Teaching Theme and Main Idea

Getting caught up on the overflow in my Google Reader while I wait for this baby to arrive! Earlier this month, Stenhouse’s Quick Tip Tuesday focused on Finding the Main Idea in fiction texts. It showcases ideas from Amy Greene and Glennon Doyle Melton in their book Test Talk: Integrating Test Preparation into Reading Workshop.

I like the explicit way Glennon introduces the main idea to her students while reading Thank You, Mr. Falker (what a tear-jerker, by the way). And it immediately brought to mind another teacher’s way of teaching theme in her classroom.

Notetaking

I really like this description of notetaking described on The Stenhouse Blog’s Quick Tip Tuesday. It helps to be so explicit with students when describing how to take notes - I don’t think I’ve been super successful with it in the past.\

At the end of the minilesson, the students create a list of what they learned about notetaking:

Ideas for Taking Notes When Reading Nonfiction
■ Make sure you read the text at least twice so that you really understand what the author has said.
■ Write down key words or phrases that you think are important on a retelling web.
■ Put the text away.
■ Using only the retelling web, try to retell the information.
■ If you have problems retelling, look at the text again and see what extra words you need to include to help you remember.

via Quick Tip Tuesday: How to model note taking - The Stenhouse Blog.

I think I’ll add Tony Stead’s book, Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension with Non-Fiction K-5 to my list of books to read!

The First Thanksgiving (Hello Reader Level 3) by Garnet Jackson