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What Am I Reading?
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. As a class they read the first five pages of the book Sarah Plain and Tall by Sarah MacLachlan and answer the five W questions. Students then create five questions using...
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Summing it all Up...In Your Own Words
Young scholars observe and demonstrate the steps to identifying the main ideas of a text. They listen to the teacher read a paragraph and model the steps of summarizing the main idea. Students then independently read a different...
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Summarization Mapping
Students observe and demonstrate the strategy of summarizing the main idea. They discuss six rules of summarizing, and observe the teacher summarizing the first chapter of the novel "The Incredible Journey." Students then read chapter...
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Map Making
Students examine a variety of strategies to identify the structure of a story. They listen to the book Where the Wild Things Are and, as a class, complete a story element chart. Students independently read a passage from Charlotte's...
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Main Idea and Supporting Details
Eighth graders identify the main idea and supporting details in paragraphs. In this language arts activity, 8th graders review organizational patterns in paragraphs and determine which pattern is best for a given situation. ...
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Main Idea 2
Eighth graders explore the main idea of stories. For this literacy lesson, 8th graders summarize the last TV show they watched, identify the main idea of the show, and list its supporting details. After a discussion of main ideas, they...
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Persuasive Letters and The Tell Tale Heart
Students write persuasive letters based on "The Tell Tale Heart." They brainstorm topic sentences, main ideas, and details. They analyze the character and determine if he is innocent or guilty. They create a map listing their reasons to...
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Reading Discovery
Students investigate literature to discover details and focus upon the main idea to analyze it. They use reading comprehension skills to interpret passages of choice based upon literary importance to the overall meaning. While evaluating...
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Wheat: From Field to Oven
How does wheat go from the seed to the table? While focusing on main ideas and supporting statements, class members read an excerpt about wheat production and complete a worksheet. The end goal is a display that shows the different...
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What's The Idea
Students discuss the importance of identifying the main idea in reading selections. After reading newspaper articles related to nutrition, students identify the main idea of the selection and three supporting details. A reading log...
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Posters -- What's the Main Idea?
Students discuss the basics of poster productions. In groups, they follow written directions to make a poster about asthma, allergies, AIDS, or personal safety. They present their poster to the class and reflect on the process in a journal.
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Frog Tall Tales
Students identify and interpret a tall tale by creating one their own as it relates to the theme on frogs. Students apply frogs as their guide and basis for their tale. Students critique each others works and share them with the class.
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Simplifying sentences
Students read through several articles as a class and identify key words in sentences. Students work as a class to reduce the length of the article by shortening the sentences but ensuring that they still make sense.
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Myths
Students complete activities using a software program that allows them to read about myths, magic and monsters, and answer multiple choice questions about main idea, prediction clues, details and sequencing. They participate in a number...
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Gold Rush
Young scholars use educational software to determine the main idea of paragraphs. They read about the Gold Rush and Frontier Life in America before writing a history log as they simulate that they are writing back to a cousin in New...
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Main Idea
Students are read a book but not told the title. They determine the main idea of the story and possible names for the book. They develop their own story and illustrate them to show their classmates.
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What's the Point?
Students identify the components of a political cartoon and formulate the main ideas.
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Where's My Funny Paper?
Students identify main idea of passages, reading selections, and cartoons.
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Main Idea and Supporting Details
Students identify main idea and supporting details from a short reading selection using a two-column note taking process. In this literacy lesson, students work in groups of three to four, then compare their papers with the other groups'...
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Skimming
Students examine how to skim textual material. They read an article, and identify the main ideas by reading first and last paragraphs, topic sentences, and other organizational clues.
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Identifying a Message's Purpose
Learners examine the character trait of perseverance and identify a message's purpose. They read a biography of Jackie Joyner Kersee, discuss the main message, and develop an action plan with goals and a message.
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In Search of Food...Living Off the Vegetation
Fourth graders locate information to describe what Indians gathered and how they sustained life. They use 5 resources, select a paragraph from each and state the main idea and supporting details.
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What's in a Main Idea?
Second graders read newspaper articles. In this language arts lesson, 2nd graders identify the main ideas found in the articles by highlighting them. The entire class selects one interesting article from the sports section to discuss.
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News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.