Okay so let’s ask some questions about it does it seem to work as a main idea sentence is tyler doing his job maddie what do you think does this help you understand the main idea of the article in the print newspaper can you tell me one piece of information that you think was pretty vital to understanding the article in the print newspaper that tyler has given here okay arthur ash’s kids day seems to be pretty important arthur ashe’s kids day somebody else give me an important piece of information that you think tyler really need to include in this and it’s good that he did yeah jessica inspires kids they can do anything when you’re writing a main idea for a news article in the print newspaper if you were a the print newspaper reporter writing a news article in the print newspaper you’d want to answer several key questions tyler’s done a fairly decent job of answering one of the key questions that you ask is anybody aware of the six questions that a reporter would ask him or herself they’re really simple yeah james there you go james let’s start with that first one and i’ll get all six from you in a moment start with the who question where is tyler’s who gabe nope arthur ashe is dead arthur ash is not actually in the article in the print newspaper nor is arthur ashe involved in the event what’s that carter thank you the answer to my who question kids your first question to yourself in constructing the main idea should always be who carter you had an interesting one um your article in the print newspaper was about dinosaurs and flatulence and methane and greenhouse gas effects who’s your who incorrect try again you’re who is not dinosaurs nope that’s a what nope that’s slang um can anybody help carter out he’s reading an article in the print newspaper about dinosaurs and how they release methane gas that probably increase greenhouse effects millions upon millions of years ago who’s the who and who is the us that would be relevant when we’re talking about dinosaurs who studies dinosaurs scientists paleontologists yes thank you very much so carter’s who would be scientists scientists hypothesized that theorized that scientists now assume that and then you give the dinosaur thing does that make sense your who is always a person that is actually present in the article in the print newspaper for tyler arthur ash is not it arthur ash’s kids day is a thing it’s an event it’s part of the what what other verb in the sentence really talks to me about what tyler’s sentence contains a verb arthur ash’s kids day and what other verb in that sentence helps me understand the what bridgette an important verb in that sentence that helps me understand the what give you a hint it’s part of the underlined important information there you go inspires tyler has included in his main idea the who and the what which is good because i’ll tell you right now who and what are indispensable he must answer those questions last class period i was working with a student who’s who was they in other words in the sentence when he answered the who question he just wrote they the main idea is broken because we have no clue who they are he needed to specify need to fix the answer to his who question so let’s review james you did you were doing a really good job who what we have those two key questions when where number six it bucks the trend of the w’s brandon correct matthew which two of these questions did i say are indispensable in writing your main idea who and what thank you you need this you need this the rest of these optional how do you know depends on whether it’s important last class period somebody was talking about iphone sales in the united states was it important to know that it was in the united states to answer the where question absolutely because we were talking about iphone sales only in the united states so that where was necessary to the main idea is it necessary for you i don’t know it’s your article in the print newspaper notice that tyler hasn’t answered any of the other questions he’s read the article in the print newspaper he decides it’s not important and i don’t have a problem with it because i’m not looking at his main idea saying wow there’s something missing i’m not i’m pretty clear on what the main idea is do i need details sure but we’re talking about a main idea sentence it doesn’t include all the details what bit of language is unnecessary wordy and doesn’t help me answer who what when where why questions james uh no actually that’s necessary to link those two um bridgette nope because it helps me understand the inspires i don’t want this unnecessary blah blah blah lose it i want tyler and all the rest of you just to write the sentence about the who and the what and add other questions as necessary if you see in your original the main idea of this article in the print newspaper is that i don’t need it i want one sentence as if you were the writer writing this article in the print newspaper in one sentence and it should not be excessively long or complicated so we have a number of principles let’s review what we talked about so far we can answer six questions two of them are indispensable the others are optional depending on your article in the print newspaper i don’t want language that does not answer one of those questions and next fact the who needs to be near or at the front i would expect carter’s main idea to start off with scientists find that or scientists believe that scientists will be first word so what will be the first word of tyler’s new main idea after we revise it amanda what will be the first word of his new main idea i don’t remember he’s dead kids so let’s fix it somebody take a look at the original that tyler wrote and help me rewrite the sentence starting with kids what’s happening to them we’ve got the who what about the what thank you brandon you’re doing a great job keep it up what what about the rest kids are inspired there was a little bit of information in there brandon and i’ll give you a little bit of help to what there’s a little bit of information in tyler’s original do anything they want or maybe even because that sounds like they’re just gonna you know not go to school ever again um how about that i like that a little bit better kids are inspired by arthur ash’s kids day to be anything they want clearer a cleaner sentence especially after we rid ourselves of the main idea of this article in the print newspaper is that one little question i’m going to ask you tyler um did they specify which kids um because it sounds like we’re talking about kids the world over in the article in the print newspaper did they specify which kids if we talk about young kids go ahead go grab it it’s okay keep looking if you find it just just shout it out just says kids okay good enough this is what i need for a main idea i need at least the who and the what answered and others answered as optional can we see one more example who would like to volunteer theirs free help no all right zach you’re volunteered um why don’t you go grab the computer over there take your current events report and type your original main idea okay okay thank you all right proof it for me gerard who’s the who thank you gerard what’s the primary what try again it’s a news article in the print newspaper that means it’s reporting on an event an event that happened recently because that’s what news does it’s why it’s called new so what happened recently because that happened in 69 that’s right somebody want to take zack’s material here and rewrite it tyler looks like you were tentative hand up you want to give it a shot yep i would start with neil armstrong tell you what let’s make this a group effort thank you tyler that’s step one james yes of course the a would be capitalized.
It’s not um you’re correct jessica yep you’re getting to it i agree with that gabe more but we want to pair this down to one sentence you’re correct jessica i’d like to pare it down to one sentence yeah i there’s a word that you’re keeping in there that’s that’s tripping you up and it’s little um we’ll see what maddie could do matty you want to get rid of was neil armstrong the first man to step on foot on the moon now what do you think maddie that is the word anything more do not ever be afraid to just cut words students use too many neil armstrong the first man to step foot on the moon died also his famous words doing a great job what else looks much better but katie what do you think and then after moon very good that’s correct neil armstrong the first man to stepped foot on the moon died i want to answer a number another one of those questions i’ve got the who and i’ve got the what which one do i want to answer gabe correct when zach when did he die yes you should have it in the article in the print newspaper oh and ethan’s got it ethan what is it friday august 25th friday august 25th ethan where do you want to throw that in the sentence died on friday august 25th or 21st it’s not bad i’m going to recommend that you put it in another position actually ethan it can kind of go anywhere in the sentence and make the same amount of sense but there’s a place that it usually works a little bit better gabe what are you thinking that kind of interrupts the flow a little bit i like it a little bit better in ethan’s position at the end because it doesn’t interrupt the flow but there’s an even better position tyler remember what i said here near or at the front i said near the front because if you are placing the time the when question lead with the one question on friday august 25th neil armstrong the first man to step foot on the moon died there’s the main point of your article in the print newspaper if you answer the when question lead with it which other question might you lead with if you answer it james correct where if you answer the where or the when consider leading with it i said consider there’s no hard and fast rule about how this happens every single time except that i want the who question answered i want the what question answered i want the who’s somewhere near the front if not at the front at least near the front i don’t want extra words that don’t answer one of those questions and i don’t want minor details i just want main ideas at this point i’d like you to turn to your new article in the print newspaper um i’m going to hand out another current events report sheet and i’d like you working on the main idea there and i’ll provide some proofing assistance once people actually have theirs.