Name: Chelsey Barker Subject of Lesson: Grade Level: 3 Main Idea

Date: 9/27/12 Time Estimate: 45 minutes

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

Specific Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) 3-1R5: Identify main ideas and supporting details in informational texts Lesson Objectives Given a nonfiction article, students will conclude the main idea and highlight details in the article that support the main idea. Lesson Purpose I am teaching this lesson to reinforce the importance of determining main ideas in a text. I n addition, the Grade 3 Common Core Learning Standards require students to identify the main idea and supporting details of informational text. This skill is of large importance in the comprehension of literature. Identifying and understanding main ideas are prerequisite skills to summarizing passages. Students summarize the most important aspects of the passage by finding the significant details in the text and discarding those that are not. This lesson is centered on supporting the main idea with details found in the text. Pre-Assessment Data I administered a comprehension assessment from the FOCUS lesson book the week before the lesson. The students were given an article from a science book and were asked multiple choice questions about the passage and required to respond to a short answer question. Across the board, students had a hard time including enough details in the short answer comprehension question. Only four students included all the necessary information. Most students knew what they were talking about but did not include enough detail. Out of the four multiple-choice questions, the mean percentage correct was 57.5%. Only 9/20 students answered the multiple-choice question regarding the main idea of the passage correct. Modifications/Accommodations This lesson will present information visually and orally to accommodate the learners in the classroom. I will circulate around the classroom during independent work time to ensure that students are on task. Additionally, I will put a checklist on the board in which students can reference when searching for the main idea amongst a passage. Students who have trouble staying on task will benefit along with the rest of the class from this self-regulation strategy. Materials/Resources - Main Idea Powerpoint - Scholastic News (one for each student) - Catching the Main Idea WS (one for each student)

Highlighter Pencil CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

Arrangement of Physical Space and Students Students will be sitting on the carpet for the beginning of the lesson. During group work, students will go back to their respective seats. The desks are organized in five groups of four. Each cluster of desks will work together to complete the objective of the lesson. Classroom Culture I will expect the class to respect whoever may be talking, and will wait until respect has been attained before moving on with the lesson. I will encourage students to ask questions if they don't understand something in the lesson. I will also tell the students that I expect their best work and may ask for them to redo class work/homework if there is major room for improvement. Classroom Procedures or Routines The teacher will get students attention by strategies such as, were back in 3, 2,1, If you can hear me clap once, All eyes on me, 1, 2, 3. Students will raise their hands if they want to speak during instruction time and will nonverbally give the bathroom signal if they need to use the restroom. How to Monitor and Respond to Student Misbehavior The teacher will call on students to speak who have their hand raised during class and will ignore those who call out. If it becomes a persistent or reoccurring problem with a student, a warning will be given and if needed, the teacher will privately talk to the student after class and decide on a plan of action. INSTRUCTION (LESSON SCRIPT) Steps A. Anticipatory Set Motivation/Hook Motivation/Hook Key Questions, Comments, Directions, Assessments I want you to think back to the first day of school. Think of that day and the fun things youve done in school since then. Im going to write, We have an awesome class up on the board. What things come to mind? As students name things, write them on the Promethean Board under the main idea, We have an awesome class! (If needed, prompt students by asking, What makes our class awesome Why is our class awesome What fun things do you like doing in the classroom) By looking at all the statements weve written, what do you think We have an awesome class! is? (main idea) What do the other statements underneath it do? (supporting details, they support the main idea) I just gave you the main idea and you gave me details that supported it. When we read a passage, we try to figure out the main idea that the author is trying to tell us. Once we come up with the main idea, we have to support it with specific

B. Lesson Body (Content Input, Modeling, Assessments, Guided Practice, and Independent Practice)

details from the text. Open up Powerpoint. Slide 2. How do I know what the main idea is? The main idea is what all the sentences in a paragraph or text are about. Read the paragraphs and ask yourself. What point is the writer trying to make? Slide 3. The main idea is usually a sentence that describes what a section of text is about! Can anyone think of a way that can help us figure out what the main idea is? Slide 4. To come up with the main idea, you must be a DETECTIVE! Sometimes you can look at the beginning and ending sentences to get clues. Sometimes the main idea is actually written in the text and other times you have to think of it yourself. Use the details. What are all of these clues trying to tell me? Slide 5. Paragraph about Joe. Read through this paragraph and I want you to look at the beginning and ending paragraphs to give you clues on what the main idea may be. What do you think the main idea might be? (Joe enjoys playing games) What other sentences agree with this main idea? Do they support the main idea? during this discussion, highlight the supporting details Slide 6. Hint: Start with a topic (word or two words) you think the selection is about and add a detail. Make sure the other sentences support it! After reading a passage about frogs Ex. frogs frogs go through different stages during their life. Slide 7. Paragraph about Maria and TV. Read through this paragraph. What is the topic in one or two words? (Maria and TV) What is the author trying to tell us about this topic? (watching a lot of television isnt good for Maria) This is the main idea! Even though many of the other choices are correct statements, they arent the most important thing. Switch to group work. Hand out one Scholastic News and one Main Idea worksheet to each student. Check to make sure each

student has a highlighter. Students will read the article entitled, All-American Bison. As a group, they will brainstorm what they think the main idea is. They will then go through the article and highlight a few sentences that support their main idea. They will complete the Main Idea worksheet together. I will circulate around the room to listen to how groups are working. Pull the article up on the Promethean Board. Can someone tell me the main idea their group came up with for this article? Can someone demonstrate how they came up with this? What helped you? What details did you highlight? If other people agree with their main idea, give me a thumbs up sign. (If anyone disagrees) Why do you disagree, what would you have done differently? As a reader, you constantly need to evaluate what the text is about in order to understand it. Being able to find the main idea will help you to summarize later on. Its important that you are able to pick out the important details that support the main idea. When you read, you are a detective and it is your job to figure out what the author is trying to tell you!! Again, once you have your main idea, what must you always have to support it? (Details from the text, evidence) You must get these straight out of the text! A Scholastic News worksheet titled, You Can Find the Main Idea, will be passed out to each desk in the morning for the students to complete for morning work. It will be collected and checked for understanding.

C. Closure

D. Follow-up Activities

Developmental Levels of Students:

There are 20 students in the class; 11 boys and 9 girls. According to the district, 5 students are at risk academically, with a score between 5 and 12 out of 20. The remaining are in the average and above average academic group, with a score between 13 and 18 out of 20. Social-emotionally, 7 are considered at risk, 7 are considered average, and 1 is considered above average. Most students come from a stable, two-parent home but there are a handful with separated parents. For the most part, the families are financially well off but there are 2 students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch. There are 3 students who were referred to the Instructional Service Team (IST) and 6 students have utilized the school counseling service. There are 4 students with marked attention difficulties, 2 diagnosed with ADD and 2 students who go to speech. Most students learn visually, through hands on activities, and inquiry-based activities. Many students in the class have the desire to do well and please the teacher.

Self-Evaluation A. Evaluation of Student Learning

 How did the student become involved in the lesson? Students were initially asked to remember the first day of school and the last few weeks of school and think about what makes our class an awesome class. This quick activity had the students think about an experience in which they all related to. Students were asked to highlight and to write the main idea and supporting details they found in text. They were also responsible for interacting with the members in their group to complete the task. How do you know if all of the students reached the objective? Cite assessment data. I gave students a worksheet to complete by discussing ideas with group members. I circulated around the classroom, checking in with individual students to see how they were grasping the idea. Most students understood the concept and could tell me the main idea of the passage. There were a handful who expressed difficulty when I was checking in with different groups. How did the students practice or test their newly acquired understanding or skills? Students assisted me at the Promethean Board and highlighted details in a given paragraph that supported the main idea of the passage. Additionally, students read the article, thought of a sentence that they thought could be the main idea, and discussed their findings with others to see if they matched up. If it did not match up, they could go back into the text to brainstorm other ideas, or further support their main idea with details straight from the text. B. Evaluation of Teaching Processes (description and interpretation of teaching process) How did the teaching procedures and strategies facilitate achievement of the objective? I utilized technology to deliver the content visually and orally. I made sure to rephrase what I was saying to allow students to further understand the concept if they initially did not understand and reiterate if they did understand. I used group work in a way to allow those who understood the concept to extend their knowledge to help further the understanding of those who did not. Both groups were helped by this strategy. What changes would you make if you were to teach this or a similar lesson again? I was very happy with the flow of the lesson and the execution. I would further think about how I formatted the group work portion. After talking with Karen, I think I may break the group work into parts. For example, I may have the students all read the article independently and then discuss in their groups what they thought the main idea was. Then, I may check in with the whole class and conclude the main idea of the

article right then and there. From that point, I would then have the students work with their group to come up with details that directly supported the main idea. I also may have established colors that I would use to highlight on the article that was pulled up on the Promethean Board. For example, once we came up with the main idea, wed highlight that in green, supporting details would be yellow, and interesting details that dont directly support the main idea would be pink. This way, if a student is wrong and comes up to the Board to highlight what they think is a supporting detail but it is really just an interesting detail, I can change the color to pink, without having to erase their answer. What were the strengths of this lesson? I thought I did very well with management and explaining the concept. I think I efficiently used technology to support my lesson and that the students benefitted from the use of technology. What were the problem areas? Why were they problematic? I thought that I could have looked over the article better myself before facilitating the discussion of it up at the board at the end of the lesson. I thought I would be fine working with the text after quickly looking it over but I became a little flustered since I didnt have a master key. How dynamic were your presentation skills? I was very happy with my presentation skills. I felt very confident in my ability to be in front of the students and feel as though I really can have a teacher voice and get students engaged in the lesson.