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Ask Questions/Identify Main Idea and Supporting Details

TM

LiteracyB e n c h m a r k

Teacher’s Guide Grade 4 • Unit 1 1Week

Unit 1/Week 1 at a Glance

Day Mini-Lessons

ONE • Introduce the Comprehension Strategy: Identify Stated Main Idea and Supporting Details

• Think Aloud and Use the Metacognitive Strategy: Ask Questions

• Identify the Stated Main Idea and Supporting Details • Connect Thinking, Speaking, and Writing • Reflect and Discuss

TWO • Review the Metacognitive Strategy: Ask Questions • Use the Comprehension Strategy: Identify Stated

Main Idea and Supporting Details • Connect Thinking, Speaking, and Writing • Reflect and Discuss

THREE • Extend the Comprehension Strategy: Identify Unstated Main Idea and Supporting Details

• Observe and Prompt for Strategy Understanding • Reflect and Discuss

FOUR • Read and Summarize • Answer Text-Dependent Comprehension Questions: Identify

Unstated Main Idea and Supporting Details (Level 3: Prove It!) • Reflect and Discuss

FIVE • Metacognitive Self-Assessment • Constructed Written Response • Ongoing Comprehension Strategy Assessment

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Have you ever walked through mud? If so, you probably left behind footprints. If left undisturbed for thousands of years, your footprints would eventually become trace fossils. Trace fossils are the traces of living things captured in rock.

Some of the most common trace fossils are tracks. Animals’ feet made the tracks that became fossils. Sometimes animals left an entire path of

footprints leading to a certain place. Tracks show us where animals traveled and how they moved.

Other trace fossils, called trails, look like curvy, carved lines in rock. Legless creatures, such as worms, left these lines. Trails provide information about animal size and weight.

Many animals from long ago found ways to protect themselves and their young. They dug burrows into mud, wood, or stone. How do we know this? The burrows are trace fossils, too.

Details: • Animals’ feet made the tracks that became fossils.• Other trace fossils, called trails, look like curvy,

carved lines in rock. Legless creatures, such as worms, left these lines.

• Some animals dug burrows into mud, wood, and stone. The burrows are trace fossils, too.

Stated Main Idea:Trace fossils are the traces of living things captured in rock.

Trace Fossils

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Pick up a handful of soil. What do you see? Healthy soil is rich in humus, or decayed plant

and animal material. Humus provides the soil with nutrients. Plants use the nutrients to grow.

Animals such as mice and snakes make their homes in soil. Soil is also home to millions of ants, beetles, worms, and other critters. It might not look like it, but even the smallest handful of soil is teeming with life. In fact, more organisms live in soil than in any other habitat on Earth.

If you look at a sample of soil through a microscope, you’ll discover fungi and bacteria. These life forms break down dead animals and plants into simpler things, which enrich the soil. Too small to see with an unaided eye, fungi and bacteria also find their homes in soil.

Soil

Details:Unstated Main Idea:

Land Beneath the Waves

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When you fly over land, you see geographic features such as canyons, mountains, and plains. The ocean floor has the same features as land. We can’t see them because they are hidden beneath the water.

Around the edges of the continents, the ocean gets deeper very slowly. This area, though underwater, is actually a part of a continent. It is the continental shelf.

The continental shelf ends suddenly and makes a downward slope. This area is the continental slope. At its edge, the continental slope deepens quickly.

Beyond the continental shelf lies the deep ocean floor, or abyssal plain. Flat land covers most of the abyssal plain, but mountain ranges and valleys also exist in this deep water world. The abyssal plain covers almost one-half of Earth.

continental shelf

continental slope

abyssal plain

Unstated Main Idea: Oceans include three main parts.

Details: • Around the edges of the continents, the ocean

gets deeper very slowly. It is the continental shelf. • The continental shelf ends suddenly. This area is

the continental slope. • Beyond the continental shelf lies the deep ocean

floor, or abyssal plain.

A Rain Forest Medicine

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Rain forest trees contain some of the world’s most beautiful flowers. But did you know that one rain forest tree contains a treatment for malaria?

Malaria is a serious disease. It is spread by a certain type of mosquito. The mosquito lives in tropical and subtropical regions. People with malaria suffer from chills and high fevers.

The cinchona (sin-KOH-nuh) tree grows in the rain forests of the Andes Mountains in South America. For hundreds of years, native people of that region treated fevers with cinchona bark. They stripped bark from the tree, dried it in the sun, and then ground it into a powder. In 1639, Jesuit missionaries took the bark back to Europe. Soon cinchona bark became a widespread treatment for all types of fevers.

In 1820, two French chemists, Joseph Pelletier (PEL-tee-ay) and Joseph Bienaime (bee-EH-nuh-mee), experimented with cinchona bark. They wanted to know why cinchona reduced fevers. After many tests, they discovered the fever reducing ingredient: quinine.

Stated Main Idea: Stated Main Idea: Stated Main Idea:

Details: Details: Details:

Benchmark Literacy • Grade 4 • Unit 1/Week 1 ©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC2

Day One

Read-Aloud (10 minutes)

Select a favorite fiction read-aloud from your classroom or school library with which to model the metacognitive strategy “Ask Questions.” Use the sample read-aloud lessons and suggested titles in the Benchmark Literacy Overview.

Mini-Lessons (20 minutes)

Introduce the Comprehension Strategy: Identify Stated Main Idea and Supporting Details

Say: Snow days are so much fun! Usually, school closes when it snows. I go outside and build a snowman with my friends, and make snow angels. We sled down a huge hill in my neighborhood. But the best part of the day is when I come back home. My dad makes the best hot cocoa, with real chocolate and huge marshmallows. Snow days are the best days!

Ask: What is the most important idea about snow days? What details tell you more about the important idea?

Turn and talk. Ask pairs to share their favorite activity and why they like that activity. Then have students provide three details to support their opinions. Ask a few students to share with the whole group.

Explain: You just expressed a main idea to your partner and provided details that gave more information about, or supported, the main idea. When you describe something or have an opinion, it helps to have information, or details, to support your idea or argument. Writers do this, too. Good readers know how to identify the main idea and supporting details in fiction and nonfiction texts. We’re going to practice identifying the main idea and details this week.

Think Aloud and Use the Metacognitive Strategy: Ask Questions

Display Poster 1 with annotations concealed.

Draw students’ attention to the title, “Trace Fossils.” Whiteboard users can use the highlighter tool.

Explain: Good readers ask questions before, during, and after they read. Asking questions helps readers understand better, clarify information, and stay interested in the text.

Lesson Objectives

Students will:

• Identify stated main ideas and supporting details in a text.

• Ask questions about a text.

• Use academic sentence frames to discuss strategies.

Related Resources

• Whiteboard CD-ROM

• Home/School Connections (BLM 1)

About the Strategy

• A main idea is what a paragraph, article, or story is about.

• Sometimes the author states the main idea directly. Other times readers use clues (in fiction) or evidence (in nonfiction) to identify the main idea.

Comprehension Anchor Poster 1

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Have you ever walked through mud? If so, you probably left behind footprints. If left undisturbed for thousands of years, your footprints would eventually become trace fossils. Trace fossils are the traces of living things captured in rock.

Some of the most common trace fossils are tracks. Animals’ feet made the tracks that became fossils. Sometimes animals left an entire path of

footprints leading to a certain place. Tracks show us where animals traveled and how they moved.

Other trace fossils, called trails, look like curvy, carved lines in rock. Legless creatures, such as worms, left these lines. Trails provide information about animal size and weight.

Many animals from long ago found ways to protect themselves and their young. They dug burrows into mud, wood, or stone. How do we know this? The burrows are trace fossils, too.

Details: • Animals’ feet made the tracks that became fossils.• Other trace fossils, called trails, look like curvy,

carved lines in rock. Legless creatures, such as worms, left these lines.


Stated Main Idea:Trace fossils are the traces of living things captured in rock.

Trace Fossils

3

Day One

©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC Benchmark Literacy • Grade 4 • Unit 1/Week 1

Make Content Comprehensible for ELLsUse the following strategies to help ELLs understand the poster content and acquire academic language.

BeginningPoint to the photograph as you say the word fossil. Use simple sentence frames to discuss fossils, for example:

This fossil is a(n) . This animal lived long ago.

Display actual fossils.

Beginning and IntermediateShare the English/Spanish cognate fossil/el fósil.

Support Special Needs LearnersSupport visual learners and students with attention issues by projecting the whiteboard version of the posters. Allow students to come to the whiteboard and circle, underline, or highlight the main idea and details in the text. Invite them to label what they see.

Access the graphic organizer provided on the whiteboard version. Record main ideas and details with students.

Access the image bank for enlarged images that students can use to practice asking questions, determining main idea and details, and retelling facts.

I am going to show you how I ask questions about a text. The title of this passage makes me wonder what this article is about. I can ask a question about the title to ensure that I will understand what I’m reading. Let me show you how I ask questions about a text.

Think aloud. Say: The title “Trace Fossils” makes me wonder what this text is about. I can ask a question about the title to ensure that I will understand what I’m reading. I know what a fossil is, but what is a trace fossil? Where can I find the answer to this question? What does the photo show? Will the photo help me figure out what a trace fossil is? Asking and answering these questions can help me figure out the main idea of this article and the details that tell more about that idea.

Write your questions on chart paper. Ask students to generate other questions they could ask, and add these to your list. Explore possible answers together.

Post these questions on the wall as an Ask Questions anchor chart, or ask students to write them in their reading journals.

Identify Stated Main Idea and Supporting Details

Read aloud the poster passage with students.

Ask students to state the main idea of the passage in their own words. Ask them to share at least two details to support the main idea. Provide the following academic sentence frames to support ELLs and struggling students:

The main idea was . The details that support the main idea are .

Reveal the annotations so that students can confirm/revise their ideas. Point out that in this passage, the author directly states the main idea of each paragraph either in the first or last sentence of the paragraph.

Connect Thinking, Speaking, and Writing

Write down the main idea and details students came up with. Reread them as a group. Provide an opportunity for students to expand on their shared writing of the main idea and details.

Comprehension Anchor Poster 1 Sample Annotations

Stated Main Idea: Trace fossils are the traces of living things captured in rock.

Details: • Animals’ feet made the tracks

that became fossils.• Other trace fossils, called trails,

look like curvy, carved lines in rock. Legless creatures, such as worms, left these lines.



Day One

Reflect and Discuss

Ask and discuss the following questions: •Whyisitimportanttoidentifyamainideaandsupportingdetails?

How does this help you as a reader?•Howdidaskingquestionshelpyouunderstandwhatyouread?•Wheredidtheauthorputthemainideasinthepassageweread

today? Where were the details for each main idea?

Connect and transfer. Say: When you read nonfiction in small group or independently, remember to ask yourself questions to help you think about the main ideas.

Small-Group Reading Instruction (60 minutes)

Based on students’ instructional reading levels, select titles that provide opportunities for students to practice identifying stated main ideas and details. See the list provided on the Unit at a Glance chart.

Use the before-, during-, and after-reading instruction provided in the Teacher’s Guide for each text.

Individual Student Conferences (10 minutes)

Confer with individual students on their text selections and application of strategies. Use the Reading Conference Note-Taking Form to help guide your conferences.

Word Study Workshop (20 minutes)

Use the Day 1 instruction provided in Word Study Skill Bag 1.

Comprehension Quick-CheckObserve whether students are able to articulate the main idea and details in the poster. If necessary, use the following additional explicit instruction.

Draw a main idea/supporting details graphic organizer on chart paper.

In the top box, write Trace fossils are the traces of living things.

Say: This is the main idea. The main idea gives the most important information.

In the first Details box, write “Animals’ feet made tracks that became fossils.”

Say: I looked in the text, and I found examples of fossils. I use the examples to support the main idea.

Say: Now you find a detail in the text.

Home/School Connections On Day One, distribute copies of Home/School Connections (BLM 1). Each day during the week, assign one of the six home/school connection activities for the students to complete. Ask them to bring their completed assignments to class the next day. Make time at the beginning of each day for students to share their ideas.

Home/School Connections (BLM 1)

Benchmark Literacy • Grade 4 • Unit 1/Week 1 ©2010 Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Name Date

BLM 1

Home/School Connections: Identify Main Idea and Supporting Details

1. Make Text-to-World Strategy ConnectionsWhat is your favorite activity to do at home with your family? Write it down on a sheet of paper. With help from your family, list the details involved in doing that activity under the title of the activity. Discuss why it is your favorite activity. Bring your ideas to school to share with your class.

2. Make Text-to-Text Strategy ConnectionsFind one or more examples of a headline in a newspaper or magazine that states a main idea. Then highlight or circle details in the article that support the main idea. Bring your example(s) to school to share with the class.

3. Make a Strategy Connection to MathHow do you use main ideas and details in math? Give a specific example of how understanding a major concept, such as multiplication or finding percentages, can be used in many different circumstances.

4. Make a Strategy Connection to ScienceThink about a topic you are studying in science. Write a main idea sentence on that topic. Then write three details that support your main idea.

5. Make a Main Idea and Supporting Details ChartThink of a main idea that tells about your family. Think of three details, or examples, to support your main idea. Record your main idea and details on a Main Idea and Supporting Details chart. You can ask a family member to help you. Sign your name and your family member’s name to your chart. Bring your chart to class to share.

6. Think and Write About the StrategyThink about how learning about main idea and supporting details has helped you become a more strategic reader. Write about how and when you use this strategy to help you understand what you are reading.

©2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC Benchmark Literacy • Grade 4 • Unit 1/Week 1 5

Day Two

Lesson Objectives

Students will:


• Identify stated main ideas and supporting details in a text.


Related Resources



• Comprehension Anchor Poster 2 (BLM 2)




Review the Metacognitive Strategy: Ask Questions

Display Poster 2 and/or distribute BLM 2.

Read aloud the text with students.

Explain: Yesterday I read the passage about trace fossils and asked myself questions to help me understand the passage. Let’s practice asking questions again today.

Read aloud paragraph 1. Think aloud: In the first paragraph, I read that a certain kind of rain forest tree can treat malaria. What is malaria? How can a tree treat malaria? I will look for answers to these two questions as I read on.

Write the questions on chart paper.

Read aloud paragraphs 2 and 3.

Think aloud: The first sentence in paragraph 2 answers my question about malaria. It also provides details about how malaria is spread. The third paragraph answers my question about how a tree can treat malaria.

On the chart paper, write these answers next to each question.

Ask students to generate other questions. Add their questions to the list on the chart paper. Post this Ask Questions anchor chart on the wall, or have students write the questions in their reading journals to use in the future.

Comprehension Anchor Poster 2 (BLM 2)

A Rain Forest Medicine

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Rain forest trees contain some of the world’s most beautiful flowers. But did you know that one rain forest tree contains a treatment for malaria?

Malaria is a serious disease. It is spread by a certain type of mosquito. The mosquito lives in tropical and subtropical regions. People with malaria suffer from chills and high fevers.

The cinchona (sin-KOH-nuh) tree grows in the rain forests of the Andes Mountains in South America. For hundreds of years, native people of that region treated fevers with cinchona bark. They stripped bark from the tree, dried it in the sun, and then ground it into a powder. In 1639, Jesuit missionaries took the bark back to Europe. Soon cinchona bark became a widespread treatment for all types of fevers.

In 1820, two French chemists, Joseph Pelletier (PEL-tee-ay) and Joseph Bienaime (bee-EH-nuh-mee), experimented with cinchona bark. They wanted to know why cinchona reduced fevers. After many tests, they discovered the fever reducing ingredient: quinine.

Stated Main Idea: Stated Main Idea: Stated Main Idea:

Details: Details: Details:


Build academic oral language. Read the last paragraph. Encourage students to ask themselves about the main idea of the final paragraph, and to ask what details support that idea. Point out that the main idea is not always the first sentence in a paragraph. Have students describe how asking questions helped them identify the main idea and details in this paragraph. Reinforce the idea that good readers ask questions to understand text better. Support ELLs and struggling readers with the following sentence frames:

The main idea is . The supporting details are . Asking questions helped me .

Use the Comprehension Strategy: Identify Stated Main Idea and Supporting Details

Reread the poster text with students.

Say: Now think about the content of this passage. What was it mostly about?

If necessary, explain that the passage is mostly about a treatment for malaria that comes from a rain forest tree. To describe the disease and the treatment, the author states a few main ideas and supporting details for each main idea. Remind students that the main idea is not always the first sentence of a paragraph.

Say: Let’s look closely at the text and find each stated main idea.

Write the main ideas that students identify in the prompt boxes.

Build academic oral language. Say: Sometimes details support a main idea by giving examples. Other times, they tell more about the main idea. Authors provide details to help readers understand a main idea. What details help you understand how serious malaria is? (chills, high fevers)

Connect Thinking, Speaking, and Writing

Prompt students to identify other details. Remind them that sometimes details are examples of the main idea.

Record students’ responses in the Details boxes.

Day Two


Paragraph 1: Stated Main Idea:

Malaria is a serious disease.

Detail:

People with malaria suffer from chills and high fevers.


For hundreds of years, native people treated fevers with cinchona bark.

Details:

• The cinchona tree grows in the rain forests of the Andes Mountains in South America.

• They stripped the bark from the tree, dried it in the sun, and ground it into a powder.


They wanted to know why cinchona reduced fevers.

Details:

• In 1820, two French chemists, Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaime, experimented on cinchona bark.

• They discovered the fever-reducing ingredient: quinine.

Home/School ConnectionsAt the beginning of the day, make time for students to share their ideas based on the activity they completed the previous night.

At the end of the day, ask students to complete another home/school connection activity from BLM 1 and to bring their assignment to class the following day.


Day Two


BeginningPoint to and name objects in the photograph, such as tree, leaves, rain forest. Ask students to say the names with you.

Beginning and IntermediateDisplay a map of the Andes mountains. Say: This photo shows a rain forest. This rain forest is in the Andes mountains. The Andes mountains are in South America.

All LevelsIf appropriate, share English/Spanish cognates fever/la fiebre, malaria/la malaria.

Pair ELLs with fluent English speakers during partner discussions and activities.

Model the use of academic sentence frames to support ELLs’ academic vocabulary and language development. (See suggested sentence frames provided.)

Oral Language ExtensionDuring independent workstation time, pair students to construct oral main ideas and supporting details related to any topics they have studied in class. Partner A states a main idea. Partner B provides at least three details to support the main idea. If necessary, Partner A assists. Then the partners switch roles. Tell students to chart their main ideas and details on a graphic organizer to show you during independent student conference time.

Reflect and Discuss

Ask and discuss the following questions: •Whatdoesitmeantoaskquestionsaboutatext?Howdoesithelp

you as a reader?•Howdoesidentifyingdetailshelpyourecognizeamainidea?

Connect and transfer. Ask: How will you use what we have practiced today when you read on your own?


Based on students’ instructional reading levels, select titles that provide opportunities for students to practice identifying stated main idea and supporting details. See the list provided on the Unit at a Glance chart.







Day Three


Select a favorite nonfiction read-aloud from your classroom or school library with which to model the metacognitive strategy “Ask Questions.” Use the sample read-aloud lessons and suggested titles in the Benchmark Literacy Overview.


Extend the Comprehension Strategy: Identify Unstated Main Idea and Supporting Details

Display Poster 3 with annotations concealed, and/or distribute BLM 3.

Say: Sometimes authors do not directly state a main idea in the text. To identify the main idea, readers identify the details, and use those details as clues to figure out the main idea. Today we’re going to practice identifying an unstated main idea using details. Remember that we can ask ourselves questions to help us.

Read aloud the first paragraph, and have students identify details. Record their responses on chart paper. Repeat with each paragraph. Remind them that details are clues to the unstated main idea of a text. Now reveal the Details annotations. Ask: Did we find all the details? Let’s compare lists.

Activate metacognitive strategies. Model how to ask questions about the details and how to think about the details to figure out the unstated main idea.

Ask: What is the land in the ocean like? What are the three parts of the ocean?

Record students’ responses on chart paper. Say: Using the details we identified, we can figure out the main idea of this passage. What do you think is the main idea? Record students’ ideas on chart paper. Then reveal the Unstated Main Idea annotation. Say: Let’s compare our main idea to the one on the poster.

While using the poster, note students who demonstrate understanding of the concepts and those who seem to struggle. Use appropriate responsive prompting to help students who need modeling or additional guidance, or to validate students who demonstrate mastery.

Connect and transfer. Remember that each nonfiction text you read has a main idea and details. You can use what you have learned to help you find the main ideas. This will help you when you understand what you read for science and social studies, too.

Lesson Objectives

Students will:

• Identify unstated main ideas and their supporting details in a text.



Related Resources





Land Beneath the Waves

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When you fly over land, you see geographic features such as canyons, mountains, and plains. The ocean floor has the same features as land. We can’t see them because they are hidden beneath the water.

Around the edges of the continents, the ocean gets deeper very slowly. This area, though underwater, is actually a part of a continent. It is the continental shelf.

The continental shelf ends suddenly and makes a downward slope. This area is the continental slope. At its edge, the continental slope deepens quickly.

Beyond the continental shelf lies the deep ocean floor, or abyssal plain. Flat land covers most of the abyssal plain, but mountain ranges and valleys also exist in this deep water world. The abyssal plain covers almost one-half of Earth.

continental shelf

continental slope

abyssal plain

Unstated Main Idea: Oceans include three main parts.

Details: • Around the edges of the continents, the ocean

gets deeper very slowly. It is the continental shelf. • The continental shelf ends suddenly. This area is

the continental slope. • Beyond the continental shelf lies the deep ocean

floor, or abyssal plain.

Unstated Main Idea:Oceans include three main parts.

Details:• Around the edges of the

continents, the ocean gets deeper very slowly. It is the continental shelf.

• The continental shelf ends suddenly. This area is the continental slope.

• Beyond the continental shelf lies the deep ocean floor, or abyssal plain.



Observe and Prompt for Strategy Understanding

As students work together, observe those who demonstrate understanding and those who struggle. Use appropriate responsive prompting to provide additional support or to validate students who demonstrate mastery.

Goal Oriented•Tofindthemainidea,Iwillthinkaboutwhatthedetailshaveincommon.•Thefollowingdetails support the main idea that .

Directive and Corrective Feedback•Readthepassage.Whichdetailsareimportant?Howcanyoutell?•Whatistheconnectionbetweentheimportantdetails?•Whatdothedetailstellyouaboutthemainidea?

Self-Monitoring and Reflection•Whatcouldyoudotohelpyourselfusethedetailstoidentifythemainidea?•Whatquestionscouldyouaskyourself?Whatdidyoualreadyknow?

Validating and Confirming•Youreallyunderstandwhatthemainideaisbasedonthedetails.•Ilikethewayyouthoughtaboutwhatyoualreadyknowtohelpyou

understand what you read. Great job!•Ilikethewayyouaskedyourselfquestionstoclarifyyourunderstanding.

Reflect and DiscussAsk and discuss the following questions:

•Whatkindsoftextshaveyoureadthatincludeamainideaanddetails?•Doesanewspaperarticlehaveamainideaanddetails?Howdoes

identifying the main idea and details in an article help you understand it?•Whyisitimportanttounderstandthemainideaanddetails?


Continue small-group reading instruction from the previous day.

Help students identify the unstated main idea and details in the text they have read.






BeginningDisplay a photo of the ocean, or point to an ocean on a map, and name it.

Point to the water on the poster and name it as an ocean. Read the labels on the poster. Use each label in meaningful sentences. Point to the floor. Say: This is the floor. The ocean has a floor, too.

IntermediateAsk students to point to the continental shelf, slope, and abyssal plain as they use these words in complete sentences.

All Levels If appropriate, share English/Spanish cognates, such as mountain/la montaña, ocean/el océano, continent/el continente.

Pair ELLs with fluent English speakers during partner discussions and activities.

Comprehension Quick-Check The responsive prompts on pages 8–9 are designed to help you meet the needs of individual students. Based on your observations, identify students who may need additional explicit reinforcement of the strategy during small-group instruction or intervention time. Use similar responsive prompts during small-group instruction to scaffold students toward independent use of the strategy.


At the end of the day, ask students to complete another home/school connection activity from BLM 1 and to bring their assignment to class tomorrow.

Day Three


Lesson Objectives

Students will:

• Learn strategies for analyzing questions and for finding answers, clues, or evidence in a text.

• Identify main ideas and their supporting details in a text.

• Answer text-dependent questions about the main idea and supporting details.

• Use academic vocabulary to discuss strategies.

Related Resources




• Comprehension Questions (BLM 5)

Day Four




Read and Summarize

Display Poster 4 and/or distribute BLM 4.

Based on your students’ needs and abilities, read aloud the passage, or have students read independently or with a partner. Remind students to ask questions to help them understand what they read.

Build academic oral language. When students have finished, ask individuals or partners to tell what the passage was mostly about. Encourage ELLs or struggling readers to use the academic sentence frame:

This passage was mostly about .

Answer Text-Dependent Comprehension Questions: Identify Unstated Main Idea and Supporting Details (Level 3: Prove It!)

Say: Sometimes you need to answer questions about a passage you’ve read. And some questions require you to identify an unstated main idea. Today we’re going to read and answer questions about unstated main ideas.

Distribute BLM 5 and read Question 1 together. (“Why do plants need soil to grow?”) Ask: What is the question asking us to do? Is it asking us to identify a sequence of events? Is it asking us to compare? What strategy will we need to use? (identify unstated main idea)

Ask: Let’s think about how the words in the question can help us find the answer. We need to look at the question very closely. What words will help us? (plants, soil, grow)

Say: Now we’re ready to reread the paragraph to find the information we need. We need to find out what the details in the text tell us about soil, and what is in soil that plants need in order to grow. I see the words plants and soil in the first paragraph. The text says that humus provides soil with nutrients. It also says that plants use nutrients to grow. These details help me understand that plants need soil because soil contains the nutrients plants need to grow. The exact answer was not in the text, but like a detective, I used evidence to figure out this unstated main idea. The answer makes sense. So I’ll choose A.


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Pick up a handful of soil. What do you see? Healthy soil is rich in humus, or decayed plant

and animal material. Humus provides the soil with nutrients. Plants use the nutrients to grow.

Animals such as mice and snakes make their homes in soil. Soil is also home to millions of ants, beetles, worms, and other critters. It might not look like it, but even the smallest handful of soil is teeming with life. In fact, more organisms live in soil than in any other habitat on Earth.

If you look at a sample of soil through a microscope, you’ll discover fungi and bacteria. These life forms break down dead animals and plants into simpler things, which enrich the soil. Too small to see with an unaided eye, fungi and bacteria also find their homes in soil.

Soil

Details:Unstated Main Idea:


Day Four

Have students work independently or with a partner to answer additional text-dependent questions on BLM 5.

Review students’ answers and use the poster as needed to model analyzing questions and rereading to find answers in the text.

Stated Main Idea:

Soil contains living things: some things we can see and some things we can’t see.

Details:

• Healthy soil is rich in humus, which is decayed plant and animal material.

• Animals such as mice and snakes make their homes in soil.

• Soil is also home to millions of ants, beetles, worms, and other critters.

• More organisms live in soil than in any other habitat on Earth.

• Too small to see with an unaided eye, fungi and bacteria also find their homes in soil.


Comprehension Questions (BLM 5)

Name Date


Soil: Comprehension Questions1. Why do plants need soil to grow?

A Soilhasnutrientsandplantsneednutrientstogrow.

B Soilishometomillionsofants,beetles,andworms.

C Soiliswarm.

D Soilhasbacteriaandplantsneedbacteriatogrow.

2. Which detail supports the main idea that soil is home to living things?

A Miceandsnakesmaketheirhomesinsoil.

B MoreorganismsliveinsoilthaninanyotherhabitatonEarth.

C Soilishometomillionsofants,beetles,worms,andother

critters.

D Alloftheabove

3. You can see fungi and bacteria through a microscope. What unstated main idea does this detail support?

A Fungiandbacteriaarelifeforms.

B Fungiandbacteriaaretiny.

C Fungiandbacterialiveinsoil.

D Fungiandbacteriabreakdowndeadanimalsandplants.

4. Which detail supports the unstated main idea that fungi and bacteria are important to keep soil healthy?

A Fungiandbacteriaaretoosmalltoseewithanunaidedeye.

B Fungiandbacteriaareinsoil.

C Fungiandbacteriabreakdowndeadanimalsandplants

intosimplerthingsthatenrichthesoil.

D Noneoftheabove

BLM 5


Beginning Point to the soil in the photograph and name it. Cup your hands as in the photo as you say the word handful.

Beginning and IntermediateUse the Comprehension Strategy Assessment as a listening comprehension assessment and scaffold students’ understanding of the text. As an alternative, allow students to tell you about the main idea and supporting details in one of the Comprehension Anchor Posters you have used during the week.

All LevelsPair ELLs with fluent English speakers during partner discussions and activities.


Day Four

Comprehension Quick-CheckNote whether students are able to analyze each Level 3 text-dependent comprehension question and return to the text to find the information they need to answer the question correctly. If students have difficulty, use small-group reading time for additional practice answering these kinds of questions, which appear on standardized reading assessments. The Comprehension Question Card for each leveled text provides practice questions at four levels of comprehension. The Comprehension Teacher Flip Chart helps you model the strategies students need to master.


At the end of the day, ask students to complete another home/school connection activity from BLM 1 and to bring their assignment to class the following day.

Oral Language ExtensionDisplay Comprehension Anchor Poster 4 during independent workstation time. Invite pairs of students to read and talk about the poster together. Encourage students to share details about soil—what it looks like and why it is important. Remind students to be prepared to share their details during independent conference time.

Reflect and Discuss the Comprehension Strategy

Ask and discuss the following: •Whatstrategydidweusetoanswerquestionsaboutthetext?•Noticehowwelookedfordetailstounderstandandanswerquestions.

Connect and transfer. Say: Practice using these strategies. They can help you answer questions in all your subjects. They can also help you when you take tests.


Based on students’ instructional reading levels, select titles that provide opportunities for students to practice identifying stated main ideas and details. See the list provided on the Unit at a Glance chart.


Use the Comprehension Question Card for each title and the Comprehension Teacher Flip Chart to practice answering Level 3 text-dependent comprehension questions.






Day Five

Lesson Objectives

Students will:

• Reflect orally on their strategy use.

• Create a main idea and supporting details graphic organizer and write a paragraph based on it.

• Answer multiple-choice and short-answer questions.

Related Resources



• Constructed Written Response (BLM 6)

• Comprehension Strategy Assessments, Grade 4


Revisit the week’s read-alouds to make text-to-text connections and provide opportunities for reader response. Use the suggested activities in the Benchmark Literacy Overview, or implement ideas of your own.


Metacognitive Self-Assessment

Ask students to reflect on their use of metacognitive and comprehension strategies this week. What did they learn? How will they use the strategies in the future? What do they still need to practice, and how can they do this?

Have students share their reflections in one of the following ways: conduct a whole-class discussion; have students turn and talk to a neighbor and then share their ideas with the class; or ask students to record their thoughts in their reading journals or notebooks.

Constructed Written Response

Distribute copies of Constructed Written Response (BLM 6) and ask students to state a main idea on a subject they are very familiar with, such as a sport or hobby. Then have students list three details to support their main ideas.

Ask students to write a paragraph based on their main idea and details. All the details should support the most important point of the paragraph to help readers identify main idea.

Ask students to use the checklist at the bottom of BLM 6 to evaluate their work.

Challenge activity. Students who are able to may choose to write their paragraph without directly stating a main idea, but they must include details that will help a reader figure out the unstated main idea.

Constructed Written Response (BLM 6)


Name Date

BLM 6

Main Idea and Details Writing Checklist

I included a main idea.

I included three details that tell more about the main idea.

All of my details are about the main idea.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Main Idea

Constructed Written Response: Main Idea and Details


Day Five

Make Assessments Accessible for ELLsUse the following strategies to help ELLs demonstrate their understanding of the strategies.

BeginningWork with beginning ELLs to complete Main Idea and Details Constructed Written Response (BLM 6). Allow ELLs to draw their ideas.

Beginning and IntermediateUse the Comprehension Strategy Assessment as a listening comprehension assessment and scaffold students’ understanding of the text. As an alternative, allow students to tell you about the main idea and supporting details in one of the Comprehension Anchor Posters you have used during the week.

Intermediate and AdvancedSupport ELLs with academic sentence frames during the metacognitive self-assessment. Possible sentence frames to use are:

We ask questions so that .

I will look for main ideas when I .

All LevelsPair ELLs with fluent English speakers during partner discussions and activities.


Ongoing Comprehension Strategy Assessment

Distribute one of the Main Idea and Supporting Details Comprehension Strategy Assessment from the Grade 4 Comprehension Strategy Assessment book (“The Lost Colony,” pages 70–71, or “A New Kind of Studio,” pages 72–73). Ask students to read the passage and use the information to answer the questions.

Use the results of this assessment to identify which students need additional work with the strategy.

Record students’ assessment scores on the Strategy Assessment Record (page 141) so that you can monitor their progress following additional instruction or intervention.

Provide additional modeling and guided practice during small-group reading instruction using the titles recommended in this guide.


Based on students’ instructional reading levels, select titles that provide opportunities for students to practice making inferences. See the list provided on the Unit at a Glance chart.






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