Table Of Contents
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NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • AUCKLAND • SYDNEY
MEXICO CITY • NEW DELHI • HONG KONG • BUENOS AIRES
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Scholastic Inc.grants teachers permission to photocopy the designated reproducible pages from this book or
for classroom use.No other partof this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part,or stored in a retrieval es f
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system,or transmitted in anyformor by anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording, sa
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or otherwise,without written permission of the publisher.For information regarding permission, P
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write to Scholastic Inc.,557 Broadway,New York,NY 10012. din
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Cover design by Maria Lilja 35
Interior design by Sydney Wright
Interior illustrations by Mike Gordon
ISBN-13 978-0-439-55412-1
ISBN-10 0-439-55412-8
Copyright © 2006 by Linda Ward Beech.All rights reserved.
Printed in the U.S.A.
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C
ontents
Introduction
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Using This Book
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Te Teaching About Main Ideas(and Supporting Details) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
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asti Teaching About Summarizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
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ec Learning Pages:
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ar What Is a Main Idea? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
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nd What Is Summarizing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
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arizi Main Ideas: Exercises 1–18.............................10
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S Summarizing: Exercises 19–35
& .......................28
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on: Main Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
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he Summarizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
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or Student Record..........................................47
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Introduction
Reading comprehension involves numerous thinking skills.Identifying main
ideas and the details that support them is one such skill.A reader who is adept
at identifying main ideas makes better sense of a text and increases his or her
comprehension of what is being communicated.Identifying main ideas is one
Teacher
step in reading nonfiction,but it is important that students go further.They
Tip
should also be able to use main ideas to summarize information.By summarizing
as they read,students will be better able to recall important points.Exercises
For students who
1–18 will help students learn to recognize main ideas and the details that develop
need extra help,
es them.Exercises 19–35 focus on practice in summarizing.Use pages 8 and 9
urc you might suggest
o after you introduce the skills to give students help in understanding them.
s that they keep
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c Using This Book
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ola Pages 8–9 the exercises.
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h, S After introducing main ideas and summarizing to students (see pages 6 and 7),
ec duplicate and pass out pages 8 and 9.Use page 8 to help students review
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d what they have learned about finding main ideas and supporting details.By
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nd recognized main ideas.Page 9 helps students review what they have learned
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© about summarizing.
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ari Pages 10–27
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& The first question for each passage asks students to identify the main idea,
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en bubble in front of the correct answer for each question. Tip
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Co Pages 28–44 Students can
s for These pages provide practice in summarizing.The first three questions help learn a lot if you
ge students identify the key information in the paragraph.The fourth question review the finished
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ass asks students to select the title that best summarizes the passage.Finally, exercises with them
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ng students are asked to use their answers to summarize the information given. on a regular basis.
di Encourage students
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5 Pages 45–46
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Use these pages to assess students’progress after they have completed the correct answer.
practice pages. Ask them to point
out the words
Page 47 that helped them
You may wish to keep a record of students’progress as they complete the identify main ideas.
practice pages.Sample comments that will help you guide students to improving
their skills might include:
• reads carelessly • has trouble differentiating main ideas
• misunderstands text from supporting details
• doesn’t recognize main ideas • is weak in summarizing material
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Mini-Lesson
Teaching About Main Ideas
(and Supporting Details)
1. Introduce the concept:Write these words on the chalkboard.
ocean lagoon bay pond creek
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2. Model thinking: After students have correctly identified bodies of water as our
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what the words are about,continue the lesson by thinking aloud. R
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Each of the words is d
Each word names a ar
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ageographic term.
different body of water. a
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3. Define the skill: Remind students that when they read a paragraph,the zin
sentences in it are related to one another.The sentences are all about a main mari
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idea.This is the key point in the paragraph.Explain that often the main idea is u
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stated in the first sentence of a paragraph,but the main idea can also be given &
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in the middle or at the end of a paragraph. e
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Tell students that the other sentences in a paragraph tell more about the ain I
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main idea.These sentences give supporting details.A supporting detail might n:
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be an example.It might also be a fact about the main idea or a description of it. si
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Explain that supporting details fill in information about the main idea and h
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make the paragraph more interesting to read.Help students understand that m
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the main idea is bigger or broader than the supporting details. or C
Point out that sometimes the main idea is not stated in a single s f
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sentence.Instead,all the details suggest the main idea;in other words,the a
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main idea is implied,as in the example above.Then the reader must figure it P
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out by asking questions such as “What is happening?”“What is this about?” di
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Use graphics to help students who are visual learners understand R
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the concept. 3
MAIN IDEA
DETAIL DETAIL
DETAIL
6
Mini-Lesson
Teaching About Summarizing
1. Introduce the concept: Draw five pictures on the board that convey
the power of wind.(You may also create an overhead transparency using the
illustrations below.)
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B Ask students to make up a sentence that tells about all the pictures.
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da 2. Model thinking: After students have volunteered their sentences,help
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ass 3. Define the skill: Explain that summarizing is a way to remember what
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a Then you try to state or restate them in your own words.Tell students that
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The wind is strong and can make things such as a kite move.
Tell students that outlines and graphic organizers are often good ways
to summarize information.For example:
I.The power of the wind
A.Bends trees
B.Carries away hats
C.Turns umbrellas inside out
D.Helps kites fly
E.Makes boats move
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Name ______________________________________________________ Date _____________________________
Learning Page
W I M I
hat s a ain dea?
When you read a nonfiction passage, it usually gives you a lot of information. How does
a reader remember all this information? How does a reader make sense of it?
A good reader sorts out the information. For example, a reader might think:
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What other information is n
What is the “big picture” hi
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in this passage? What is given? How does it help me Tea
the main point of it? understand the main point? stic
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When you answer the first two questions, you identify the main idea. The main idea is Be
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what the paragraph is about. When you answer the second two questions, you identify ar
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the supporting details. These details tell more about the main idea by describing or d
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explaining what, where, why, how much, when, who, or how many. ©
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Read the passage. Complete the statements. u
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Can snakes crawl in reverse? Well, no, but they can move in other ways. For example, as
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they can sidewind, which involves throwing the front of their body to one side and n I
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then zigzagging the rest along the ground. Some snakes such as pythons can climb n:
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trees, and some vipers can actually leap. Many snakes can swim, too. nsi
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This passage is mainly about ________________________________________________ C
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2 One detail about the main idea is ____________________________________________ ding
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Another detail about the main idea is ________________________________________
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The details help me understand the main idea because they _____________________
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Name ______________________________________________________ Date _____________________________
Learning Page
W I S
hat s ummarizing?
When you read nonfiction, you want to remember what you read. However, it isn’t
necessary to recall every word. Instead, you can use the main ideas to help you sum-
marize a passage.
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c How can I restate the main
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ee The next thing a reader does is to identify supporting evidence for the main idea.
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ar This evidence can be details, examples, explanations, descriptions, or statistics that
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© to summarize information.
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the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. People in North Dakota think of the Painted Canyon
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si in that state as their grand canyon.And Californians use the nickname for a canyon
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pre on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.This underwater grand canyon is officially called
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A good title for this paragraph would be ______________________________________
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A detail I might include in a summary would be _______________________________
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Name ______________________________________________________ Date _____________________________
EXERCISE
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Read each paragraph. Choose the best answers.
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You probably know that guide dogs are used to lead blind people. Did you know that a ur
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few blind people have guide horses? These are miniature horses trained much as guide Re
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dogs are.The small horses respond to more than 25 commands.They can see well in hi
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the dark.They are also trained to tap with a hoof on the door if they need to go out. T
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One man has even taken his guide horse on an airplane! a
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1 The main idea of this paragraph is ch,
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A How guide dogs are trained C The use of small horses as guides ard
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B A guide horse on an airplane D Why blind people like animals da
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2 A supporting detail is ng
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A Guide dogs lead blind people. C Miniature means small. mari
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B The horses respond to 25 commands. D Airlines welcome guide horses. & S
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Dictionary writers are always busy.That’s because the English language keeps changing. o
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People stop using some words, and new words keep popping up.Where do new words h
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come from? Many recent words are from technology. For example, snailmail came into o
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use after people started using the much faster e-mail. Other new words come from or
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books, television, movies, and fads. Do you know what a wannabe is? If not, you can ag
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look it up in a recently published dictionary. g P
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A Dictionaries show changes in English. C Why dictionary writers are so tired
B How television affects English D How to find new words in a dictionary
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A supporting detail is
A Snails help to deliver the mail. C Old dictionaries are not useful.
B Many words come from technology. D The English language never changes.
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