Even though today was another busy at the TESOL Convention, I wish I could have done more. I didn’t go to a lot of sessions, instead I went to a few longer sessions, presented my poster and had a job interview. Still my favorite tidbit comes from the first session of my day titled: “Serving Adolescent ELLs and Struggling Readers: Similarities and Differences.” David Moore, one of the presenters, gave a quick three step process to help students find and write the main idea.

1. Find the most important word in the passage–write the topic. (ex. Facebook)
2. Expand on the topic by adding “and.” He calls this a comment. (ex. Facebook and how teens communicate)
3. Write the comment in a nice sentence. This is the main idea. (ex. Facebook has changed how teens communicate.)

By giving students this process, David Moore says it is much easier for students to find and write the main idea of a reading passage. I know I am going to give it a try.

Last 5 posts by katiemitchell

• A Small Part of a Book... By Me! - May 14th, 2009
• Teacher on the Move: What Would You Bring Abroad? - April 26th, 2009
• TESOL Convention Tidbits-- Free Writing - March 28th, 2009
• TESOL Convention Tidbits-- Creating a Book Club - March 26th, 2009
• Computer Assisted Language Learning: Good Decision Making - March 13th, 2009

Tags: denver, english baby, english class, english lesson, esl, job interview, main idea, TESOL convention

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