Main Idea

Objective:
1. I can identify what a main idea or theme is.

Essential Question:

4 Step Strategy to Find Main Idea

• Read the entire selection
• Re-Read the first and last sentences of each paragraph.
• Re-Read the passage and try to identify what point the author is trying to make.
• Re-read the title of the selection.

Clue: Do the details in the passage support your prediction of the main idea? If not, you've got the wrong one!

Interrogative Sentence

Exclamatory Sentence

Imperative Sentence

Identify Each Sentence

• Peter Pan protected a group of young orphans.
• Did he protect them?
• How mean Captain Hook and his pirates were!
• Watch carefully for pirate ships on the horizon.
• How did Peter Pan learn to fly ?

Sentences & Sentence Fragments

Subject

Predicate

Sentence Fragment

• Does not express a complete thought.
• May also be missing a subject, predicate, or both.

Sentence Fragment Examples

• Her Sister.
• Wrote about her emotions.
• Want to.

Sentence Fragment Examples

• Her sister discovered the poems in her bureau.
• This gifted poet wrote about wrote about her emotions.
• I want to see the Christmas show.

Correcting Sentence Fragments

• Emily Dickinson author.
• Lived from 1830 to 1886.
• With clarity and style.
• Tchalla said.
• Saw the movie.

Unit 1: Parts of a Story

Academic Vocab to Know

• Setting
• Character
• Plot
• Conflict
• Summary
• Main Idea

Academic Vocab to Know

• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution

Setting - The time and place of the action.

Characters -
Major vs Minor Characters. What's the difference ?

Conflict - the problem or struggle that
a character faces in a story.

Plot - Series of events in a story.

Summary - a brief statement or restatement of main points, especially as a conclusion to a work

Main Idea - What's the point anyway?

Main Idea - It is the main point of the paragraph/story. It is the most important thought about the topic.

Finding Subjects

Finding Subjects

• Most statements begin with the subject.
• Others may begin with part or all of the predicate like a question.
• Others may have "inverted word order" in which predicate comes before the subject.
• Requests/Commands - 'You' as the understood Subject

Tips to Find the Subject

• Rearrange words to form a statement.

Finding the Subject

• Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe.
• Did Defoe write the book?
• Across the beach walked Jack.
• (You) Read a chapter tonight.

Find the Subject

• Did a parrot learn English from Robinson ?
• Many years passed before Robinson's rescue.
• Did the time pass slowly without a clock ?

Find the Subject

• Robinson explored every part of the island.
• Read the last chapter for homework.
• Imagine having to survive by your wits.