Main Idea & Details

Before we left for vacation, I was able to squeeze in a week and a half of Main Idea & Details practice. Since I used to teach Kindergarten, I tend to think that it's best to introduce a strategy by modeling, guide students as they practice using it on their own, and then give them many, many opportunities to practice using the strategy independently. So, after introducing and modeling how to identify the main idea using the anchor chart below, I had them apply the strategy to several passages from my Main Idea Unit and various other resources.

 

I gave them a quick quiz to see how they were doing with the strategy and then divided them up into groups based on the results. Here's how they did overall on the first quiz:

  

(My morning class)

 

(My afternoon class)

After that we really got down to business. I met with small, strategy groups daily, gave them texts at their level to practice applying the strategy, and then gradually increased the difficulty. I provided the kids that were working independently or in partners with a number of different review activities.

 

These two are working on coming up with titles, based on the main idea, for several different articles from Scholastic News. I got this idea from Mary at Teaching With a Mountain View. In my Main Idea unit you will find a worksheet that can be used to do the same thing with any article/passage.

 

These kids are working on identifying the Main Idea and Details of two books by Gail Gibbons that I checked out from our school library. I got this idea and the worksheets that went along with each of the books from the blog Teaching with Blonde Ambition.

 

These guys are working together on the task cards from my Main Idea unit. As usual, the questions are modeled after the IA (Interactive Achievement) Assessment Question Database which allows us to access all of the old quarterly and end of year state-wide tests. 

Another activity (that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of) was a challenge/enrichment activity that I did with the students who passed the first quiz. I had them decide on a topic, come up with a main idea about the topic and three supporting details, and then write a paragraph and see if their friends could identify the main idea of their passage. They really enjoyed doing this and felt like they did it right when their classmates (or I) guessed the main idea correctly. I included a template for this activity in my Main Idea Unit in case you want to try it out!

If you are interested in using any of the resources from my Main Idea Unit, head on over to my TPT shop by clicking on the picture below.

 

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New blog!

Hello friends!

Thanks for stopping by my new blog! It's not exactly the prettiest blog yet - I hope you'll bear with me as I get this thing up and running. After three years in Kindergarten out in California I decided to move back East to be near family and am now teaching 5th grade in Virginia. I am loving the switch so far, and have been meaning to start up a blog all year to share what we've been up to, but I have just been so busy! Now that we are on vacation I finally have time so I am going to do my best to tell you all about this year so far!

This is my first year in public school and my first year dealing with the pressure of quarterly standardized tests as well as an end of year SOL. At first I was frustrated and overwhelmed by the testing. I would look at questions from old tests and practice them with my students and they just didn't get it (and to be honest - neither did I). But, I finally figured out a way to tackle the testing language as well as the skills needed to pass and somehow incorporate them into my teaching in a way that is actually helping my students to become better readers rather than just better test-takers. Thus came about the name of the blog and the products that I have been making this year!

We are really lacking in good resources at my school, so when planning a new unit I start with old test questions and see how the skill or strategy has been assessed in the past. Then, I create a set of task cards that I will have them practice once they seem to understand the new skill. The questions on the task cards are always modeled after the questions on the tests. For example, they need to be able to identify the main idea...sounds simple right? Well, the test questions will give them notes that someone took while reading a passage and ask them to identify what was most likely the main idea of the passage based on the notes. So, I incorporate those kinds of questions into our daily main idea classwork and make sure to include questions like that in my task cards:

I have seen a huge difference in their scores since then and have made sure to remind them that these skills are not just for the test! They are actually helping them to understand what they are reading better!

Before Thanksgiving, I spent a week teaching them all about context clues and I was so disappointed when I saw these scores on their Interactive Achievement practice tests: (I teach two classes so the first is my morning class and the second is my afternoon class)



 

SO, I got down to business and created my own context clues unit. I broke it down to basics - taught one type of clue each day and gave them plenty of practice with each one before putting them all together into one passage. Then, in my reading groups I made sure to point out context clues every single time I found the opportunity. (You can see one of the posters and one page of task cards below).

After using this unit for just one week I had them take another context clues practice test through our Interactive Achievement assessment program and was thrilled with the results!!




If you want to try out my context clues unit (which includes the task cards) click on the picture below!

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