MULTIMODAL
LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
ANALYSIS AND
CRITIQUE
BrainPOP: Main Idea
By Emily Kelly
Summary of BrainPOP Main Idea
The Main Idea BrainPop video
discusses, in detail, what a main
idea is, and how to find it in a text.
Tim and Moby receive a letter
from a student who is confused
on how to find the main idea in
a text.Tim and Moby take a few
texts and guide the viewers
through finding the main idea.
The viewers watch as they learn
more about finding the main idea.
New York State Standards
This BrainPOP activity supports the following Common Core Standards:
 Reading Standards for Informational Text K–5
 Key Ideas and Details
 2. Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus
of specific paragraphs within the text.
NEW YORK STATE STANDARDS
 This Common Core Standard relates to this BrainPOP activity for it
teaches the students how to find the main idea in informational texts.
INTERACTIVE MULTIMODAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
SPECIAL ISSUE ON INTERACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS:
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND TRENDS
BY
ROXANA MORENO & RICHARD MAYER
Pacing Principle: “Pacing is an example of
controlling type of interactivity” (Moreno & Mayer,
2007).
This BrainPOP main idea video allows the student
to stop the video, or rewind it. Other than that, the
video goes at a certain pace that does not give the
student the opportunity to change it.
INTERACTIVE MULTIMODAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
SPECIAL ISSUE ON INTERACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS:
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND TRENDS
BY
ROXANA MORENO & RICHARD MAYER
 Feedback Principle: Multimodal learning environments are most
beneficial when they promote meaningful learning and allow the learner
to interact (Moreno & Mayer, 2007, p. 318).
 This BrainPOP main idea video only allows the student to watch, not
interact with it. The student could find the main idea from the texts in
the video and write it on a separate sheet of paper, but there is no way
for him/her to do this on the video. If the student is incorrect, they will
receive the correct answer, but no feedback on their specific answer.
I feel that this BrainPOP video is a good
resource for teachers to use to help their
students learn about main idea. However, I do
not find it to be an effective multimodal
learning environment that successfully
involves the students.