“America is our country. It is the place we call home. We are the nation whose name means freedom to people all over the world.”
America is a beautiful book that uses words and pictures to salute our great country. It uses poetic text to describe many aspects of our great land from people, traditions, cities and country side.
Reading Skill: Identifying Main Idea & Details; Nonfiction Summary
Genre: Poetic Nonfiction Point of View: 2nd person (references “we” or “our” country)
Organization: Poetic free verse with main ideas/details describing the makeup of America
Purpose: to inform the reader of the many aspects of American culture
Lesson/Theme: America is a great country of freedom and diversity
The topic of America is….is America. The main idea is that America is a great country of freedom and diversity. (Below is a tree map of some of the main ideas and details from the book.)
50 states many different kinds of jobs different bodies of water
1.
Some are big. 1. Teachers 1. Swamps and bayous of deep South
2.
Some are small. 2. Miners 2. ponds
3.
Thirteen are very old. 3. Farm Workers 3. lakes
4.
The rest came later one by one. 4. Artists 4. Streams, creeks, brooks
5. Musicians 5. Rivers that bring states together
6. Bakers
7. Bankers
To summarize nonfiction or informational text, the main ideas can then be summarized into a summary paragraph. Details are not included since a summary should include only the important big ideas. (Note: Not all of the main ideas/details from America is…are listed in the tree map.)
Summary Paragraph: America is a great country where people are free. America has 50 states and many different bodies of water.
People in America have different kinds of jobs.
*A worthwhile activity would be to cover up the details under one of the main ideas and ask, if we take away the details that support the main idea, can we really have a main idea? For example, if you cover up the types of jobs, there is no support for the main idea: “there are many different types of jobs”. Just like a tree cannot be a real tree without the roots to support it, a main idea cannot be a true main idea without the details to support it.
Tips on Teaching Main Idea/Details/Nonfiction Summary
An important task of reading comprehension is to determine the importance and meanings of individual words, sentences, paragraphs, sections, chapters, and entire texts. As readers begin to grasp main ideas, they better understand the purpose of the details.

sentence.
In understanding the concept of a "main idea," it is useful to distinguish between the following terms: topic, main idea, theme, and topic
-The topic of a text is the subject, or what the text is about. A topic can be expressed as a noun or a noun phrase. Some examples of topics include recycling, mammals, trees of New England, and names.
-An idea is what you say about a topic. Ideas, including the main idea, are expressed as sentences. If someone asks you to identify the main idea of a passage and you respond with a single word, you haven't said enough; you've probably just identified the topic. Some examples of main ideas include:
Recycling is expensive in the short term, but yields long-term savings.
All mammals are the same in certain ways.
The trees of New England are the most beautiful in the world.
It's no fun when someone makes fun of your name.
-A theme is an idea that is repeated throughout a text or collection of texts. For example, "the importance of family in shaping identity" is a theme that can be found throughout literature.
-A topic sentence is the term used to identify the sentence in a paragraph that contains the main idea. Conventionally, the topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph, but not always. It can be at the beginning, the middle, or the end. While some paragraphs don't really have an easily identifiable topic sentence, some have more than one. (Which is the topic sentence in this paragraph?) Nevertheless, topic sentences are useful in determining the relationship between main ideas and supporting details.
For example, consider the following:
All mammals are the same in certain ways. They all have lungs, hair or fur, and the ability to nurse their young.
These two sentences obviously bear an important relationship: the first carries the main idea while the second supplies details that support the main idea.
The following are a list of ideas to teach the concept of the main idea and supporting details:
1) Make it visual: Intro with a painting/picture of a main event such as a circus: ask students what main event is happening and list on top of tree map; then ask what events/details “prove” the main event.
Example: Picture of circus with various events
Main Idea: The audience is enjoying the circus. (big/main idea)
Events/Details to Prove the Main Idea:
The lion tamer is taming the lions.
The acrobat is balancing on the high wire.
The elephants are holding each other’s tails.
The man is shooting out of the cannon.

Cover up the details and ask, can you have a main idea without details/events to prove it?
 Take from tree map to paragraph form. This shows that main idea is often found in first sentence, but not always.

Practice whole group with one more picture.

Practice in cooperative groups or partners with a picture.
 Practice independently with a picture.
 Give a main idea statement – students come up with events to “prove” it. Same practice process.
2) Another aspect of identifying main ideas and scaffolding the concept for students is to start identifying the main idea with a single word, then a sentence, then a paragraph, a section, a chapter, and then an entire text.
3) “Get the Gist” Strategy for Nonfiction:
*Identify: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How by Previewing Text Features:
-Preview text features BEFORE READING, to help pick out the main ideas: title (topic), subtitles/headings,
captions, pictures, bold, italics, and ask, “What do they all have in common?”
-Highlight important information that relate to the text features of title, subtitles/headings, etc.
-Look for: beginning/ending sentences, repetitions, bold, italics, etc.
-Using all of the above information, can you infer what the main idea is of this text?
-Distinguishing important facts from interesting details is a skill where students have difficulty. To address
this concept, see Book 5 of the Comprehension Toolkit and “Determining Importance”.
4) A great book for introducing main idea/details is The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. It models these skills on each page.
An example from the first page is a picture of a spoon, and the text reads:
The important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it.
It’s like a little shovel, you hold it in your hand,
You can put it in your mouth, it isn’t flat,
It’s hollow, and it spoons things up.

But, the important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it.
The main idea is repeated both in the first and last lines and the details are sandwiched between it. Students can practice determining/writing main ideas and details with science and social studies concepts, famous people, really anything that where main ideas and details can be generated for a topic or concept.
5) An additional strategy for quickly identifying the main idea of both fiction and nonfiction is to simply ask: Who or what? Did what?
6) A graphic organizer such as a flee map (combination of flow and tree map) can also be used to extract the main ideas and details from a text, and then a summary can be generated from the main ideas. (See attachments)
7) Attached is also a Nonfiction Summary Rubric that could be tweaked according to your specific grade level SE’s.
SE’s for Expository/Informational Summary:
Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of expository text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:
K.10.A identify the topic and details in expository text heard or read, referring to the words and/or illustrations
1.14.A restate the main idea, heard or read
2.14.A identify the main idea in a text and distinguish it from the topic
3.13.A identify the details or facts that support the main idea
4.11.A summarize the main ideas and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning and
logical order
5.11.A summarize the main ideas and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning and
logical order
Question Stems for Main Idea/Details/Nonfiction Summary: (For Multiple Choice Practice)
Main Idea:
Paragraph
*What is paragraph/stanza 4 mainly about?
*Paragraph 5/stanza is mostly about-
*The author uses paragraph 6 to show-
Paragraphs/Sections
*What is the section “Insects” mostly about?
*What are paragraphs 8, 9, and 10 mainly about?
*The author uses information in paragraphs 6, 7, and 8 to show-
Entire Text
*What is this article mainly about?
*What is the main message/theme in the story/poem?
*What is an important lesson _____ learns from the story?
*The author titled the text “_____” most likely because…
Summary:
*What is the best summary of the story/article?
*Which is the best summary of paragraphs 5-8?
*What is the best summary of the section, “___________”? (4th)
*Which sentence best summarizes this passage? (5th)