Introduce chapter – Find and display photographs that have details and action. First, ask the students to identify the subject of each photograph and tell what is happening in them. Then ask the students to explain how they were able to determine what was happening. Explain that in order to do this, they were required to determine the subject (topic) of the photograph, and they were required to notice and examine the details. These are the same skills involved in determining implied main ideas.
Write the following words on the board and explain their definitions: imply; implication; infer; and inference. These terms will be used in the discussion of ideas in this chapter.
Where do implied main ideas occur?
College textbooks – authors use supporting details to imply the main idea.
Literature: short stories, novels, poems, and plays rely heavily on vivid details to suggest the author’s point.
The Importance of Stating Implied Main Ideas
Learning how to develop a main idea based on the supporting details and thought patterns will help students develop several skills.
Students will learn how:
to study information,
to value the meaning of supporting details,
to appreciate the relationship between ideas, and
to use their own words to express an implied main idea.
(Explain the notes that follow as you present each slide.)
Sometimes paragraphs do not include a stated main idea.
Even though the main idea is not stated in a single sentence, the paragraph still has a main idea.
In these cases, the details clearly suggest or imply the author’s main idea.
If there is no stated main idea:
When the main idea is not stated, students must figure out the author’s controlling point about a topic.
One approach is to study the facts, examples, descriptions, and explanations given—the supporting details.
Another approach is to identify the author’s thought pattern.
Master readers often use both approaches.
This kind of careful reading is a skill that improves dramatically with practice.
If there is no stated main idea:
When the main idea is not stated, students must figure out the author’s controlling point about a topic.
Searching for an implied main idea is much like a treasure hunt.
You must carefully read the clues provided by the author.
An implied main idea allows the reader to use creative and critical thinking skills to make meaning of the piece.
Locate the Topic
Determine the topic that the details develop.
Look for a subject that is repeated throughout the paragraph.
Circle the topic as it recurs.
Activity: Ask a volunteer to read the example aloud. Point out the underlined words. Ask students to identify the topic of this paragraph—“Etiquette rules for e-mail messages.” Work through the examples in the same way throughout the next two slides.
Examine the Supporting Details
Supporting details offer important clues about the implied main idea.
Study the details to determine the author’s thought pattern.
An author can imply different shades of meaning through the use of supporting details.
The author’s thought pattern can help the reader identify the major supporting details. For example, if the author presents a list of ideas, the reader uses this clue to find all of the items in the list and to see how they relate to one another.
Asking and answering these questions allows you to think about the impact of each detail and how the details fit together to create the author’s most important point.
Example: The author is presenting a list of etiquette rules for composing e-mail.
Determine the Author’s Controlling Point
Examine the paragraph for the author’s opinion or for words that show bias.
This information can be used to formulate the implied main idea.
Example: Notice the phrases should be, don’t overuse, and important in the paragraph. The use of this language demonstrates the author’s opinion about the importance of e-mail etiquette. This information is important to the implied main idea.
Stating the Implied Main Idea Based on the Supporting Details
State the implied main idea in your own words.
You must learn to summarize the most important details into a one-sentence statement; in other words, you must create a topic sentence.
To formulate this one-sentence summary, find the topic, determine the author’s opinion by examining the biased words, and use the thought pattern to locate the major details.
Then combine these ideas into a single sentence.
The summary sentence includes the topic and the author’s controlling point, just like a topic sentence.
The statement you come up with must not be too narrow, for it must cover all the details given.
On the other hand, it must not be too broad or go beyond the supporting details.
Remember that a main idea is always written as a complete sentence.
Example: Notice that the implied main idea statement is expressed in different words, covers all of the supporting details, and contains the topic and the author’s controlling point.
The Implied Central Idea
Just as a single paragraph can have an implied main idea, longer passages made up of two or more paragraphs can also have an implied main idea.
Where? articles, essays, and textbooks
When the main idea of several paragraphs is implied, it is called the implied central idea. You use the same skills to formulate the implied central idea of a longer passage that you use to formulate the implied main idea of a paragraph.
Annotating the text is a helpful tool in determining the implied central idea.
Just as you did to grasp the implied main idea for paragraphs, circle the topic.
Underline the signal words for thought patterns.
An author often pairs a transition word with a major supporting detail.
For example: the first reason, a second cause, the final effect, another similarity, an additional difference, and so on. When you see phrases such as these, your one-sentence summary may include the following kinds of phrases: several effects, a few differences, and so on.
A longer passage often contains paragraphs with stated main ideas. The stated main idea of a paragraph is a one-sentence summary of that paragraph and can be used as part of your summary of the implied central idea.
