Transcript Main Idea - Benson Middle School

Main Idea
G5.3R.C1.PO1
Performance Objective
I can identify the main ideas and
supporting details in expository text.
What are main ideas and supporting details?
created by Mr. Fox, ORE 5th grade
Essential Questions
• What is main idea?
•
•
How do you determine it in an expository
text?
What is expository text? How do you use it to find
information?
What are supporting details? How are they related to the
main idea?
How can we tell what a
paragraph or page is about?
What do we look for?
First thing is we try to identify the main idea.
But what is a main idea?
The main idea is the “BIG PICTURE” or what
the writing is mainly about.
So how to we find the ‘Big Picture?”
We find the “big picture” by...
Reading the material!
Then, we should try to summarize the material
into 1 or 2 sentences.
What if we have trouble summarizing the
material?
We can look for supporting details.
What are supporting
details?
Think of it this way...If the main idea is the table
top, than the supporting details would be the legs.
A table can’t stand without legs, just like a main
idea would not be supported (or make sense)
without details.
Main ideas (or topic sentences) can be found at
the beginning, middle or end of the material.
Supporting details can also be found anywhere in
the text.
Let’s try...the topic sentence
has been deleted?
Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969. He was the
commander of Apollo 11, the first space mission to land
astronauts on the lunar surface. After their famous
moonwalk, Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin
became icons in the history of science and space
exploration.
After Armstrong’s death was announced over the weekend,
many people who work in science and government spoke
proudly of his achievements.
First, try summarizing it.
Then, look for details.
“Neil was among the greatest of American heroes,”
President Barack Obama said in a statement. “When Neil
stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time, he
delivered a moment of human achievement that will never
be forgotten.”
What could the main idea
be?
A hero and the first man to walk on the
moon, Neil Armstrong, has died recently
Actual topic sentence
from news article...
On Saturday, American astronaut Neil
Armstrong died at age 82. He was the
first man to set foot on the moon.
Once again, the main idea of the
passage has been removed.
Can you figure it out?
A medusoid is not real jellyfish. But it does act like one.
So why did scientists make it? Jellyfish pump their way
through water similarly to how human hearts pump to
transport blood inside the body. Scientists hope that by
understanding how the pumping mechanism of jellyfish
works, they can learn more about human hearts.
Using elastic material similar to what’s found in jellyfish,
the researchers designed a thin membrane (a line of
tissue or skin that covers certain organs or cells) with
eight appendages to mimic the body of a jellyfish. They
then arranged rat cells onto the membrane.
They set a medusoid in a tank, shocked it with
electricity, and watched it swim its way through the
water, much like a real jellyfish.
On your white boards, come up
with a 1 or 2 sentence summary.
Look for clues (details) of what the
article is talking about.
So what was the articles actual topic
Using silicone and rat heart muscles, scientists have
sentence....?
created artificial jellyfish, nicknamed medusoids.
Great work! How about this one?
The project, planned by Amr Mohamed, 19, sent zebra spiders—also called jumping
spiders—into space to see if microgravity affects how the critters attack prey.
Titled “Can You Teach an Old Spider New Tricks?” Mohamed’s project was one of the
winners of the YouTube Space Lab competition—a contest asking teenagers to submit
videos describing a scientific experiment that could be performed in orbit. Scientists at the
International Space Station, which orbits Earth in outer space, are now running the
experiments from the winning entries.
What should we do
first?
Summarize
Make an educated guess, what
was the newspapers main idea?
Then we
should...?
Look for details in the
story
Last month, an experiment about spiders designed
by a teenager in Egypt blasted off into outer space.
Finding the main idea isn’t so
hard. Let’s try another.
In 1974, farmers in Xi’an (shee-an), China made a big discovery. Buried beneath the
ground were thousands of life-size statues of warriors from ancient China. They had been
untouched since their burial in the 3rd century B.C. Made of terracotta, a type of clay, the
statues are known as the Terracotta Warriors or the Terracotta Army.
Ten of the warriors are now on display in New York City. This is the maximum number of
the statues that can be displayed outside of China at one time. Visitors to the exhibit at
Discovery Times Square get to view the warriors up close—unlike in Xi’an, where the
statues must be viewed from behind glass.
On your boards, write what
the main idea of this article
ScholasticisNew’s main
idea was....
A 2,300-year-old set of sculpted Chinese warriors
visits a New York museum
What details support this
main idea?
Last one
“I came to them not so much as President as I do as a father and a husband,” Obama said.
“My main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that
we are thinking about them at this moment, and we will continue to think about them each
and every day.”
Obama traveled to Aurora, Colorado, after a deadly shooting took place in a movie theater
there last week. Twelve people were pronounced dead after the attack, and many more
were injured. Police and rescue workers responded quickly. The suspected shooter was
arrested, and medical personnel were able to help many who were hurt.
Remember, if you can
So
what’s
the
main
idea?
summarize the
President Barack Obama flew to
paragraph in 1 or 2
Colorado on Sunday to visit victims of a
deadly shooting that occurred on Friday
sentences, then you
and their families.
probably stated the
main idea.
What details support this
main idea?
Closure
Main idea is the “big picture” or what something is
mainly about. We can find the main idea by trying
to summarize the writing and looking for supporting
details.
If writing didn’t have a main idea it might be very
confusing as to what it is about.
In your groups discuss the differences between supporting details
and main idea, and where you might find the main idea.