the relationship between oral
talk and meta-cognition is proven).
Gradually move the students towards independent activities when you are confident they will
experience success with finding the main idea.
Getting the Main Idea
Suggested Framework for Teaching: How to Find the Main Idea
1. Identifying the key words of a sentence
2. Identifying key words or topic of a paragraph
3. Identifying the topic sentence of a paragraph
4. Recognizing the explicitly stated point of a paragraph
5. Inferring the main idea of a sentence
6. Inferencing the main idea of a paragraph
7. Inferring relationships among ideas in related paragraphs from longer selections
ERIC Clearing House; Dishner, Ernest K
Identify Key Words (1 & 2)
This is very literal comprehension. Use a small, sample sentence to identify key words.
The small dog was frightened by the big, bad wolf.
In this example, the question, "What is the sentence about?" is that it is about a small dog. What
about that small dog? It is frightened by the wolf. While this seems very simple, many students
who cannot grasp the concept of a main idea need this step and cannot move on without it.
Mastery at the sentence level is essential.
Once mastery at the sentence level is shown, move on to identifying key words of a paragraph.
Do not put the words into a sentence yet. Just highlight important words and discuss what they
mean within the paragraph.
Explicitly Stated Main Idea (3 & 4)
In the primary grades, these are the two points students are generally expected to master. The
main idea, or topic, is still explicitly stated. Teach the students to ask, "What does the author
say?" and, "Why does he say it?"
Be sure your students are familiar with paragraph structure before teaching the procedures to
identify the main idea.
Either read a paragraph out-loud or direct them to read it carefully. Then use these four steps to
scaffold their learning:
Write a phrase together about what each sentence says
Identify the one idea that all of the sentences say
Write the main idea in a complete sentence using your own words
Find the sentence that best sounds like your complete sentence
The beauty of this is that it is teaching the students to monitor their own comprehension. You are
also teaching that the main idea can be found anywhere within a paragraph, not just at the
beginning.
Inferencing (5, 6 & 7)
Inferencing is the critical step towards mastering reading comprehension. Along with fluency, it
is an excellent predictor of future reading success.
These next steps are actually quite similar to steps 3 & 4, except that now the students will need
to match their own understanding of the main idea with an implied one from the text -
inferencing.
A great introductory activity for this is to have them "unpack the main idea." It is so much fun
and great for visual learners.
Unpacking the Main Idea
I brought in just a few of the ingredients for one of my favorite snack foods - nachos. They were
hidden in a big and I had the students try to guess what was in it.
Then I let the kids unpack my bag, one item at a time. They had to show the class what they
pulled out and I recorded the guesses. It became more refined and clear as more items were
pulled out (although the onion confused them as they would NEVER eat onions!).
Once we finished pulling out all of the items, we talked about what the big idea of my snack
could be - how all of the ingredients would come together to make one yummy plate of
deliciousness!
This could also be an introductory activity for teaching the main idea, but I like to use it to
showcase the skill of inferencing. I didn't tell them exactly what I loved to eat - I just gave them
clues.
