Finding the Main Idea

I taught a lesson on main idea this morning and wanted to share it with you.

I began the lesson by having students "unpack" the main idea. In a bag, I had a toothbrush, dental floss, toothpaste, and mouthwash. I had students take turns unpacking one of the items from my bag, showing it to the class, and telling what it was. Once all of the items were unpacked, I had students turn and talk about what they thought the big idea of the items in my bag was. I charted their ideas. Then we narrowed all of their thoughts down to one big idea.

Next I explained that the main idea of a text is what the text is mainly about. I talked about how the main idea of a piece is the glue that holds it all together. I gave these examples: the main idea of a recipe for chocolate chip cookies is that if you follow the steps you can make cookies, if we want to write a book about our school, then every page has to have something about our school on it, etc.

Then I read a passage I found on ReadWorks.org. It was a short passage about baseball. I read the passage twice to make sure students were given the opportunity to listen to the content as well as think of the details to determine the best main idea. I used this passage to model thinking aloud for the students. I considered the title, all of the details mentioned in the story, and what I think the main idea is. I brought the discussion down to two possible choices for the main idea. Then I had students help me figure out which one made the best choice and why.

Baseball

Kobe loves baseball! He watches it on TV, he plays every day at recess, and he is on a baseball team. Kobe has five baseball posters hanging in his room. When Kobe gets home from school, the first thing he does is change into a baseball shirt and grab his ball and mitt. He is always asking his mom to play catch with him in the park. 

What is the main idea?

1. Kobe likes to play with his mom. 

2. Kobe loves baseball.

Finally, we wrapped up the lesson by reading The Snowy Day and finding the main idea together. After looking at the cover and reading the first few pages, I had students turn and talk to each other about what they already thought the main idea might be. Then they shared their ideas. I continued to read, pointing out details in the text such as Peter running outside and going out right after breakfast to bring out the idea that Peter loved the snow and was in a hurry to get to it. I asked questions along the way that brought up how he must feel if he wanted to save the snow, if he was sad when it melted, and if he talked and thought all about it a lot. After reading the story, we decided what we thought the main idea of the story was. Then we charted the details from the story that supported our thoughts.

 

After modeling main idea several times, students should be able to fill out similar graphic organizers on main idea for themselves.


Unrelated to main idea, I love Mrs. Williamson's (Welcome to Room 36) text to self connections using The Snowy Day in her post The Snowy Day.