Student Created Anchor Charts: Main Idea and Details

This was a true, authentic group activity that we tried a few weeks ago. Again, I say.... it's authentic. The student created anchor charts are created by second graders that are really doing some amazing thinking and collaborating, even if they don't look Pinterest worthy! :) I think they did a great job for their first try!

In order to practice main idea and detail skills, we used a product from Meet Miss Parker that included differentiated reading passages! 

Students were put into differentiated groups and were told to read the passage and start determining what they thought was the main idea of the passage and then some details to go with that main idea.

Here are the passages, as you can see the same passage is in three different lexile levels.

 

These are the Differentiated Reading Comprehension Passages for Winter by Meet Miss Parker

Students read the passage first:

 

Then out came my stash of markers (the ones that kids are allowed to use, haha) and some big newsprint paper.

I gave students a kind of "bones" anchor chart to work with, to let them know what needed to be included. Some of them used creativity to changes up a little, but overall they knew they had to have the main idea and three details.

Work in progress!

Overall, they did a great job and I can't wait to implement more projects like this! My higher level kids really need good "thinking" projects like this!! Loved it!

 

   

 

Workstation Wednesday: Main Idea Station

Well, I decided to RE-post an OLD, OLD blog post.

Fun fact: I first started my blog (under a different name) it was one of my graduate classes. We had to create a blog and post different teaching ideas that had to do with what we were learning and using in our classroom! The original blog was only viewed by my professor and my classmates. It was blocked from everyone else!! Here is one of my first posts and when I was looking at my "stats" the other day, it has the most views! By far!!

So here you go, an oldie...but goodie. :)



From way back in 2010:

As I mentioned in my Compare and Contrast Workstation Entry, I use the passages that are used there the following week in this Main Idea Workstation.  I use a card to cover up the questions that go along with the passage, partially because they have already answered them in the previous week, and partially because they happen to be "compare and contrast" questions, not main idea and detail questions. Students are to reread this "familiar" passage twice to themselves or to a partner, then complete the Main Idea and Details graphic organizer. As you can see below, students have the opportunity to underline and cross out certain things in the passage while they work. Often students underline the parts that they want to include in their graphic organizer (the most important details to support the main idea.) Then, once they record that detail, they cross it off. Students seem to work well with these short, to the point passages. 

Although students need practice with longer passages for standardized tests, I have decided that this is sufficient practice for 2nd graders at this stage, due to them just beginning to learn the concept of "Main Idea and Details." I am pleased with the progress that students are making with this workstation and I have to admit that it's a pretty easy workstation to keep up with week after week. I simply rotate the three passages from my "Compare and Contrast Workstation" to this one. There is no wasted paper and the graphic organizer can easily be checked by my assistant as an accountability piece, then simply erased with a paper towel or tissue by the student.

Additional Resources:

FCRR Narrative Text Structure Activities Scroll through these activities to find not only additional main idea and details resources, but also activities for story elements, story retell, and compare and contrast.

 

Main Idea and Details

Again, I'm reminiscing about back when I started this blog. Here is a bulletin board activity I did about 5 years ago! 

I'm thinking about doing this with some of the winter titles I have been reading and snowflakes! What do you think?

 

After working on identifying the main idea and details in fiction and non-fiction text, my class worked together to create this bulletin board. We used some of our favorite read aloud books from this year so far and we found the main idea and three details for each book.

1. Have students choose which book they'd like to work with. (I had them work with partners, so I just chose two students who were interested in the book to work together.)

2. Give each pair of students 4 sticky notes. One for main idea, 3 for details.

3. Have students reread the familiar read aloud story.

4. Have students identify what they think the main idea of the book is and write it on a sticky note labeled "Main Idea"

5. Have each pair of students find 3 details that they find important from the story and remind them that the details need to support the main idea that they have chosen. They may write these 3 details on the other 3 sticky notes.

6. After checking capitals, punctuation, etc. on the sticky notes, I let them copy the sentences onto cut out leaves for our fall themed bulletin board.

7. Add the main idea and detail leaves to the book covers that are on your bulletin board.

8. You could also have students share their main idea and details of these books with the class. Each of the books should be familiar to the entire class, so they may help them decide if this was the main idea or not.

March Odds and Ends

Picture tour of the last few weeks.

Geometry Salad to complete our Envisions math assignment.

Using Keynote to write expert books 

Squeezing in Dr. Seuss! 

Freebie Lorax activity from Mel D at Seusstastic Classroom!

Middle of the year mClass math testing. We've been practicing like crazy! (Look for a blog post explaining more!!) 

Another snow day! In March!!!!

Creating Geometry portfolios to help us through this unit! (The worksheets are from Amy Lemons "Show What You Know" math packet. I used them as a pretext/post test.) 

Working hard to publish put expert writing projects (using Keynote!) 

Introduced new informational reading material to help with our expert writing. 

We have had so many snow days that we now have extended days through the month of March and most of April. Here are some of the extended learning activities we have worked on in that extra hour each day! I've been trying to keep all of the activities fun and engaging!! 

This ice cream and popcorn activity come from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers in her "Mastering Main Idea and Details" packet! Love it! 

Main Idea Workstation

As I mentioned in my Compare and Contrast Workstation Entry, I use the passages that are used there the following week in this Main Idea Workstation.  I use a card to cover up the questions that go along with the passage, partially because they have already answered them in the previous week, and partially because they happen to be "compare and contrast" questions, not main idea and detail questions. Students are to reread this "familiar" passage twice to themselves or to a partner, then complete the Main Idea and Details graphic organizer. As you can see below, students have the opportunity to underline and cross out certain things in the passage while they work. Often students underline the parts that they want to include in their graphic organizer (the most important details to support the main idea.) Then, once they record that detail, they cross it off. Students seem to work well with these short, to the point passages. 

Although students need practice with longer passages for standardized tests, I have decided that this is sufficient practice for 2nd graders at this stage, due to them just beginning to learn the concept of "Main Idea and Details." I am pleased with the progress that students are making with this workstation and I have to admit that it's a pretty easy workstation to keep up with week after week. I simply rotate the three passages from my "Compare and Contrast Workstation" to this one. There is no wasted paper and the graphic organizer can easily be checked by my assistant as an accountability piece, then simply erased with a paper towel or tissue by the student.

Additional Resources:
FCRR Narrative Text Structure Activities Scroll through these activities to find not only additional main idea and details resources, but also activities for story elements, story retell, and compare and contrast.

Passages are copied from this book:

Main Idea and Details

 

After working on identifying the main idea and details in fiction and non-fiction text, my class worked together to create this bulletin board. We used some of our favorite read aloud books from this year so far and we found the main idea and three details for each book.

1. Have students choose which book they'd like to work with. (I had them work with partners, so I just chose two students who were interested in the book to work together.)

2. Give each pair of students 4 sticky notes. One for main idea, 3 for details.

3. Have students reread the familiar read aloud story.

4. Have students identify what they think the main idea of the book is and write it on a sticky note labeled "Main Idea"

5. Have each pair of students find 3 details that they find important from the story and remind them that the details need to support the main idea that they have chosen. They may write these 3 details on the other 3 sticky notes.

6. After checking capitals, punctuation, etc. on the sticky notes, I let them copy the sentences onto cut out leaves for our fall themed bulletin board.

7. Add the main idea and detail leaves to the book covers that are on your bulletin board.

8. You could also have students share their main idea and details of these books with the class. Each of the books should be familiar to the entire class, so they may help them decide if this was the main idea or not.