Motocross
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with some auto marking).
Equipment:
Motocross, by Jan Trafford. Junior Journal 30, Learning Media, 2004.
You might read this task as a whole class, shared-reading exercise, before providing copies for individuals or pairs of students to use.
- Remind the students that the main idea is what the author wants readers to understand is important.
- Explain to the students that finding the main idea is hard, but that it can be found if they first work out what information is important to the text. Explain that important information will be mentioned more than unimportant information.
- Explain that a) assesses if they understand which information in "Motocross" is important. Tell the students that first they need to read "Motocross", then tick the boxes next to each of the three pieces of information they think are important.
- Explain that b) assesses if they understand where the important information is in the text. Tell the students that they will need to go back to the text to help them decide which of their three pieces of important information comes first in the text, which comes second, and which comes third.
- Explain that c) assesses if they understand what the main idea is. Tell the students that they need to think about the important information in the text, then put a tick next to the main idea.
- The task can be done individually or in groups.
- Responses can be discussed by teacher and student only, or within larger groups.
- use comprehension strategies
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
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Y4 (07/2006)
(09/2006)
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Important information:
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| b) |
Correct order:
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Main idea of the article:
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This resource was trialled by small groups of Y4 students across 5 primary schools.
| Distinguishing between important and relatively unimportant information – Most students correctly identified at least one piece of important information. |
Although most students correctly identified at least one piece of important information, most also identified at least one piece of relatively unimportant information, most commonly "kidney belt", and "helpful parents", as important.
"Kidney belt" may have been identified as important because the students found the information particularly interesting. If this is the case, they incorrectly assumed that everything they find interesting must also be important to the text.
"Helpful parents" may have been identified as important because the students incorrectly assumed that because parents are "important", any reference to them in a text must also be important.
"Helpful parents" may also have been identified as important because the students incorrectly assumed that important information is always evenly spaced throughout a text. Since "helpful parents" was the only option from the last two pages, the students may have identified it as important simply because of where it comes in the text.
| Matching the important information identified in a) with a particular part of the text – Most students knew where at least one piece of important information was in the text. |
This task checks the responses given in a). For example, if a student chose "the bike", "safety gear", and "the race is on!" in a), but gave the order that they appear in the text as "safety gear", "the race is on!", and "the bike "in b), it becomes clear that their understanding is not as complete as it appeared in a).
Although most students knew where at least one piece of important information was in the text, about half placed "the bike" in third position instead of first ("the bike" corresponds with pages 13 and 14 of the text).
| Finding the main idea – Most students correctly identified "Motocross is fun, but you need the right bike and safety gear". |
All the students who did not correctly identify the main idea appeared to use one of the pieces of information they incorrectly identified as important in a) as the basis of their decision. For example, a student who chose "the bike", "safety gear" and "helpful parents" in a), chose "parents are very helpful during motocross races" in c), and a student who chose "kidney belt", "safety gear", and "the race is on!" in a), chose iIf you don't wear a kidney belt, you could hurt your back" in c).
Although most students correctly identified the main idea, it cannot be assumed that they can independently do so because this resource provides considerable scaffolding. For example, in a) the students only have to choose between six pieces of information, whereas if they were independently finding the main idea they would need to choose between all the information a text presents.The choice of the three relatively unimportant pieces of information in a) also provides scaffolding. Because these pieces of information are given considerably less weight in the text than the three pieces of important information, students are supported towards rejecting them as unimportant. For example, "the throttle" is only mentioned once in a text box on page 14, "kidney belt" is only mentioned in two lines and a text box on page 15, and "helpful parents" is only mentioned in one line on page 18. This can be compared with "the bike" which is the main topic of pages 13 and 14, "safety gear" which is the main topic of page 15, and "the race is on!" which is the main topic of pages 16, 17, 18, and 19.
Students having difficulty finding important information
If students have identified relatively unimportant information in a) as important, it may be necessary for them to go through the text to find the details that relate to each piece of information. Once they have done this, they will see that the relatively unimportant information gets little mention in the text, and will then have evidence showing the need to reject it as unimportant.
- If the students did the assessment task individually, it might be best for them to work in pairs or threes to ensure their interest is maintained.
- The paragraph before the "Next steps" heading tells you where the details relating to each piece of information can be found.
- Tell the students that if there are too many details to write down, they can simply write, for example, "All of page 15 – Safety gear".
- Encourage them to make a note of the page they found the detail on.
- You will first need to model the process of finding details and deciding if they are important or unimportant. Think aloud as you do so.