Tackling Complexity
Session 5
Revising Our Main Idea As We
Read On
Let’s Think:
What do you do with a text that has a ton of
information?
Do you ever feel like you think you know the main
idea and then realize, wait what I thought isn’t
exactly right?
Expository readers come up with what they think the main idea of the
passage, or part of the passage, they write that idea in pencil expecting that
this idea will be revised as they continue to read.
Sometimes the Main
Idea will become:
More specific
or
More general
I couldn’t live without my dog because he
provides me so much company.
Now i’m thinking Pet’s provide
people with company.
Ways I can code this
● At first I thought… now I am thinking…
● The main idea of the first part was… the main idea of
the second part is.. now i’m thinking…
You try
In Greenland, people are used to the cold. Most of the
world’s largest island is covered with a mile thick cap.
Greenland is so far north that in mid winter, the sun
doesn’t rise for days in much of the country - in some
places for weeks.
What is this part mostly about?
Now think: Does this part extend what I was just
thinking or is it something new?
But, most like the Arctic, Greenland is warming at a
startling pace. The effects of climate change are
turning life upside down for the 56.000 people of this
self governing territory of Denmark
Does this part go with the part we were just reading before or does it
turn a new corner?