Rock doc II

Rock doc II

Auto-markingPencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about knowing which information is important so that you get the main idea.
Read "Rock Doc", by K.E. Anderson, Junior Journal 21, pages 8 to 13.

Question

a)  Select the three pieces of information below that are most important to this text

    • Not all doctors look after sick people.

    • Geologists sometimes look for dinosaur fossils.

    • Geologists know a lot about Earth and its rocks.

    • Geologists' work is varied.

    • Geologists find things underground and in rocks.

    • Geologists use microscopes and other equipment.

Question

b)  What is the main idea of this text?

    • Geologists work outside most of the time.

    • Geologists are rock doctors.

    • Geologists use their knowledge to find out all sorts of useful things.

Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with auto-marking displayed to students).
 
Equipment:
 
'Rock Doc', written by K. E. Anderson. Junior Journal 21, Learning Media Limited, 1999.

What is the main idea?

  1. Remind students that the main idea is what the author wants readers to understand is important and valued in the text as a whole.
  2. You may wish to explain to 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, i.e., the whole text. You may also wish to explain that important information will be mentioned more than unimportant information.
  3. Before reading, explain what "varied" means, as in task a) "Geologists' work is varied". See Important information identified by students. Or teachers may wish to change the wording in the assessment resource, e.g., Geologists do all sorts of different jobs to do with rocks.
  4. Explain that a) assesses if they understand which information in "Rock Doc" is important. Tell the students that first they need to read the article, then select the three pieces of information they think are most important to this text.
  5. Explain that b) assesses if they understand what the main idea is. Tell the students they need to think about the important information they identified at a), then put a tick next to the main idea.
  6. The task can be done individually or in groups.
  7. Responses can be discussed by teacher and student only, or within larger groups. Group discussion has the advantage of giving students opportunities to consider others' ideas and to practise justifying their own.
Copyright: 
Rock Doc - Text was first published by Learning Media Limited on behalf of the Ministry of Education © K.E. Anderson, 1999. Reproduced with permission.
 
Source: Junior Journal 21, Learning Media, 1999.
Level:
2
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking
Keywords: 
main idea, comprehension, junior journal, evaluating, synthesis, Junior Journal 21
Description of task: 
Students are assessed on their ability to identify important information and the main idea of an article about a geologist. Junior Journal 21. Text provided.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use comprehension strategies
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Making sense of text: processing system, set 3
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
  Y4 (05/2005)
a) Students identify the three pieces of important information:

  • Geologists know a lot about Earth and its rocks.
  • Geologists' work is varied.
  • Geologists find things underground and in rocks.

Students identify all three of the above pieces of important information.
 
very easy
very difficult
moderate
 
difficult
b) Students identify the main idea of the text:

  • Geologists use their knowledge to find out all sorts of useful things.
 moderate
Diagnostic and formative information: 

This resource was trialled by 92 Year 4 students across a range of New Zealand schools.

a) Distinguishing between important and relatively unimportant informationImportant information identified by students:

At task a), four-fifths of trial students correctly identified the first important piece of information Geologists know a lot about the Earth and its rocks; about a fifth correctly identified Geologists' work is varied; just over a half correctly identified Geologists find things underground and in rocks. The majority of students did not appear to know that frequently mentioned details, in both the written and visual texts, will always be important. For example, in this text there are many details about the varied work that geologists do, and yet only 17% correctly identified Geologists' work is varied as important. This may be because students did not understand the word "varied", so teachers may wish to explain this before students begin reading the text. Details about geologists' varied work can be found on:

  • Page 9: "Some geologists study earthquakes. Some study the ocean floor, and some look for minerals and fossils. Some geologists even study rocks from the moon and Mars."
  • Page 10: "Geologists spend some of their time visiting places and some of their time in the laboratory."
  • Page 11: "Doctor Anderson travels all over the world. In Australia Doctor Anderson helped to find oil under the ground ... he has also found gold ..."
  • All the pictures also support the idea of a geologist's job being "varied" by showing Dr Anderson working in different landscapes.

Unimportant information identified by students:About half of the trial students incorrectly identified one or more of the three pieces of relatively unimportant information as important. These are: Not all doctors look after sick people; Geologists sometimes look for dinosaur fossils; and Geologists use microscopes and other equipment. Students may have thought that Not all doctors look after sick people was important because it is in the introduction to the article. As part of the introduction, this information helps to clarify who the text is going to be about. Some students may have also incorrectly thought that the word "doctor" made it important.

b) Identifying the main idea

Half the trial students correctly identified the main idea at task b).

The option that most of the remaining students incorrectly identified as the main idea was Geologists are rock doctors. This has the 'feel' of a main idea because it is a general statement - which main ideas are. However, students who chose this did not group, then combine all the important information. See Next steps.

Next steps: 
Students having difficulty identifying 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. An effective and active way for students to make such connections is by photocopying the text and giving out highlighters. Assign a given detail in a) to each student (or a pair) and ask them to highlight where reference(s) to their detail appear in the text. You may first need to model the process of finding details and deciding if they are important or unimportant. Think aloud as you do so. For example, 'Where in the text does it tell us about Not all doctors look after sick people? Here it is on page 8 where it says "Here is Doctor Anderson. He's not the kind of doctor who looks after sick people". From these sentences we can say that Not all doctors look after sick people. Are we told anything more about doctors and sick people anywhere else in this article? No, not on page 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13. I think that Not all doctors look after sick people is not an important piece of information because the text only mentions it once. See how often your piece of information is mentioned, in the pictures and in the words.

Students having difficulty combining important information to get the main idea

The main idea is what the writer wants readers to understand is important and valued. The main idea will be a general statement that combines the information that the writer has signalled is important by giving emphasis to it across the text. Going back to a) to establish the three pieces of important information will help students make a decision based on evidence. It is then about combining the three pieces of important information in order to find the main idea.The value in rereading text to check and possibly change their initial thinking needs to be stressed to students.

Further reading:
Duffy, G. (2003). Explaining reading: A resource for teaching concepts, skills, and strategies. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.