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ELA 5: Main Idea and Supporting Details 1155 Views
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Description:
It's important that main ideas in text have supportive details to go along them. It makes for much more convincing writing, plus main ideas tend to be a little emotionally fragile. They need all the support they can get.
Transcript
- 00:13
We’re just taking a wild guess here, but when you read something, you probably like [Woman reading]
- 00:17
to, uh… understand what you’re reading, right?
- 00:20
Well… easier said than done. Especially with non-fiction.
- 00:23
There is sometimes a lot to understand. [Woman sat on a doctor's bed]
- 00:26
But one thing you should definitely understand is the relationship between the main idea and
Full Transcript
- 00:31
the supporting details. Once you’ve got that part figured out, the rest is a piece
- 00:35
of cake. Or…easy as pie. Or…simple as salmon mousse. Something like that. [Pictures of the food appearing]
- 00:40
The main idea is always the most important idea of the text. It's what the reading's [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:44
about. Like… if a friend were to ask you, “Hey, what’s The Sleeping Habits of Sloths
- 00:48
about?” your answer would be...whatever the main idea of that book is.
- 00:52
Probably something sloth-related, if we had to guess. [Two people watching a sloth on TV]
- 00:55
The main idea shouldn't be a mystery, and there are always plenty of clues to help you figure it out. [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 01:00
The reading's title, headings, and/or pictures should give you a good idea.
- 01:04
Even though the main text is the most important part of the text,
- 01:07
the supporting details are a pretty big deal in their own right.
- 01:10
They explain and give more information about the main idea.
- 01:13
It's all well and good to have a nice and shiny main idea, but without any proof or [Guy holding a protest sign is hit by snowballs]
- 01:17
evidence, no one's going to be too convinced.
- 01:19
On the other hand, if that main idea is held up by a bunch of supporting details, it'll [Guy protesting is carried by 3 people]
- 01:24
stand a much better chance of surviving an earthquake.
- 01:27
Or…a skeptical reader.
- 01:29
Example time! Say we're assigned a reading from one of our textbooks. [Girl in class has a book put on her desk]
- 01:32
Before even reading it, we can flip through the reading, taking a gander at the title, [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 01:36
headings, and pictures. The title is "Abraham Lincoln: America's Greatest President," and
- 01:41
there are always a bunch of pictures of Honest Abe.
- 01:43
It’s pretty likely that this reading is not only about Abraham Lincoln, [Book full of pictures of Abraham Lincoln]
- 01:47
but also why he was the best president.
- 01:49
So the main idea of the reading is probably: "Abraham Lincoln was the greatest president."
- 01:53
Now, the supporting evidence. This will take some actual reading, but based on the main [Girl reading the book in a library]
- 01:57
idea, it'll probably be evidence that Lincoln was… a great president.
- 02:01
Yeah…we actually used to have those.
- 02:03
Maybe the reading will reference Abe’s issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, or his great
- 02:07
speeches, or his strong moral character, or his awesome taste in flatware.
- 02:12
As long as the detail shows why Lincoln was a great president…so… [Table full of flatware]
- 02:15
probably not the flatware thing… it's fair game. [Stop sign appears]
- 02:18
Once we understand the relationship between a main idea and the supporting details, reading [A sailboat on the sea]
- 02:22
non-fiction is a breeze. And we can reward ourselves with cake. Or pie. Or salmon mousse. [Pictures of the food appearing]
- 02:28
Or Pepto-Bismol. [Guy holding containers of Pesto-Bismol]
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