Overview

Lesson Procedure

65-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Project the short paragraph below and give students three minutes to answer the three questions alone before they compare answers with a partner.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Our school's robotics team lost its first three matches of the season. The members stayed late, rebuilt the robot's arm twice and asked last year's captain for advice. By the regional final, their robot scored more points than any other." (1) What is the topic, in two or three words? (2) What is the central idea, as one full sentence? (3) Which detail could you remove without changing the central idea?

   Collect answers. Point out that "the robotics team" names a topic, while "Hard work turned a losing team into a winning one" states a central idea. For question 3, students usually pick the captain's advice or the rebuilt arm: a detail can support an idea without being needed to state it. Tell students that today they will find a central idea in a longer text, watch how details build it, and summarize it without adding their own opinion.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: Terms. A central idea is the main point a text makes about its topic, stated as a full sentence. It emerges where the text first states or clearly suggests it; it is shaped when details show what it means; it is refined when later details narrow, sharpen or qualify it. An objective summary reports the central idea and its key steps in order, in the reader's own words, without opinion or minor details.

   Four words to keep apart

   Term	What it is	Test
   Topic	The subject, in a few words	Could it be a title? Then it is probably a topic
   Central idea	The point the text makes about the topic	Is it a full sentence the whole text supports?
   Supporting detail	An example, fact, image or step	Would removing it leave the idea standing?
   Refinement	A detail that narrows, qualifies or deepens the idea	Does the idea read differently after it?

   Part 2: Model with Muir. John Muir (1838-1914) was a naturalist who campaigned for the national parks. Read his opening aloud while students follow. Then walk through the worked examples and Diagram 1. After each example, ask: How would you now state the central idea? Record each version so the class can see the idea grow more precise.

   1The tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid of rust and disease. Briskly venturing and roaming, some are washing off sins and cobweb cares of the devil’s spinning in all-day storms on mountains; sauntering in rosiny pinewoods or in gentian meadows, brushing through chaparral, bending down and parting sweet, flowery sprays; tracing rivers to their sources, getting in touch with the nerves of Mother Earth; jumping from rock to rock, feeling the life of them, learning the songs of them, panting in whole-souled exercise, and rejoicing in deep, long-drawn breaths of pure wildness. This is fine and natural and full of promise. So also is the growing interest in the care and preservation of forests and wild places in general, and in the half wild parks and gardens of towns. Even the scenery habit in its most artificial forms, mixed with spectacles, silliness, and kodaks; its devotees arrayed more gorgeously than scarlet tanagers, frightening the wild game with red umbrellas,—even this is encouraging, and may well be regarded as a hopeful sign of the times.

   2All the Western mountains are still rich in wildness, and by means of good roads are being brought nearer civilization every year. To the sane and free it will hardly seem necessary to cross the continent in search of wild beauty, however easy the way, for they find it in abundance wherever they chance to be. Like Thoreau they see forests in orchards and patches of huckleberry brush, and oceans in ponds and drops of dew. Few in these hot, dim, strenuous times are quite sane or free; choked with care like clocks full of dust, laboriously doing so much good and making so much money,—or so little,—they are no longer good for themselves.

   • Topic or central idea?

     A student says Muir's opening is about "national parks." Is that the central idea?

     Result: No. "National parks" or "people going to the mountains" is a topic: a subject in a few words. A central idea is a full sentence that says what the text claims about the topic: people worn down by modern life need wild places, which are "fountains of life," not only sources of timber and water.

   • Where the idea emerges

     Find the first sentence where Muir's central idea appears.

     Result: Paragraph 1, sentence 2: "going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity." Sentence 1 only notices a trend ("The tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses"); sentence 2 turns it into a claim about why people need wildness.

   • How details shape it

     Sentences 3-4 list what people do outdoors: storms on mountains, "sauntering in rosiny pinewoods," "jumping from rock to rock." What do these details add?

     Result: They show what the necessity is for. The people are recovering from "the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury," and the outdoor activities are how they try "to get rid of rust and disease." The idea is now more specific: wild places heal people damaged by work and comfort.

   • How details refine it

     Muir calls even noisy tourists with "red umbrellas" "a hopeful sign," and paragraph 2 says the "sane and free" find wildness everywhere. How do these details change the idea?

     Result: They sharpen it in two ways. Any contact with nature, even a silly one, is a start. And the deeper need is inner: most people are "choked with care like clocks full of dust" and "no longer good for themselves." The refined idea: wildness restores people whom modern life has worn out.

   • Objective summary

     Compare two summary sentences: (1) "Muir brilliantly proves that everyone should quit their jobs and live in the woods." (2) "Muir argues that people exhausted by work and comfort are turning to wild places because they need them to recover."

     Result: Sentence 2 is objective: it reports Muir's idea accurately, in neutral words. Sentence 1 adds a judgment ("brilliantly") and a claim Muir never makes (quit their jobs). An objective summary reports what the author says, not what the reader thinks of it.

   Objective summary checklist

   An objective summary does	An objective summary does not
   State the central idea near the start	Open with background or a quotation
   Give the key steps in the order the text develops them	Retell every example or image
   Use the reader's own words, with short marked quotations only if needed	Copy long stretches of the text
   Stay accurate to what the author says	Add opinions, praise, criticism or new claims

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Introduce Helen Keller (1880-1968), who lost her sight and hearing at nineteen months old. In this passage she is almost seven, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, has been spelling words into her hand for several weeks. Pairs read the excerpt and fill in a three-row organizer: Emerges (the paragraph and words), Shaped (two details), Refined (one detail that changes the idea). Then each pair writes a two-sentence objective summary.

   1One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap also, spelled "d-o-l-l" and tried to make me understand that "d-o-l-l" applied to both. Earlier in the day we had had a tussle over the words "m-u-g" and "w-a-t-e-r." Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that "m-u-g" is mug and that "w-a-t-e-r" is water, but I persisted in confounding the two. In despair she had dropped the subject for the time, only to renew it at the first opportunity. I became impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth, and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure.

   2We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.

   3I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.

   4I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what they all were; but I do know that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them--words that were to make the world blossom for me, "like Aaron's rod, with flowers." It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come.

   Debrief with one question: Is this passage only about learning a word? Push students to paragraph 3, where Keller picks up the broken doll and "for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow." The idea that emerges at the well-house (language awakened her mind) is refined: language also gave her feelings she did not have before, when "there was no strong sentiment or tenderness."

   For Activity 2 (Summary Repair). The practice summary below was written for this page. It contains deliberate problems for students to find.

   Helen Keller's amazing story shows that she was a spoiled child until her teacher took charge. One day Miss Sullivan gave her a new doll and a big rag doll, and Helen smashed the new one because she was jealous of it. Then they went to the well-house, which was covered with sweet honeysuckle. As the water gushed over one hand, Miss Sullivan spelled the word into the other, and "somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me." After that Helen learned hundreds of words in a single day, including mother and father. I think this is the most inspiring part of the book.

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read the excerpt from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi alone. As a young man, Twain trained as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River; in this passage he looks back on his years of training. Gloss four river words before students start: a bluff reef is a sandbar under the water with a steep edge, a bar is a ridge of sand, a snag is a sunken tree or branch that can pierce a hull, and a landmark is a feature a pilot steers by. The two [...] marks show where short parts of the sunset description are left out. Students then answer quiz questions 1-19 with the passage open; question 20 also uses the Muir passage.

   1Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many-tinted as an opal; [...] the shore on our left was densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. [...]

   2I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home. But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I should have looked upon it without rapture, and should have commented upon it, inwardly, after this fashion: This sun means that we are going to have wind to-morrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling 'boils' show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there; [...] that silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the 'break' from a new snag, and he has located himself in the very best place he could have found to fish for steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark.

   3No, the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a 'break' that ripples above some deadly disease. Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn't he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "In one sentence, explain the difference between a topic and a central idea. In a second sentence, name two things an objective summary leaves out." Sort the tickets into "clear" and "needs another example" to plan the next lesson.

   Homework passage. Introduce the excerpt from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, written in 1771 about his teenage years as an apprentice in his brother's Boston print shop. Students keep the passage for the homework problems. Teacher note: the passage opens with a debate in which Franklin's friend Collins argues that educating women is "improper" and that women are "naturally unequal to it." This is an eighteenth-century view that Franklin reports and argues against; the words are quoted exactly as printed. Franklin's spellings "try'd," "compleat" and "ow'd" are also his own.

   1A question was once, somehow or other, started between Collins and me, of the propriety of educating the female sex in learning, and their abilities for study. He was of opinion that it was improper, and that they were naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary side, perhaps a little for dispute's sake. He was naturally more eloquent, had a ready plenty of words, and sometimes, as I thought, bore me down more by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons. As we parted without settling the point, and were not to see one another again for some time, I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied fair and sent to him. He answered, and I replied. Three or four letters of a side had passed, when my father happened to find my papers and read them. Without entering into the discussion, he took occasion to talk to me about the manner of my writing; observed that, though I had the advantage of my antagonist in correct spelling and pointing (which I ow'd to the printing-house), I fell far short in elegance of expression, in method and in perspicuity, of which he convinced me by several instances. I saw the justice of his remarks, and thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing, and determined to endeavor at improvement.

   2About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try'd to compleat the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and compleat the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method of the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement best expresses the central idea of the Twain passage?

   AThe Mississippi River at sunset is one of the most beautiful sights in America BLearning to read the river as a pilot gave Twain useful knowledge but cost him its beauty CSteamboat pilots must watch for reefs, snags and changing channels to keep boats safe DDoctors lose the ability to see beauty because their training focuses on disease

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Where does the central idea first emerge?

   AIn the opening sentences of paragraph 1, before the sunset is described BIn the sunset description in the middle of paragraph 1 CIn the list of warning signs near the end of paragraph 2 DIn the question about doctors at the end of paragraph 3

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does Twain describe the sunset in such detail in paragraph 1?

   ATo teach readers how to predict the next day's weather from the sky BTo prove that he was already a skilled pilot when he first saw it CTo show what he once saw, so readers can measure what he later lost DTo argue that sunsets on the Mississippi are unlike those anywhere else

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 2, Twain rereads the "slanting mark" as "a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat." How does this detail shape the central idea?

   AIt shows that the river had become more dangerous since his first trip BIt shows that Twain had forgotten the sunset he described earlier CIt shows that Twain was a careless pilot who ignored warning signs DIt shows that a detail he once enjoyed now registers only as a danger

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which pair of details shows the same object seen first with wonder and later with a pilot's eye?

   A"a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous" / "that floating log means that the river is rising" B"I stood like one bewitched" / "I have pitied doctors from my heart" C"the red hue brightened into gold" / "the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river" D"boiling, tumbling rings" / "the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek"

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms ... another day came when I ceased altogether to note them." What does this sentence add to the central idea?

   AThe loss happened all at once, on a single trip BThe loss happened gradually, as his knowledge grew CThe loss was temporary, and the beauty later returned DThe loss was a choice he made to become a better pilot

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence states most directly what replaced beauty for Twain?

   A"I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me." B"But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face" C"Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart." D"All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat."

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does the comparison to doctors in paragraph 3 refine the central idea?

   AIt changes the subject from the river to the dangers of disease BIt argues that doctors are unkind to the patients they examine CIt extends the idea from piloting to any expert who learns to read signs DIt proves that Twain regretted not studying medicine instead

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The passage ends: "And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?" What does this question suggest about Twain's view?

   AHe sees a real trade-off and leaves open which side weighs more BHe wishes he had never become a pilot at all CHe believes knowledge is always worth more than beauty DHe thinks doctors should stop practicing medicine

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Paragraph 2 opens, "I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture." Why does Twain place these sentences right before "But as I have said, a day came ..."?

    ATo show that he was too distracted by the view to steer safely BTo mark the high point of wonder just before the decline begins CTo explain why he decided to become a steamboat pilot DTo show the moment when he first learned the river's language

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A student is writing an objective summary of the passage. Which detail is too minor to include?

    ATwain learned to read the river's surface as a pilot BThe knowledge made the river useful but no longer beautiful CTwain compares his loss to a doctor's view of a patient DA dead tree on the shore held a single glowing branch

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence would belong in an objective summary of the passage?

    ATwain's breathtaking sunset description proves he was a far better writer than he was a pilot. BTwain foolishly allowed his steamboat job to ruin the most beautiful river in the whole world. CTwain says that details of the sunset later struck him as signs of wind, reefs and snags. DI agree with Twain that learning any skill well will always ruin the fun of doing it.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which summary sentence adds information that is not in the passage?

    ATwain grew bored with the river and soon quit piloting for good. BTwain recalls a sunset that turned a broad stretch of the river red and gold. CTwain says he first saw that sunset when steamboating was new to him. DTwain says he watched the sunset in a kind of speechless rapture.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Twain says he came to know the river's features "as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet" and calls them "the language of this water." How does this comparison help develop the central idea?

    AIt shows that Twain learned to read and write while working on the river BIt suggests that the river was too hard for most pilots to learn CIt explains why Twain later chose to become a writer instead of a pilot DIt presents the river as a text to decode, setting up his reading of each sign

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Question 1 offers one wording of the central idea. Restate the central idea of the Twain passage in one sentence of your own words. Then explain why your sentence is a central idea and not just a topic.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Twain describes a dead tree twice: in paragraph 1 it "waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame," and in paragraph 2 it "is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark." Explain how this pair of details shapes the central idea. What does the word "friendly" add?

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain how paragraph 3 refines the central idea that has been developed in paragraphs 1 and 2. Refer to at least two sentences.

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write an objective summary of the Twain passage in 60-90 words.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    A classmate wrote this summary: "In this passage from Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain gives a beautiful description of a sunset with a log, a slanting mark, rings like an opal, a silver trail and a dead tree. He says that pilots have to be careful because of reefs and snags. I think he is being too dramatic about losing the beauty, since he could still enjoy it on his days off." Name three problems with this summary, then rewrite it as two objective sentences.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use your answer to question 2 and the analysis of Muir's opening in the Direct Instruction phase. Compare how the central idea emerges in the two texts: where does each idea first appear, and how directly and in what voice is it stated?

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These standards connect to RI.9-10.2: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.