Then we read a passage about Amelia Earhart that I found
(for free) HERE. When teaching main idea I like to use books, articles, passages, and anything in between! It’s important for students to know how to state the main idea for the whole text AND for the different portions of the text.
After reading the passage together we filled out our anchor chart and wrote about the main idea and details from the entire passage.
Then I broke the students into Pilot Crews… which I also called Pirate Crews the majority of the day, ha! The Pilot Crews had to re-read a portion of the text that I assigned and discuss the main idea from just that portion.
Together, they had to form their main idea into a sentence that could be written down on a strip of paper.
If the pilots successfully completed their Main Idea flight, they were able to make airplanes from clothespins and popsicle sticks!
I told them these were like Main Idea Airplanes. The clothespin is like the main idea because it’s the MAIN part of the airplane… without it you have NO airplane, just like without the main idea you have NO story! The popsicle sticks or the wings are like the details that add to the story and give a little more color to our main idea 🙂 You can find the airplane tutorial
HERE. I used glue dots rather than actual glue so that it would be quick and easy!
One Response
When you fill out the anchor chart, do the students record in their sheet from the Rooted In Reading from the chart?
My 2nd graders have been using and LOVING R.I.R. All year. I just want to make sure we continue to use it effectively for next year too.