Title – Main Ideas

By – Brittany Bullock

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Secondary Subjects – Computers & Internet

Grade Level – 9-12

Topic/Unit:

Writing an essay

Content:

• The importance of structure in technical writing
  
• Utilizing skills and processes in comprehension

Benchmarks:

Skills and Processes Standard 7: All students will demonstrate, analyze, and reflect upon the skills and processes used to communicate through listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing

Learning Resources and Materials:

Each student will need:
• Main Idea and Supporting Details work page
• Pencil with an eraser

Development of Lesson:

Introduction:

• Have students select three stories they would like to read about and then pick the story they feel relates to their lives the most. This helps them become more involved in the assignment.

Methods/Procedures:

• The method will be the following Kidspiration worksheet that can be downloaded from the following web page:
  

  http://www.coweta.k12.ga.us/cweb/Kidspiration/kidspics/mainidea.bmp

• The worksheet has a series of six boxes. The first box says “Type a main idea sentence for a paragraph/story you read.” The second box says “Type three detail sentences that support your main idea sentence.”

• In the third box, which is the first blank box, students will write the main idea sentence for the story they selected and read.

• In the remaining three blank boxes, they will type three supporting details that support the main idea sentence of the story. The detail sentences must be ones that they believe support the theme of the story.

Accommodations/Adaptations:

• In order to accommodate everyone in the classroom, there should be a variety of stories available to the students with many different themes. These themes should not be too sensitive; the themes should be kept simple. Ex: Humor, comic, horror, romance, etc. Do not use anything offensive such as stories about abuse (sexual, narcotic or physical).

• By using the box structure, it is easy for the students to keep their thoughts very organized and see if they are actually learning the main idea from what they have read. They will be graded according to how organized and precise they have made their answers.

Assessment/Evaluation:

• This is an easy assignment to grade. The one main goal is to see if they were able to pick out the main idea and three supporting details. The goal is not to grade them exactly on their feedback from the story itself.

Closure/Reflection:

• After the worksheets are finished and turned in, the class participates in a discussion. Group the students who selected the same books together and have them discuss which main theme/points they picked out and what supporting sentences they found together. This way they can reflect on what they have learned, not only as individuals but as a group.

E-Mail

Brittany Bullock

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