Identify the main topic and retell key ideas
I can identify the main topic and retell the key details of a nonfiction text.
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General
Identifying the main topic and key supporting details of a text helps us remember what the text was about. The main topic is the unifying theme of the piece and can usually be discerned by looking at repeated words and the first & last sentence. When teaching students to identify the main idea and key details of their own writing, it is recommended that they start by looking at their details to clarify the main idea.
Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.2
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.2
Learning Objective
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify the main topic and retell the key details of a nonfiction piece of writing.
Introduction
Students will look at a group of pictures (bath products) and tell what they have in common. They will relate the bath items they looked at and that they are found in the bathroom as key details and the main topic, respectively.
Instruction
Explain that the main topic is what the text is mostly about. The key details are the important pieces of information that you can find in the text or the pictures. Students will learn how to find the main topic and check that they found the correct one. They can look at the title and pictures, repeated words, and the first and last sentences. Students will also get a helpful hint to find the main idea: find the key details first.
They will then fill on a graphic organizer determining which sentences are key details and which is the main topic. They will also read three key details and determine the main topic. They will read a passage, "The Many Ways to Eat Apples," and determine the main topic.
Quiz
The ten problems in this lesson give students 3-5 sentences and ask them to identify details versus the main idea of those sentences.
Closing
Students will answer questions about main topic and key details by matching them to the answers. They will read a passage, "Police Officers Help out in the Community," and highlight three key details to determine the main topic.
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