Mini-Lesson: Main Idea

I work with a sweet young lady who came to the U.S. from Japan in early December.  Having been here only five months (with many holiday breaks and snow days during that time) and no prior knowledge of the English language, she has limited English proficiency.  However, she impresses me everyday with her motivation to learn and her spirit despite the heavy cognitive load she bears as a fourth grader in an English-immersion environment.

I had a fifteen minute chunk of time to work with her on Friday (crazy schedule on field day...day) and thought she needed something more exciting than the guided reading of DRA level 3 books that she has endured since December.  I sat her in front of the computer, put the headphones over her ears, and asked her to watch this video (No, David! by David Shannon).



It is a three and half minute long video of the book's illustrations, as well as the text of the words being read by the narrator.  The book is ideal for a WIDA 1 ELL student read aloud for these reasons, as well as the fact that it isn't yet another story about a cat who sat on a mat.

I have done "main idea" lessons before where I use the concept of a table to explain the relationship of main idea and supporting details (the main idea is the table top and the details are the legs supporting it).  Students can even use the worksheet I created to have a concrete visual of what the concept of main idea and supporting details.

Yet, as I've already mentioned, time was tight and I needed to adjust for language background knowledge. So, this word-light little book helped us introduce, for the first time, the main idea-detail concept.  As far as I can tell, because she drew drawings of details and gave one or two word segments in answer to the call for details, she walked away with an understanding of what "main idea" means.

No, David! 

I love being an ESOL teacher (though it's just as a volunteer right now).  The challenge of balancing the social, psychological, and cognitive loads that children have is the perfect match for my personal curiosity!  Watching their progress is so much fun!