![]() ![]() ![]() Then, once they have finished, they can go back and re-read their notes. I like to have students jot down their notes about each section on a post-it note or in the margins of the text. This helps students identify the main idea of smaller sections rather than having to wait until the very end to think about the main idea of the text. One thing you can do is teach your students to break up the text into smaller sections and then pause at the end of each section and ask “What is this section about?” This is a great strategy to teach students if you want them to identify the main idea of a longer text. Seeing JUST the facts can help them focus on the important details related to the text and it can help them identify the main idea of the text.ħ. When students have finished reading, they can quickly look over their key facts. This can be as simple as making a bulleted list of key facts while they are reading. When they are reading nonfiction text, I like to have them make a list of key facts. This simply means that they are jotting down their questions, connections, or thoughts about the text. I love teaching my students to stop-and-jot while they read. When students think about what title they would give the text, they start to think about what the text is mostly about… which is the main idea. Ask them to think about a title they would give the text. You can either have students cover up the title for the text, or you can remove it for them. You can also teach your students to come up with their own title. Often times the title includes the topic or a keyword or phrase that can be connected to the main idea. Basically, we are teaching them that a title can be a clue or a hint to the reader that shares a preview of what the text might be about. This strategy could work in two different ways.įirst, you can teach students to look at the title and think about how the title communicates what the text will mostly be about. If they notice a word or phrase gets repeated over and over and over in a particular article or text, it’s probably a clue that it’s important to the topic and should probably be included in the main idea. They can either underline them or make a list of them on the side of the text. You can teach your students to look for keywords and phrases that get repeated in the text. We naturally repeat words or phrases that are important and the same thing happens in the texts that we read. If it’s important it will get repeated! Think about how many times you tell your students to put their name on the paper or to double-check their work. If they know that a heading will give them clues to the main idea of a specific text section, they can synthesize the information shared in the headings to help them come up with the main idea for the entire text. Hopefully, your students know and understand that headings can give them clues about what a particular section of text will be about. This can be particularly helpful if they are reading a lengthy article or a book with lots of chapters/sections. One way you can teach your students to identify the main idea is to have them use the headings or subheadings in the text. It’s important for students to understand what a topic sentence is rather than just immediately look at the first sentence and assume it states the main idea of the paragraph.īut if your students get really good at being able to identify the topic sentence, then they have a strategy that will help them focus on the main idea of the text. And it often can be… but it isn’t always. Students are often taught that the topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. This can be a pretty straightforward strategy, but you have to use it with caution. If the students are identifying the main idea of an entire text, they can find the topic sentences for each small paragraph or section and then synthesize that information to create a topic sentence for the entire text. ![]() If students are identifying the main idea of a paragraph or a small section, they can just look for the topic sentence and then re-write it so it clearly states the main idea. This means that if students know what a topic sentence is and they know how to identify it, they can identify a clue that will help them figure out the main idea. A topic sentence is the sentence that will state the main idea for that specific paragraph. ![]()
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