Identifying Key Ideas and Supporting Details Part One: The Setup

Sixth grade history teacher Jodi Hoard prepares her students for a close reading of a text about Meresamun, a temple singer in Ancient Egypt. In this clip, Ms. Hoard shows students how to read for the key idea and supporting details. She’ll also encourage them to consider what can be inferred about everyday life in Ancient Egypt.

Things to watch for:

• Clearly stated lesson objectives
• The use of a graphic organizer to assist students’ note taking
• A review of important concepts for lesson success: key idea, details, infer
• A specific reference to related strategies, specifically summarizing
• Bringing students back to the “big question” of the overall unit

More classroom videos with Jodi Hoard:

• Identifying Key Ideas and Supporting Detail, Part Two: Modeling
• Identifying Key Ideas and Supporting Detail, Part Three: Students at Work

Reading Standards for Informational Text 6

Key Ideas and Details:

• Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1)

Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-8

Key Ideas and Details:

• Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1)
• Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2)

Ms. Hoard's students are working to understand more about life for everyday people in Ancient Egypt. Her resources include:

• The Life of Meresamun (PDF)
  Museum information from a special exhibit at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
• Ms. Hoard's graphic organizer (PDF)
• Completed graphic organizer (PDF)

Strategies that can be used to support this lesson:

• Inferential Reading
• Selective Highlighting
• Structured Notetaking
• Summarizing
• Text Structure
• Question-Answer Relationships (QAR)