I think what I am trying to tease out is the idea of text
organization...descriptive text structures vs. main idea/detail text structure.
So many of the things I have read up to this point have them as two different
text structures.
In a particular text, there is a main idea that the author intends and there is
what is important from the reader's point of view which may or may not be the
same thing. Yet, when a writer composes a text, gives it a title or subtitle
and then organizes it by putting the most important idea or overarching big
idea first...isn't that a main idea/details text structure? I thought a
descriptive text structure as one where the ideas are all of relatively equal
importance...say I was trying to write a paragraph to describe my garden. I
would tell you what flowers were in it, how big it was, what colors the flowers
are, the bees and birds that visit it. If the text structure were main
idea/details, I might start with a statement about how it is important to plant
flowers native to your area for a successful garden and then give examples from
my own garden that have flourished because they were native to my area...good
for the soil and weather here in Maryland.
I would think the book on Lincoln might have both kinds of stuctures in
it..though I don't know that, since I am unfamiliar with it. I bet it would
also be organized chronologically...
OR
Am I totally off base here...is the main idea/detail structure I have described
above just another kind of descriptive text structure?
What is everyone else thinking?
Jennifer Palmer
Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher
FLES- Lead the discovery, Live the learning, Love the adventure.
"Children grow into the intellectual life around them."
-Vygotsky
________________________________
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wed 7/30/2008 4:17 PM
To: Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons inReadingComprehension"
Subject: Re: [Understand] Main idea....
I think whether a piece of writing has a main idea depends on the type of
writing. A history book about one subject (not text books) has a main idea.
I'm thinking about Doris Kerns Goodwin's book on Lincoln because I just started
it last night. It has a main idea and probably many other ideas -- after all
it is about 700 pages!
In history writing, the main idea is called the thesis.
Jan
-------------- Original message from [EMAIL PROTECTED]: --------------
> I am going to back us up just a little before beginning discussion on the
> last chapter. I had the pleasure of getting to hear Ellin speak in person in
> Pennsylvania last week and one point she made was that there is no such thing
> as
> "main idea". She teaches children that main idea is a construct test makers
> made up and that students, when faced with a main idea question must try to
> figure out what the test maker thinks is important. She explains to children
> that there are important ideas...but these might vary based on the readers'
> reason for reading.
>
> The question that immediately popped into my mind was related to expository
> text structures. Isn't there a text structure that is organized main idea
detail? Isn't that newspaper writing where we get the most important idea
> first?
> I know lots of simple nonfiction for primary children seems to be organized
> main idea detail---just think of Scholastic News, Weekly Reader and Time for
> Kids.
>
> So---when I came home I picked up my copy of To Understand and backed up to
> chapter seven. Figure 7.2, page 182 does not have "main idea detail" listed as
> a text structure, but the description of the descriptive text structure
> seems to me to BE "main idea-detail". I thought of descriptive text structure
> to
> be narrative in style but each idea to be of relatively equal importance.
> So...what I want to know is this:
> Do you think we need to teach main idea as a text structure? Especially
> since lots of school and test reading seems to be organized in a narrative
> style
> with the most important ideas first. Or is this misleading to kids who will
> think that there is only one important idea to be learned from a particular
> text?
> What do all of you make of this?
> Jennifer
>
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