SESSION: INFERRING MAIN IDEAS USING A GRAPHIC
ORGANIZER
Usually the topic of a selection can be stated in
two or three words while main ideas or summary statements take the
form of a sentence. What makes the task of identifying the main ideas
in a selection even more difficult is that writers do not always
explicitly state the main ideas. They must be inferred. Using a
graphic format such as the one presented in the following session is
helpful in teaching participants to generate their own main ideas or
summary statements. Specific Objectives:
- to help differentiate between what is key information and what is
elaboration for interest.
- to introduce the use of central idea graphic organizers as
devices for note taking, summarizing and recalling information.
- to continue to reinforce Self-Questioning as a comprehension
strategy for reading informational text.
- to use writing as a summarizing technique.
Procedure
I. Introduction
The instructor:
- Explains that the session focuses on deciding what is important
to remember and what is elaboration but not essential to remember.
In the last session, we had difficulty picking out the
important points that related to the topic. We tried to remember
everything, even though some points were not essential. (Refers to
previous session, Summarizing Concepts, #4.) Authors often include
extraneous information to make their text more interesting and
appealing to the reader.
One of the techniques we can use to help us identify what is
important is to note key details on a chart or graphic organizer.
After reading, we can look over the points that we've recorded to
see which still fit and which do not. Then we can use the key points
to write a summary sentence.
Let me show you what I mean.
- Illustrates and talks through the procedure using the selection
Who Can Vote read in the previous session. See Box 28 for
one example.
- Points out that the summary sentence condenses two pages of
information, making the content easier to remember.
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