Last April I wrote about an activity I used with some of my 3rd and 4th grade students who were having difficulty identifying main idea and details. The activity included a bag, filled with different items that somehow went together.
As I slowly pulled the items out of the bag, we discussed how they went together and made predictions about what the main idea of the bag could be. Each time I pulled something out, I would reinforce how we didn't know for sure what the bag was for, because we had not yet seen all of the items. The last item was the one, key item that really tied everything together. It was the detail to best support the main idea.
I wanted to demonstrate to the students that even though they thought they knew what the bag was for after seeing one or two items, they needed to see all of the items in the bag before they could make a final conclusion. I tied it back to text explaining that it was just like reading a paragraph, they must read through the entire paragraph, not stopping after the first or second sentence.
If you click on the picture above, it will bring you to my original post to download the graphic organizer and the lesson plan for the lunch bag. Below are the items I used for two additional bags, using the same graphic organizer.
As I slowly pulled the items out of the bag, we discussed how they went together and made predictions about what the main idea of the bag could be. Each time I pulled something out, I would reinforce how we didn't know for sure what the bag was for, because we had not yet seen all of the items. The last item was the one, key item that really tied everything together. It was the detail to best support the main idea.
I wanted to demonstrate to the students that even though they thought they knew what the bag was for after seeing one or two items, they needed to see all of the items in the bag before they could make a final conclusion. I tied it back to text explaining that it was just like reading a paragraph, they must read through the entire paragraph, not stopping after the first or second sentence.
If you click on the picture above, it will bring you to my original post to download the graphic organizer and the lesson plan for the lunch bag. Below are the items I used for two additional bags, using the same graphic organizer.
This activity could be used in so many different ways!
What other types of bags could we make?
