(upbeat music) It is a great day to learn something new, but I am trying to find some important papers that I know I left around here somewhere.

Sometimes it's hard to find important things, but I know that they're here.

When you're reading, do you ever struggle to find important pieces of what you're reading?

Identifying main ideas may come simply and naturally to some readers, but not everyone.

And it's actually harder than it seems sometimes.

To find the main idea, you must comprehend what you're reading.

Comprehension is the ability to understand written words.

It's different from being able to just recognize the words.

Recognizing words but not knowing what they mean does not fulfill the real purpose or goal of reading, which is comprehension.

We also make connections with text to find the big or main idea.

Another important skill is to be able to recognize and sometimes even just ignore information that's not so important.

So let's think about how we could use our detective skills and our good reading skills to find the main idea of a text.

The first thing we always need to do is read the whole paragraph or text and then ask, What is the author doing here?

What do they want me to know?

When I'm reading, one of the most important things I do is use the title of the passage to help me figure out the main idea of the reading passage or paragraph.

This really is one of the easiest strategies we can use.

But sometimes we just forget about it, especially if a passage is nonfiction, writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people.

The title often will tell us exactly what the topic of the passage will be.

This is the first step to figure out the main idea.

If a passage or story has pictures, they can also be a great resource in helping you identify the main idea of the text even before you begin to read the passage.

I also make sure to pay extra close attention to the first and last sentence of the reading passage to help pick out other important details.

Let's look at this story I wrote about something that I love to do in the summer.

The title is A Day at the Pool.

Just based on this title, we should be able to make a reasonable prediction, a statement about what we think the main idea of the text is.

Let's read.

This summer I went to my friend Kenzie's house and spent a day with her in the pool.

It was a very hot day and I could not wait to cool off in the sparkling blue water.

It was the middle of the day, and before I could swim, I made sure to put a lot of sunscreen on so I did not get a sunburn.

I did not like how the sunscreen feels on my skin, but I know that I still need to wear it.

I finally was ready to jump in the water.

I went to the deep end of the pool, took a deep breath and jumped right in.

We swam in the pool for hours We only stopped when it was time to have a snack and get more sunscreen.

My favorite part of the day was when I did the perfect dive off the diving board.

I hope I can go swimming again with Kenzie We had so much fun.

Swimming in the pool is one of my favorite things to do in the summer.

What do you think this passage is mostly about?

Swimming in the pool this summer?

I agree.

I think this whole passage tells about my favorite thing, which is going swimming in the pool.

Do you think one of the supporting ideas in this passage will be about my dog?

Why or why not?

Of course it won't be about my dog.

I never even mentioned my dog, and she's a great dog, but this has nothing to do with her.

Do you think one of the supporting details in this passage is about diving off the diving board?

Exactly.

I wrote that it's my favorite part of the day.

What other details might I have included to support the main idea?

And what would you have added?

Which of the following statements is more likely to be the main idea of this passage?

Jessica spent a day at the pool swimming with friends or sunscreen is important to wear in the summer.

While I did talk about sunscreen and it is important, that's an example of being able to recognize and sometimes just ignore the information that is not important to the main idea.

Just by thinking carefully about the title, we should be able to predict a reasonable main idea about the passage as well as some supporting details.

But what if you did not know the title of the passage Could you make a prediction about what the title is after reading the passage that I wrote?

As you're thinking about the most important things in my passage, what title would you have chosen for it?

When you're reading any passage and trying to determine the main idea, really think and focus on the biggest concept or topic the author is writing about.

Try and identify what you think they want you to know.

So don't forget, when looking for the main idea of a story or passage, first, look at the title.

Also, use pictures.

Pictures are a great tool to help you find the main idea but without all of the text to get through, you can still practice identifying the main idea of the passage by identifying what the picture is mostly about.

Next, always look to and reread the first and the last sentence.

They typically contain the main idea, but not always.

Get in the practice of checking with the first and last sentences to match the title and see if those two do match.

Many times the main idea is stated right there in one or both of these sentences.

Thanks for learning with me and I'll see you later.

(bass music)