the Student Does
Literature
3 Gist: After establishing the text’s explicit meaning, students identify the central message of the text and determine how key details convey the message, lesson, or moral. Students recount or retell stories, fables, folktales, and myths.
They consider:
Is this a fable? A folktale? A myth?
What message, lesson, or moral do the characters learn by the end of the story?
What specific details am I basing this understanding on?
What happens in the story?
What can I say about the beginning, middle, and end so that someone who doesn’t know the story could understand it?
4 Gist: After establishing the text’s explicit meaning, students identify a theme. They examine how an author introduces and develops this theme through details. Students summarize the text.
They consider:
What is the theme of this text?
What specific details led me to determine this?
Where in the text might I look? (High drama scenes? Chapter openings? Final pages of book?)
Does the author use symbols or repeating language to hint at a theme?
What does the narrator say that helps me understand a theme?
What details from the beginning, middle, and end would I include when summarizing this story?
5 Gist: After establishing the text’s explicit meaning, students determine the theme, identifying key ideas, especially how characters respond to challenges in stories and dramas, or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic. Students summarize the text.
They consider:
What is the theme of this text?
Where in the text might I look? (High drama scenes? Chapter openings? Final pages of book?)
Does the author use symbols or repeating language to hint at a theme?
What key ideas does the author develop throughout the chapters of this text?
How do characters respond to the challenges they face?
How might I look at what the main character finally understands for clues?
What details from the beginning, middle, and end would I include in a summary on this text?
Informational Text
3 Gist: After establishing the text’s explicit meaning, students identify the main idea. They examine how the main idea is supported through key details. Students recount the key details.
They consider:
What is the main idea of this text?
What key ideas, specific details, and events help me determine this?
What details and facts from the text would I include when recounting what the text is about?
4 Gist: After establishing the text’s explicit meaning, students identify the main idea. They examine how an author introduces and develops this idea through key details. Students summarize the text.
They consider:
What is the main idea of this text?
What key ideas, specific details, and events help me determine this?
What details and facts from the text would I include when summarizing what the text is about?
5 Gist: After establishing the text’s explicit meaning, students identify two or more central ideas in a text, examining how they are supported through specific details. Students summarize the text.
They consider:
What are the main ideas of this text?
What key ideas does the author develop throughout the text?
What specific details help me determine this?
What details and facts from the text would I include when summarizing what the text is about?
Common Core Reading Standard 2: What the Teacher Does
To determine the main idea, central message, lesson, or moral, or theme of a story, drama, or poem:
Point out common spots for identifying main idea/theme in a text and how you scrutinize specifics (TOC, headings, topic sentences, key events, recurring vocabulary, illustrations) to infer ideas throughout the text. Have students turn and talk whenever you want them to work through a key part where an important idea can be inferred.
Pose questions that get students looking for theme via the following avenues:Naming a lesson in the story (What lesson did ______________ learn by the end? What lesson or message did you get from reading this book?)Identifying a social issue in a story (What have you learned about ______________ from reading this book? What are you learning about the issue of ______________ here?)
Keep a classroom chart of themes that students discover in texts (with love and understanding, families can overcome loss; accept who you are; bullies lose out; perseverance pays off, and so on).
After skimming and scanning an informational text, ask students to generate all possible ideas and then determine which of them the text most fully develops.
Turn topic statements into questions that spur students to read the section for answers (Grey Wolf Habitat to “What is the Grey Wolf’s habitat?”). This will help students learn to “add up” subtopics toward a main idea.
To explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text:
Model for students how to code specific details in the text that support the central idea or theme.
Model for students using a shared text which words, phrases, or images recur throughout the text that might signal they are the main idea or central message. Mark, highlight, or annotate these words. After modeling, have students work in groups or independently using the same strategy.
To recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths, from diverse cultures:
As you read aloud, introduce students to different types of stories, such as realistic stories, adventure stories, fantasy, folktales, fables, and myths. Compare and contrast, and chart their attributes.
Provide students with a variety of fables, folktales, and myths. Have students work in small groups to study a type in depth and share knowledge with class (e.g., Cinderella stories, Greek myths, American tall tales).
Model how to recount the story. First, explain that a retell/recount involves an opening statement, followed by key events listed in sequential or chronological order, and a conclusion; have students recount stories to a partner or with the class.
To summarize the text:
Create a shared summary with the class. Include an opening