Main Idea

My students read one book a week for reading at home. Students then need to write about the story they read. Before they only had to write what they thought about the book, but now they need to tell me about the story as well. This week we worked on Main Idea in small groups. I first read out loud to them the story of The Shoemaker and the Elves. We then brainstormed together what we thought was the main idea. I told them it had to be one sentence, not retell the story. I wrote down what we came up with, and then we wrote what were the other details in the story.
Then I gave pairs a folktale/fairytale book to read together. After reading, they had to then tell me what the main idea was, and then write it themselves on the chart paper.

The students enjoyed reading together these familiar stories.