English Lesson Plan: Main Idea

Lesson Objective: Students will be able to explain the difference between main ideas and details through the writing of a summary.

Lesson Opening

1. This is the continuation of a theme based unit that has the children learning several things (summarizing, author's purpose, main idea/details, sequence of events, fact vs. opinion and drawing conclusions) through the writing of summaries that will be compiled into a 4^th grade encyclopedia. Today they continue with the actual summarizing of their topics. Before letting them work individually, I ask them to remind me what an encyclopedia is.

Guided Practice

1. First, however, I will give them a short lesson on the idea of main idea versus details. The children will pair up and one child will tell the other what they did over the weekend. The other child will be in charge of taking notes on the main points.

1. Before they do that, I will do the same thing with whoever is in the room with me. I will take notes on what she says, writing down the main points. When I am done, I will ask the class what I did not write down. Then I will ask them why I did not write it down.

1. Once more, as has been for the past week, I will ask the class why there are sometimes when we only want the main ideas. I will stress the idea that sometimes we don't have the time to hear all the details. I will also introduce the idea that being able to summarize is a test they need in order to pass the 4^th grade test coming up.

Independent Practice

1. Now it is time for the children to work independently on their summaries. My job will be to be there to answer questions. As each child is writing on a different subject, it will be hard to have them help one another.

1. There will be a chance at the end for children who wish to present their information to the class as a whole. If no one volunteers, then I will show them how far I have gotten on my own work. I will always have parts of my own plan that I am struggling with and ask them for their feedback. If the children see that the teacher can admit his mistakes, they will be willing to admit theirs.

Closing

1. This must be done by Friday. No exceptions. Five minutes at the end will be devoted to communicating this to the children.