Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject:
Central Focus:
Fourth Grade/Reading
Students will determine the main idea and explaining how
the key details support the main idea in an article
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.2
Date submitted:
Date
Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported taught:

by key details; summarize the text.

Daily Lesson Objective:

Students will be able to meet todays objective by identifying the main idea and key details in an
informative article about the five themes of geography. Students are expected to underline at
least one main idea sentence and circle at least two key details in each section of the article.
21st Century Skills:
Make Judgments & Decisions:
Students will have to make
decisions about what the main idea
of each section is and judge which
details are key for supporting the
main idea

Academic Language Demand (Language Function and

Vocabulary):
Determine; Students will be determining the main idea
sentence in each section of the article
Explain; Students will also be explaining how the key
details support the main idea of each section in the article

Prior Knowledge:
Students will need to know how to comprehend an informational text as well as how to
summarize information
Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

I know that Mrs. Wilson has been working very hard with you
all to learn about how to come up with a plot and making sure
that you pick a specific problem to use in your stories. Its
important to make sure that the people who read your story
can figure out what the main idea is. Think about all of the
books and articles you have read and how you could tell what
the main point was.
Today were going to read an article about the Five Themes
of Geography and determine the main idea sentence in each
of the sections. Were also going to go over what key details
are and how they support the main idea.
-Pull up the document camera on the SMART board. Put the
book Soft Rain underneath it and open up to the first chapter.
A main idea can be found in fictional stories as well as
nonfiction texts. Weve been reading Soft Rain for the past
week so I know that we know this story very well so far.
However I want to see if I can figure out the main idea in this
first section of the book. Read the fourth page out loud.

Time

4. Guided Practice

Hmm, after reading this page I think the most important part
was towards the bottom where it talked about the teacher
trembling. Using a pencil Im gonna underline the sentence
that says: The teacher is crying. I underlined that sentence
because that seems to be the main idea of the whole page.
Now can I just say something like that without giving
evidence? Students should say no. Thats right. I need to
explain why I think thats the main idea. To do this I need to
look for key details. Key details are sentences or phrases that
support the main idea. Im going to circle the key details I see
on this page. If the teacher is crying then I think I should
circle: the teacher stammered, wiped her eyes, her hand
trembled. I circled these details because they support my
statement that the teacher was crying.
-Pass out the Five Themes of Geography article to the
students
Youve seen me determine the main idea & key details in a
fictional piece. Now I want us to work on a nonfiction text.
Make sure we have pencils out ready to use. Before we start
reading the article who can tell me what the bold faced words
at the top of the page is called?
-Student should answer that it is called the title. Ask the child
what the purpose of a title is for. This is to review other
features of a text.
We have a title at the top. However I see other boldfaced
words all throughout the rest of the article. What are those
called?
-Student should say headings, could also say subtitles but
reiterate the fact that they can be called headings also. Ask
the reason for those as well.
What about the small paragraph at the top that doesnt have
a heading? What would that section be for?
-Student should answer that it is the introduction. Again ask
the purpose for it to be included.
Now that weve looked at all the text features of this article I
think were ready to start reading. Read aloud the
introduction. Who thinks they could tell me what sentence
they think is the main idea of our introduction? Allow
students to attempt to answer it. The correct sentence is the
last one. Weve underlined the last sentence because the
authors main idea of this introduction is to tell us that its
important to use the five themes of geography if we want to
be like geographers. Now we need key details to support this
main idea. Allow students to identify what they think are the

key details and have them circle them. Have one or two
students explain why they think that sentence/phrase is a key
detail.

5. Independent
Practice

6. Assessment
Methods of
all
objectives/skills:

7. Closure

Weve done the introduction together. Now I want you to

finish underlining the main idea sentences and circling the
key details in each section of the article. You should underline
only one main idea in each section and circle at least two key
details for each main idea. There are also three questions at
the end of the article that you should answer. They should be
easy since we talked about text features at the beginning. If
you have any questions Ill be walking around to help.
For the assessment, students are to underline one main idea sentence in
each section and circle at least two key details to support each main
idea.
When students finish the questions at the bottom and have
gone through all the sections of the article break them into
small groups at their tables to compare answers. Walk around
the room and stop at all the groups to make sure they are on
task and to listen in on their discussions. After students have
been allowed to discuss for a few minutes call their attention
back to the front. Discuss with the students about why its
important to not only be able to identify key details in a text
but to also include them in their own writing.
N/A

8. Assessment
Results of
all
objectives/skills:
Targeted Students
Modifications/Accommodations:
For ELLs: Allow students to raise their hand
and ask for an explanation of an unknown
word before reading independently

Materials/Technology:
Soft Rain book
(25) copies of Five Themes article
SMART Board/Document Camera
References:
Mrs. Wilson

Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:
Pull a small group of specific ELL students and
read the sections aloud to them and then have
them underline and circle independently.

Reflection on lesson: