Teacher Education Lesson Plan Template

Teacher: Martha Martin Date: 2/9/18 & 2/12/18

Title of Lesson: Main Idea & Detail of Cooperating Teacher: Ms. Ann Hobbs (4th
Nonfiction Informative Text Grade)

Core Components
Subject, Content Area, or Topic: Reading

Student Population:

A.M. (Inclusion): 26
Female: 10
Male: 16

P.M. (General): 26
Female: 10
Male: 16

Learning Objectives

TSW explain author’s purpose for nonfiction informational text

TSW us text features to determine important information like main idea and supporting details of
nonfiction text passages.
TSW distinguish between fact and opinion.

Virginia Essential Knowledge and Skills (SOL 4.6) The student will read and demonstrate
comprehension of nonfiction texts.

ELA. 4.6.3 Use text features such as type, headings, and graphics, to predict and
categorize information in both print and digital texts.
ELA 4.6.6 Determine important information to support main ideas, opinions, and
conclusions.
ELA 4.6.6a Distinguish between fact and opinion
ELA 4.6.9 Identify structural patterns found in nonfiction (e.g. cause and effect,
comparison, and concept-definition)
ELA 4.6.10. Explain the author’s purpose
ELA 4.6.11 Identify the main idea

Materials/Resources

Fact & Opinion Sort

Main Idea / Detail Graphic Organizer
Nonfiction text structures guided practice worksheet
Living Together books (13)

High Yield Instructional Strategies Used (Marzano, 2001)

Check if Used Strategy Return

McDonald’s Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.
Revised August 2015
 Identifying Similarities & Differences 45%
Summarizing & Note Taking 34%
Reinforcing Efforts & Providing Recognition 29%
Homework & Practice 28%
Nonlinguistic Representations 27%
Cooperative Learning 23%
Setting Goals & Providing Feedback 23%
Generating & Testing Hypothesis 23%
Questions, Cues, & Advanced Organizers 22%
DOES YOUR INSTRUCTIONAL INPUT & MODELING YIELD THE POSITIVE RETURNS YOU
WANT FOR YOUR STUDENTS?
Check if Used Strategy Return
Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning 95%
Practice by Doing 75%
Discussion 50%
Demonstration 30%
Audio Visual 20%
Reading 10%
Lecture 05%
Safety

General classroom & computer safety.

Time
(min.) Process Components
10 *Anticipatory Set
min.
TTW state that we will focus on the book Living Together which informs us about the
biomes on Earth.

When we work on Main Idea & Detail with nonfiction texts, we only include facts.

Refresher: Facts are things that are always true, can be proven and found during
research (e.g. Dogs need water to survive). Opinions are what you think or feel and
cannot be proven (e.g. Dogs are the best pets in the world!).

Does it have to do with how I think or feel? Can this be proven?

Informative text: provides information about a particular topic and has facts as
evidence.

Fact vs. opinion sort (day 1) – TSW work with a partner to organize facts and opinions
on the sky / solar system.
1 min. *State the Objectives (grade-level terms)

I can identify the main idea and supporting details from nonfiction text.
I can use text features to determine important information such as the main idea and
supporting details of nonfiction text passages.
I can distinguish between fact and opinion.

McDonald’s Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.
Revised August 2015
 Main Idea – most important part of the topic (either taken by paragraph or for entire
article)

(Taken from Grade 4, Q2, Unit 4, p. 95)

5-7 *Instructional Input or Procedure

min.
TTW say: When reading this informative text, we will determine important information
which will clue us into the main idea.
For Living Together, the purpose of the author is to inform – give us important
information about a topic. Preview text features to give us clues.

TTW state that “Identifying the main ideas and details of nonfiction text helps us to
better understand the important information the author is teaching us.

TTW turn to p.12-13 on document camera for students to see.

TTW ask what text features students see.

Answer: photographs, captions, heading, bolded words

What topic do you think the author will focus on these pages?
Answer: Grasslands

Looking at these pages, we see “a land of grasses” bolded, realistic drawings, what do
you notice about these animals?
Answer: each one lives in the grassland, each one blends into the grass, etc.

Why did the author write this text? To give information about grasslands and the
animals that live there.
What clues do you see from the text features? Pictures & facts

8-10 *Modeling
min.
TTW read aloud the text for pages 8-9, summarize the main idea, & write it down on
graphic organizer via document camera

Main idea: Biomes are large areas of plants and animals and are determined by
climate.
Details:
 Each biome has two specific categories within that biome.
 Grasslands & forest biomes both have a tropical and temperate category.
 Biomes near the equator are warmer all year round.
 Wetlands & ocean biomes have large amounts of water.

TTW relate back to fact vs. opinion. TTW state that looking at the text feature (e.g.
pictures) some of the biomes have more rainfall than others, some are colder than
others, some don’t have trees, etc.

TTW ask students if a main idea like the following would fit into their worksheet:
Temperate forest biomes are the best biome to live in because they have warm
summers and cool winters.

McDonald’s Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.
Revised August 2015
 TSW answer “no” because in nonfiction, informative text, we are looking only for facts
found in the evidence provided.

TTW ask students if the sentence would work when changed to: Temperate forest
biomes have warm summers and cool winters.

TSW answer “yes”

*Check for Understanding

Summarize for me what we are doing today?

OR Thumbs up?

*Guided Practice

TTW use Classroom Dojo to split students into teams of two to complete the next two
main ideas on the worksheet.

TTW model the main idea portion for the Grasslands biome topic on p. 12-13 on
grasslands. TSW complete the important details section with their partner.

Main idea example: Grasslands are home to many types of grasses and animals (who
are connected by their food source: grass).

Once complete, TTW review student answers as a whole group on p. 12-13 with their
main idea / detail notes.

DAY 2:

After review, TTW instruct students to (with a partner assigned by dojo) complete the
entire main idea / detail portion for pages 14-15 on desert biomes.
*TTW note to students that certain aspects are being compared and contrasted.
**The teacher might provide details and have students find the main idea depending on
the students’ comfort level with the task (AM in particular).

TTW monitor students as they work collaboratively.

Some things to ask: What text feature helped you determine the main idea? What
important details did you find? Did you find any opinions?

*Independent Practice

TSW complete the main idea / detail organizer with a partner for pgs. 16-17 on forest
biomes. Limited teacher guidance for assessment needs.

Assessment

TTW use student responses on main idea & detail graphic organizer to assess
proficiency.

Once students are finished with worksheets, TTW call on students to provide the
information they found with their partner. TTW verify if it is the right information and
prompt with descriptive feedback if any changes need to occur.
McDonald’s Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.
Revised August 2015
 *Closure
The purpose of this nonfiction text is to inform us on important facts on this topic. Text
features help us identify the main idea and supporting details; be careful and know how
to tell the difference between fact and opinion when using evidence to support the main
idea.

Discussion Q’s:
How do text features help us identify main idea?
How did the author’s purpose influence his / her choice of text features?

Differentiation Strategies (enrichment, accommodations, remediation, or by learning

style).

Students that work through the fact / opinions sort quickly: write another fact and opinion for
each of the topics.

AM Inclusion Class – For students that are not quite ready, guided practice for main idea / detail
worksheet. Using the SmartBoard and document camera guide students through the questions
is necessary.

 Maybe provide main idea statement for students for nonfiction text but have them find
supporting evidence in the text.
 Maybe have students provide main idea after finding details but have them differentiate
between which is which (putting in order).

PM Class – TSW read text and complete main idea statements in pairs. TSW do the same for
supporting details for graphic organizer.

Classroom Management Issues (optional)

Students must work in pairs due to limited number of books. For students who may disagree on
which fact supports which main idea, students may respectfully put their own data on their
organizer.

Students who cannot stay on task will have partners switched.

Lesson Critique. To be completed following the lesson. Did your students meet the
objective(s)? What part of the lesson would you change? Why?

McDonald’s Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.
Revised August 2015