Title – Finding the “Most Important” Information in Expository Text

By – Jennie Rosenzweig

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Secondary Subjects – Social Studies

Grade Level – 3-5

Rationale:

My fourth grade class is currently engaged in a social studies


Colonial America

unit, and they are preparing to take the New York State English Language Arts Test in May. One important skill that students of this age struggle with is recognizing which are the most important ideas in a piece of expository text. Many times, students can locate the “main idea,” but struggle recognizing which other pieces of information qualify as “most important.” Identifying key facts is a crucial skill when reading expository text and also represents a frequent task on the NY State tests. Integrating this skill into social studies content area reading allows students to practice for the test while engaging in an authentic, curriculum-based learning experience.

Materials:

• McGovern, Ann (1992).
  
  If you lived in Colonial Times.
  
  NY: Scholastic.
  
  (pages 13-15, pages 21-23 on overhead and handouts)
  
• Post-Its
• Pencils
  
• Chart paper
  
• Markers
• January, Brendan. (2001)
  
  Colonial Life
  
  , one of the True Books series
• Kalman, Bobbie (1992)
  
  Historic Communities: Colonial Life
  

Objectives:

• Students will be able to identify three important ideas in a piece of text besides the main idea.
  
• Students will be able to give reasons and evidence why they believe the ideas they selected to be important.

Procedure:

1. Ask students, “How do you think your life would be different if you lived in Colonial times?” and quickly chart the answers.
   
2. Tell students we are going to read a little bit about what life was like for children in Colonial times.
   
3. Put “What did people eat?” (pages 13-15) text on overhead. Show students that the text is formatted as a question/answer book.
   
4. Showing only the question on pg. 13, ask students what they can expect to learn from this section (answer: what people in colonial times ate).
   
5. Tell students that since this question shows us what we will learn from the page, it tells us the “main idea” of the page.
   
6. Inform students that, while the main idea is the overall subject of the page, we will learn many important ideas that give us more information about the main idea by reading the text.
   
7. Show an image of an umbrella and indicate that the main idea is like the top part and the important facts are like the handle that holds it up.
   
8. Tell the students that you are going to read through the text and, keeping the main idea in the back of your head, you will try to find the two most important ideas on the page. The important ideas should answer the question at the top of the page. When you find an important idea, put a post-it marked with a big * on the spot.
   
9. Model reading through the page and thinking aloud about whether an idea is important or not.
   
10. After finishing the text, reread the main idea and the three ideas you marked with the post-its to confirm that they are the most important ideas on the page (1. corn, 2. planted fruits and vegetables, 3. hunted and fished).
    
11. Tell student that they are going to try the same strategy by themselves. They are going to read “What were schools like?” (pages 21-23) with their reading partner and search for the three most important ideas in the text. When they get to one, they should put a post-it marked with an * on the spot. Remind them that they will have to be able to give evidence as to why they chose the idea they selected.
    
12. As students read, circulate through the class and help those who seem to be struggling.
    
13. Early finishers can go back and circle a fact that they thought was really interesting in the text.
    
14. After all students have completed the task, call their attention back to the front. Put the text up on the overhead and have the groups share what they have determined to be the most important ideas in the text. Students must give evidence and provide the thinking behind their decision.
    
15. Before sending students off, remind them that a text includes more important points than just the main idea. Tell them that we found many important ideas in the text today and, as long as we were able to give reasons and evidence to support our thinking, none of us was wrong. Tell students that they will get the chance to practice finding the important information in text again tomorrow, when they read a text by themselves and have a conversation with a small group.
    
16. On the next day, meet as a class to review the teaching point. Students will be grouped into three groups and will be given a section of text. They must identify the most important ideas in the text they read and then have a conversation with their group defending their choices. Each group will operate independently but will be “shadowed” by a teacher, an assistant teacher, or a student teacher (one to each group). The struggling group will read from
    
    Colonial Life
    
    by Brendan January, one of the True Books series (2001). On-level students will read an additional page from If You Lived in Colonial Times. Above-level students will read from
    
    Historic Communities: Colonial Life
    
    by Bobbie Kalman (1992).

Assessment:

• Assessment for this lesson will be informal and ongoing.
  • Take note of students’ conversations with their partners as they identify important ideas in the text together and look at where students place their post-its.
  • Jot notes of students who seem to struggle identifying an important idea or who harp on small details.
  • In addition, the students’ conversation with the whole class where they defend their choices will provide much information about how well they understand which ideas are important ones in the text.

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Jennie Rosenzweig

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