Teaching Main Ideas

Looking for classroom-ready lessons and activities for teaching about main ideas? Check here: Main Ideas and Details in Nonfiction Text

So this year I thought that I could take a shortcut through the Land of Main Ideas. My idea of a shortcut was one quick lesson, authentic note-taking about Antarctica, create our own main ideas, and emerge with full mastery.

Looking back, this shortcut idea was a big mistake. After all, I know all about how students understand (or fail to understand!) main ideas. I know that students often pay attention to individual sentences, processing text at the micro-level instead of putting together the macro-structure of the text. I know that students are easily led astray by seductive details. I know that students confuse topics with main ideas. I know that the same students who can pick out explicit main ideas in a paragraph can struggle with finding implicit main ideas. (I wrote a whole chapter about this in my book Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Retelling.)

So, trying to teach main ideas in one lesson was not a good idea.

Once I realized my mistake, I stepped back to observe what students were doing. A card sorting activity proved to be a great way to find out what students were thinking--they had to put together a paragraph and select the sentence that states the main idea. I noticed that students were drawn to whichever sentence should come first in a paragraph, even if the sentence is a question, and seemed to struggle with the role of a main idea in a paragraph. (You can find this activity as part of this unit.)

Topics and Main Ideas
Next we looked at some paragraphs and found topics and main ideas with the help of a PowerPoint. (You can find it here.) I really like using PowerPoint to illuminate text and show students key ideas. In this particular example, notice how the PowerPoint makes the topic of the paragraph jump right out at students. And for teachers who are sure that their students have already mastered this, I challenge you to give it a try. You may be surprised at how far students can get without having a true grasp on topics. I wrote a book about it and for some reason I still find it shocking, every year. Maybe you will learn a little faster than I have.

Identified Main Ideas
Instead of jumping right into having students identify main ideas, I showed them several paragraphs that had the main idea underlined. Then I challenged them to make a generalization about where the main idea can be found in a paragraph. If you know fourth graders, you know that making generalizations about text can be tough for them. Many tried to answer with information about the wood thrush, confusing the text at hand with the abstract idea of text. If this happens to you (and it probably will), just remember that it takes students time and practice to talk about texts in the abstract. But every new experience adds to their background knowledge for next time.

You may notice that these examples are usually about animals, and that there are multiple paragraphs about one topic. My students love animals and are always motivated to read about local creatures they may see. Using real topics instead of the "fluffy" topics that proliferate in worksheets keeps our work with main idea from devolving back into the worksheets or color-coded SRA cards of yesteryear. I always end the lessons with a video or photo (sometimes from my own personal collection!) of the animals in the paragraphs.


Implicit Main Ideas
Our next step was to jump into creating main ideas for texts with implied main ideas. Fourth graders really struggle with these tasks, but they are so important. In fact, I think that creating a main idea sentence for a set of given details is one of the most important skills for students to develop. This is a lifelong skill that transcends reading and writing.

Looking at paragraphs with implied main ideas and talking about what the main idea could be helps students to consider the gist of a set of sentences. In this paragraph, notice how all of the sentences relate to the movement of the fairy shrimp. Movement and other abstract nouns are vital for academic reading and writing, but not frequently used in speaking. Exposure and practice help students to weave these kinds of words into their writing.

Generating Topic Sentences
Our next step was to write a topic sentence for a paragraph. Yes, it's test preparation, but it is worthwhile. Students really need to be able to do this! Strong readers will breeze right through an activity like this, especially as the pictured example has such a transparent main idea. However, struggling readers will have difficulty. They may write a topic sentence that relates only to one kind of skink. Circling the different kinds of skinks in the paragraph is a way to scaffold their learning.



Assessing Understanding
I'm not talking about student understanding here--I'm talking about my own. What did I learn from my longer-than-expected-journey through the Land of Main Ideas?
-Helping students to identify and generate main ideas is vitally important and may take more time than expected.
-Practice with finding topics and main ideas is worthwhile work, and I can keep it from just being boring worksheet practice by incorporating topics of interest and real-life links.
-Even strong readers may need explicit lessons with topics and main ideas--and that's okay.

Peeps Dioramas for Student Council

In between blogging, writing, playing around outdoors, and spending time with my family, I also run our school's Student Council. Things get crazy!

I imagine that there are probably many others who have found themselves in the same situation--running Student Council, but without much extra time to give to such an undertaking.

I've learned that it is helpful to have a set schedule for the year. Repeated projects give a shape to our school year. They also help me--I am always short on time, and having a standard schedule means that most of the prep work can be saved from year to year.

Several years ago we were looking for a fun spring event that would engage students after standardized testing. My oldest son suggested Peeps dioramas after we spent time looking at the Washington Post galleries together. What a perfect idea! We don't do dioramas for school projects much anymore, but kids are just naturally attracted to creating miniature worlds.

And it's been a great success. Each year we've had more than 40 entries, which is an amazing showing for our school of less than 200. As students bring in their dioramas, our fabulous custodian arranges them in the cafeteria. I can always tell when a particularly impressive diorama has come in--the students are buzzing as they come in from breakfast. "Did you see...." "Mrs. Kissner, you have to go to the cafeteria right now!"


Some dioramas are obviously completely kid-made, while others look like they have become family projects. Kids talk about working with their moms and dads or even grandparents to bring their ideas to life.

This year,  the end of the contest will coincide with our Parent Breakfast. It may make the serving a little trickier, but it will be fun to show off all of the dioramas. We end the day with a brief awards ceremony in the gym and the presentation of The Golden Peep.

So, if you're embroiled in a thousand crazy schemes (like me), you may want to consider giving Peeps dioramas a try. After all, what's the harm in one more crazy scheme?

Animal Observations, Part 2

In my last post, I wrote about scaffolding students to observe from videos. My goal was to help students do firsthand observations of faraway animals. After all, they can't observe leopard seals in the classroom--but they can use videos to observe animals from far away.

Well, it worked out well! The students chose to watch this video about a leopard seal as our modeled experience:




As we watched, we paused frequently to write things down and talk. Students moved through several rounds of spontaneous questioning:
1. Who took this video? Why weren't they scared of the leopard seal? (We had read in Trapped by the Ice about a leopard seal attack, so they were pulling from background knowledge for this question.)
2. Why is the leopard seal swimming so close to the diver?

After our first viewing, students settled down to observe, using the observation sheet I had created for them. Interestingly, it became a vocabulary-rich conversation as students tried to find the best words to describe what they were seeing. Is the leopard seal gray? Are those called fins or flippers? How could we describe the leopard seal's shape? One student introduced the word porpoising, a word that he had learned from reading about penguins. Could we say that the leopard seal is curious?

I was especially happy to hear that just giving students an observation form could change the nature of their discussion, prompting them to use more specific language. The conversations transferred over to students' observation of the birds outside our window! "I think he's territorial," was one student's comment.

The class then moved into research mode. Some students used print resources to find more information about people and places of Antarctica; others watched videos in small groups; and others asked me to track down good links for them. It turned into a peaceful and productive time with students scattered about the room and totally engaged in learning more.

Writing Notes
-I did some very small updates to Introduction to Text Structure this weekend. I tend to fall out of love with what I have written very quickly, but the texts in this packet are still some of my favorites ever. As a teacher, I just love having five texts on the same topic with different text structures.

-I added two new iPad activities to Frolyc this weekend: Daylight Savings Time, which introduces a point/counterpoint style of persuasive writing, and Build a Butterfly Garden, which includes a persuasive text and an informational video. Both are good for teaching author's purpose and supporting positions.

Learning from Videos: Animal Observations

When I started using Antarctica as a theme for teaching nonfiction back in 2008, I used mostly print resources. I had a sometimes-functioning LCD projector, no Internet access to the LCD (the cord wasn't long enough!), and limited computer lab access.

So much has changed. This year, half of those print resources that I so carefully accumulated in 2008-2010 ended up staying in the box. It's not that I'm against print resources--it's just that I can be much more selective now that I have so many digital resources at hand.

How to scaffold students to use these digital resources? I decided to start by watching students as they engaged with videos on their own. What were they doing? What were they noticing?

What I Saw

-Lots of talk: Watching videos does get students engaged in talking. Many students would cluster around a laptop to watch a video--"Look at that!" "Ew!" "What's that animal?"

But...

-Not much use of content-specific vocabulary: For all the talking going on, students weren't using much content-specific vocabulary. Listening to their conversations, it was impossible to tell what they were watching or what they were learning from it. Their comments were mostly reactions, not elaborations or statements.

My time watching the students helped me to consider what my next steps would be. How could I help students to watch video purposefully? The availability of firsthand video means that students learning about a remote location don't have to depend on other people's words or generalizations--they can view video and create their own ideas. But this kind of purposeful watching doesn't come naturally to young learners.

Next Steps

So what can video do that my text resources cannot? Extended, minimally produced animal videos are my favorite video resources. They are a great use of technology because these videos give students an experience that they would not otherwise have.

Students can learn a great deal from these sources. Consider this video of the Antarctic icefish:



What can students learn from watching this? There are so many interesting details about the icefish! I made this observation form to help students focus their observations:

It will be interesting to see what students do with this. Will their conversations change? Will they be able to weave details gleaned from a video into their writing? Will they be able to create their own observation forms?

I'm also interested in seeing if students consider the sources of the videos. How was the footage obtained? Is this typical of the animal? This kind of learning will be essential for our students as they encounter more and more video resources.

If you are interested in trying this with your students, here is a YouTube playlist that I created of animal footage:

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Studying Antarctica--A Great Topic for Inquiry

Several years ago, I started using Antarctica as a topic for our initial nonfiction unit. Why? I'm not really sure. I was probably influenced by the lovely Antarctica map included in Toolkit Texts, and also by Graham Nuthall's analysis of how students remembered information about Antarctica. But it has had a snowball effect. Over the years I've gathered more and more information about Antarctica, put together more resources for students, and watched as they learned about topics, main ideas, and details in the context of learning about Antarctica.

Now that I am in the middle of it, I'm convinced that this is a wonderful topic for a shared inquiry project in the classroom.

1. Most students don't already know much about Antarctica
Most teachers don't either! And that's what makes it an interesting topic for children and adults. It is so neat to start out with the basics of what most people know (penguins live there) and expand from there. I started reading aloud to students before the unit even began, whetting their appetites to learn more. This has given students the chance to see how their brains make new connections. This also makes it easier for students to become more metacognitive as they learn how and when they learned new information. ("There are 33 penguins in the world, but not all of them live in Australia. It's in that penguin book on the shelf.")

2. There are interesting topics for learners of all abilities
What's the standard research topic for elementary school? Animals. And a study of Antarctica can lead to the study of many fascinating animals, like chinstrap penguins, orcas, and leopard seals. For some of my students, another animal research project gives them the chance to consolidate what they have previously learned and become more confident with their research and writing skills.

But there are other topics that students can choose to pursue, like icebergs, the United States research stations, explorers of the past, jobs that people can have, and different research projects. These different topics offer a huge range of difficulty, making it easy for me to provide resources appropriate for different levels.

3. The story is constantly changing
To me, this is the most interesting part of studying Antarctica. There are research projects going on right now. Many of these scientists post updates on blogs, post videos, and share their information frequently. Students can find up to date information and see the power of science in action. Plus, the topic keeps me learning and guessing--I like to see the updates of what's happening this austral summer!

4. Antarctica provides many opportunities for digital and multimedia reading
There are plenty of online reading selections and digital resources for learning about Antarctica, making it an easy topic to use to broaden students' use of digital resources. The NSF funded projects are all clearly identified, making it easy to find out which resources are credible and reliable. And it gives me the chance to show students how to learn from videos and connect videos to texts. This is definitely helping me to weave RI 4.7 into my daily instruction. ("After we watch this video, create a sentence to explain one idea that you saw in both the video and the text.")

Resources
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: This site is called "an online magazine" and it includes printable and electronic books about different topics related to the poles.

Weddell Seal Science: Detailed information about an ongoing seal research study. Check out their YouTube channel for beautiful videos.

United States Antarctic Program: Educational resources from the USAP.

MVFram: This boat takes tourists on trips to Antarctica. Sometimes we stop by the blog to peek at the pictures and see what the expeditions are doing now.

PolarTREC: Tons of resources available here.

Educational Resources from IceCube: I haven't had much success in trying to explain neutrinos to fourth graders, but they are still intrigued by what goes on at IceCube.

My list of links for students: I provide students with a list of links related to various topics they may study.

My YouTube playlist: We watch various videos at the beginning or end of class. Most of them are quite short, and used to highlight a particular aspect of a text or get kids thinking of new questions to consider.

Notes
-I do have some articles about Antarctica included in Description Texts, Compare and Contrast Texts, and Main Ideas and Details. Several other articles that I've written are not currently available in any text sets. If you are interested, write to me at elkissn@yahoo.com.
-March Reading packets are available as well--and I finished them before the end of February. It was shocking. My students loved the frog poems!


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Three ways to move beyond "I'm going to tell you about..."

    When I taught seventh grade, I couldn't believe how many students used this phrase as a topic sentence. Was someone teaching this?

    Moving to fourth grade gave me a new perspective. As I worked with younger writers, I saw how "I'm going to tell you about..." develops, and why some teachers may let it slide now and then. Some young writers jump right into the details of a topic, without any introduction or preface.

   Writers with a stronger sense of audience awareness know that they have to do something to introduce the topic. "I'm going to tell you about" is then a logical way of beginning a paragraph. Like many young writers, this structure is terse and to the point. When it first appears in a student's writing, it represents a valid way to solve a problem. As a fourth grade teacher, I feel a grudging respect for what I despised so much in seventh grade.

  While I acknowledge the utility of "I'm going to tell you about," I know that I need to help students move forward. Here are three ways to help students move into more sophisticated expository writing.

1. Use writing frames
I love writing frames because they help students to see the language of academic writing. When students have to write to respond to reading, they often fall into an "I'm going to tell you about" pattern because they have trouble generating the abstract language they need. A writing frame can show students one way to enter a response.

Of course, the risk develops that students will see a writing frame as a simple "fill in the blanks" activity. When I introduced the frame to the right this past week, I had students read it aloud together, inserting the word "blank" at every blank. It was fun. Then we highlighted the topic sentence and talked about how it worked for the paragraph. (This activity is part of January homework and texts if you are interested.)

2. Write topic sentences together
  We are currently working on a month-long (decade-long? It sure feels like it with all of the snow days!) writing project. Students are designing their own island countries, and then writing an expository essay to describe it. So many different skills intersect in this project, from the art of creating the maps to the writing of the essay.

  Often, the writing of an essay becomes independent classwork or even (gasp!) homework. I never send writing home for homework. Sometimes students love to write and want to write at home, which is awesome. But the writing of topic sentences, especially for students in grades 4-7, is too important to send home. Students need lots of models and lots of support for this.

  I model the writing of a topic sentence with sample details. Here is one that we tried on Friday.

  I designed it so that the space for us to write our main idea is above the details. This matches the way that main ideas are usually at the beginnings of paragraphs.

  I read the details aloud to students, and then asked, "What do you think this says about the weather of Delphinium?" I asked students to work with partners to come up with one word to describe the weather--awesome, horrible, dreadful, bananas, delightful, and so forth.

  After this, I called on a few students to share. One said, "The country of Delphinium has interesting weather." This is a very basic topic sentence, but it is a step beyond "I'm going to tell you about.." The next student arranged ideas in a different order: "Delphinium's weather is pretty unusual." Having students come up with one word was very helpful.

  Some students have resisted this--"Isn't that an opinion? A teacher told me I shouldn't write opinions." I'm pretty sure that no teacher has ever said this. After all, writers take positions and then support those positions. A piece of writing that is only facts would be very dry indeed.

  ...And this process takes longer than you may ever dream possible. The more examples, the more opportunities to talk through details, the better. As we research Antarctica, students will use the same process to write about their research. Over time, the topic sentences break out of the "____ is interesting" mold and become more lively.

3. Showcase mentor texts
  Showcasing mentor texts also helps to speed up the process. Choosing texts, however, requires some care. Often the expository picture books that get published and publicized are the ones that mix up the traditional format. Where are the topic sentences? Where are the paragraphs? While these are great to read and share with students, some nice mid-level models are helpful too. The books of Franklyn M. Branley are excellent, as are articles from Ask and Muse.

   While sharing these texts, I like to talk about them in terms of problems and solutions. How did the author deal with the details? Where is the topic sentence in the paragraph? How does the author move from one paragraph to the next? After these discussions, students often start to experiment with their own topic sentences. By the end of fourth grade, a few of them are using pretty strong transitions between paragraphs, and using the topic sentence to move from one idea to the next.

Integrate all of these strategies
   All of these strategies can be used concurrently! Last week we created main ideas in the morning and wrote to a writing frame in the afternoon. Next week we'll look more at mentor texts while students will be creating their own main ideas. The more that students see and talk about main ideas and topic sentences, the more likely they will be to internalize this kind of structure and move beyond "I'm going to tell you about."

Notes
-If you're looking for more on main ideas, you may like this: Main Ideas and Details in Nonfiction Text.
-This slideshow about Topics and Main Ideas can help students to understand topics and main ideas in reading.

Previewing science content with phenology

Phenology is the study of the seasons and the timing of different events that occur in the seasons. Over the past few years, I've dabbled in phenology with informal learning events--"When will we hear spring peepers? When will we see the first dandelion?"

 This year, though, I'm beginning to learn the value of phenology for finding out what kids already know--or think they know--and for building concept knowledge.



Take spring peepers. Today I just had to think about spring, so I showed students this quick little video and asked when they thought we would hear spring peepers. They all had varying levels of knowledge about these tiny frogs, from comments like, "Oh, so that's what they are!" to "Those things are so annoying!" to "I have never heard those in my life."

I told students the range of my personal observations of spring peepers--as early as the last week in February, during one of those warm years in the late 90s, to as late as the third week of March. And then I asked this simple question: What do you suppose the spring peepers are doing now?

Their answers showed me glimpses of their thinking as we stand on the brink of our animal adaptations unit. "Migrating?" one student guessed. "No, they couldn't migrate. They're too small," another student said. "Hibernating!" someone said, and this idea was met with nods and repeats. But then this led to another question: What tells the spring peepers when it's time to wake up? How do they all know to gather together?

These are the questions at the heart of phenology, and these are the questions that will guide us as we look at behavioral adaptations, seasonal changes, and their relationships. Thanks to our guessing game, I already know what words and ideas are present in the classroom, and what misconceptions students have. Students seem to be aware of migrating and hibernating, but they seem to equate migration with larger animals.

Take a look at the maps at Journey North for some other seasonal phenomena that you can track with your students. And if you're in the spring peeper's range--what's your guess for the first night of hearing spring peepers? (I guess March 25!)

If you have iPads, you may like this spring peeper activity for Activity Spot.

March 3 update: I've added March Homework, and there is an activity for comparing poems. One is this  charming little poem by Hilda Conkling, and one is about spring peepers.



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