Dakota State University

College of Education  

Name: Hailee Fischer

Grade Level: 4th grade
School: Camelot Intermediate
Date: 11/17/2022
Time: 10:15am
Reflection from prior lesson
● Based on a Main Idea Pre-Assessment and small group work with Mrs. Nelson, there are some of
these students that need more intervention time on the main idea. Other students have done well and
showed proficiency in the skill. In order to help students get to where they need to be, we will pair
partners together based on skill-level to have one partner that showed higher proficiency with a student
that is still developing the skill.

Lesson Goal(s) / Standards 

●  4.RI.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the
text.

Lesson Objective(s)
● I can use details from the text to determine the main idea.
● Observations and discussions: Students will discuss the details of passages with their partners to
choose the correct main idea for each passage. I will listen for misconceptions and correct them during
partner time.
● Formative assessment: Students will turn in the Prove Your Answer sheet following their Color by Main
Idea Partner work. This will help me see where our students who need intervention are in
understanding the main idea and details from the text.

Materials Needed 
●  Google Slides- Main Idea Review
● Color by Main Idea Sheets at tables
● Prove Your Answer! Sheets at tables
● Students: pencils and colors (instruct before coming into classroom-put computers and bags on floor)

Contextual Factors/ Learner Characteristics

● 1 - English Language Barrier - Turkish and new student
● 1 - hearing difficulty in left ear
● 19 students
● 10 girls
● 9 boys

Connection(s) to Research & Theory

● I do, We do, You do
● In this lesson we will use the I do, We do, You do method of teaching to demonstrate how to find the
main idea of a text. First, I will walk the students through an example and show them my thinking out
loud. Then, they will have time to practice the skill with their partner/group. From there, they will show
their progress with the skill by doing independent work on their own.
● Activating prior knowledge: “When the brain recognizes a pattern and makes a connection, it pays
attention. The purpose of activating prior knowledge is to engage students in connecting what they
already know to what they will need to learn” (Ernst and Ryan, p. 25).
● In this lesson, we will activate prior knowledge by using a new video to review what they have learned
so far about the topic of the main idea. We will review the important information in the video to
reintroduce the topic and concepts on the main idea.
 ● Formative assessment: “We now embrace the idea that formative assessment is essential to closing
the gap between where the student is and where the student should be” (Chappuis, 2015; Heritage,
2010; Sadler, 1989).
● In this lesson, I will use formative assessment by having the students turn in the Prove Your Answer
sheet following their Color by Main Idea Partner work. This will help me see where our students who
need intervention are in understanding the main idea and details from the text.

A.  The Lesson 

 
● Introduction (5 minutes)  (slide 1)
○ Eyes up (eyes up)! Let the air out of your tires! (shhhhhhh)
○ Last week we took a pre-assessment, read some passages, and looked at text features as well.
With Mrs. Nelson, you worked in small groups going over our main topic as well. What have we
been focusing on in class? (Main idea- slide 2)
○ Today we are going to review what we have been working on with the main idea and practice
finding it in some passages that we will read today.
○ Let’s read our objective for our workshop together today: I can use details from the text to determine
the main idea.
○ Video to review Main idea and details (slide 3): While we watch this video I want you to watch
carefully and think about how we can figure out what the main idea of a passage is.
○ https://watchkin.com/86f0b6b121

● Content Delivery (30-40 minutes)  

○ Part 1- I do: (10 minutes)
i. Topic and Main Idea (Slide 4): When we think about the main idea, we want to look for the
main topic of the text. One way to help us find the main topic of a text is to look for words or
phrases that are repeated in the text.
ii. From there, we can ask ourselves, “What is the whole text about?” We should be able to
summarize the main idea in one sentence. Therefore, our main idea should be able to be
written into the passage and make sense because it fits in.
iii. Let’s look at an example of a short story to help us practice finding the topic and main idea
of the text. (slide 5)
iv. Read text out loud (slide 6): “There's only one other species besides humans that has been
found to threaten gorillas. That is the leopard, the quick and ferocious jungle cat that is also
found in Africa. In at least two different cases, researchers have found evidence of leopards
killing gorillas. Overall, however, there is little that threatens these smart and powerful
creatures. They not only have great strength and intelligence, but they also stay in close-knit
groups and protect one another. They alert one another to danger through their
highly-evolved communication skills. This is why they are not often threatened.”
v. Looking at the words that are repeated in our passage, we know that the main topic is
gorillas. However, we need to look specifically at what about gorillas this passage is talking
about. There are some other words that are repeated too, I’m going to circle those up here:
leopard and threatens
vi. When we read the second half again, we didn’t really read any more information about
leopards. We do learn more about how gorillas protect themselves, though.
vii. I want you to look at the options up top and see if you can figure out which main idea fits
with our passage. Remember, this means that the main idea sentence could be inserted into
our passage and make sense for a reader to read. Give me a silent thumbs up when you
have it. (show silent thumbs up. Pick a student to share after giving them time to read and
decide)
viii. Discuss why or why not the answer is right. Guide to the right answer if needed.
ix. It is the blue answer, or: “There are not a lot of natural threats to gorillas.” We read about
how gorillas don’t have a lot of natural threats because they have great strength,
intelligence, stay together, and communicate well with each other. Let’s read our main idea
one more time and see if that sentence would fit into our passage: “There are not a lot of
 natural threats to gorillas.” I think this fits in with our passage really well! So now we can
color this passage blue!

○ Part 2- We do: (20 minutes)

i. Now, you and your partner are going to use the sheets at your spot to read through more
small passages. I want you to all work carefully together and make sure one partner isn’t
doing more work than the other. Take turns discussing and reading the passages together.
Think about which words were repeated and what the main topic of the passage was. Make
sure the main idea sentence from the top could fit into your passage and make sense too.
Then, color the passage with the right main idea color. I’ll be walking around, helping you
each out, and answering any questions you may have.
ii. Walk around and help partners as they go through the passages together. Make sure that
they are looking for repeated words, asking questions, reading together, and doing work
together.
iii. Ask students that are developing the skill still: (Name), help me understand how you guys
got this?
iv. Ensure that the volume of speaking stays at a 1-2.

● Closure (10-15 minutes)  

○ Part 3- You do: Formative Assessment (10-15 minutes)
i. Hands on top, Everybody stop! (give time for partners to stop work and be paying attention)
ii. Awesome, thank you for your great partner work today fourth graders. Now could you all
please set your pencils down and turn your sheet over so we can go through our final set of
directions.
iii. Today we reviewed what the main idea of a text is. Then, we practiced identifying the main
idea with our partners. I heard really great discussions about details that supported your
ideas and that is what we’re going to keep practicing with our last activity today.
iv. On this sheet, you are first going to write “Main Idea” on this line because that’s the skill we
practiced today.
v. Then, you are going to choose one of the passages you read on the front. So, if I read about
wolves I could choose any of the small passages to write about. Circle the passage that you
decide to choose on the front. Afterwards, I want you to use evidence from the passage to
prove that you chose the right main idea of the story. So, if I look back at my gorilla story, I
would have to use information about a gorilla's daily routine to prove that the main idea was
about the typical daily routine of a gorilla.
vi. If you are confused about the directions and the order we go in, they are up here on the
board or I can come help you. This is our last activity, so when you finish you may hand it in
to the bin up front and have some SSR time. We should be at a level 0 while we work
independently at this time. Thank you!
○ With 1-2 minutes left, have everyone clean up and ready to line up. Let them know if we get lined up
in time we can do mystery student for the day.

B. Assessments Used
● Observations and discussions: Looking for students to discuss the details of passages with their
partners to choose the correct main idea for each passage. I will listen for misconceptions and correct
them during partner time.
● Formative assessment: Students will turn in the Prove Your Answer sheet following their Color by Main
Idea Partner work. This will help me see where our students who need intervention are in
understanding the main idea and details from the text.

C. Differentiated Instruction
 ● Adaptations for Remediation
○ Encourage students to write specific words or details that are repeated to identify the main idea
of the text.
○ Ask these students: Help me understand how you guys got this?
● Adaptations for Language:
○ Printing the passage in the language of the learner for them to be able to still read and
understand what we are reading.
● Adaptations for Enrichment
○ Encourage students to write more sentences that include specific details from the text for
identifying the main idea.

D.  Resources
● https://doe.sd.gov/contentstandards/documents/ELA/4-RI1.pdf
● https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uvwcJPbd5oBez_QbEA58XQ1Bne8tWIrthsbac8Ml1Rc/edit#sli
de=id.g185bf68a78d_0_16
● https://drive.google.com/file/d/138eemeAas1cWKYPrZYWBW2VHvUIH0i6_/view?usp=sharing
● https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fj0mp4yKSMqwYfy9S3vjjGekb9owi3lK/view?usp=sharing