(Soft background music plays throughout)
Image description: A magnifying glass shows “Central Idea” magnified over several sheets of newspaper.
Narration: The central idea of a text answers the question, "What does the author want me to understand after reading this text?"
Image description: The question “What does the author want me to understand after reading this text?” appears on the screen.
Narration: To find the central idea, begin by reading the full text to get a general understanding of what the author is saying.
Image description: A news article appears with “The Daily News” written at the top.
Narration: As you read, you should notice that the text is made up of different kinds of information, such as facts, definitions, quotations and text features.
Image description: The words “facts,” “definitions,” “quotations” and “text features” appear one by one as they are spoken.
Narration: Some facts, definitions, quotations and text features presented by the author are significant pieces of information. This means that they are very important.
Image description: The words “significant facts,” “significant text features,” “significant quotations” and “significant definitions” appear on screen.
Narration: We call these pieces of information key details. Not all information in a text is a key detail.
Image description: Four boxes labeled “Key details” are shown. “Significant facts,” is shown with an arrow pointing to the first box. “Significant quotations” is shown with an arrow pointing to the second box. “Significant text features” is shown with an arrow pointing to the third box, and “significant definitions” is shown with an arrow pointing to the fourth box.
Narration: The author includes other information besides key details so the text can be rich and informative.
Image description: The words “definitions,” “quotations,” “facts” and “text features” appear on the screen.
Narration: It is your job as the reader to determine what the key details are. Remember, they will be the most important pieces of information in the text.
Image description: The words “definitions,” “quotations,” “facts” and “text features” disappear from the screen.
Narration: Once you gather all the key details, you are ready to find the central idea of a text.
Image description: The words “Central Idea” appear in a box above the four boxes labeled “key details.”
Narration: You need to look at all of the key details and decide what big idea is supported by all the key details.
Image description: Arrows from each “key detail” box point to the “Central Idea” box.
Narration: This one idea is the central idea. It is the most important thing that the author wants you to know.
Image description: “Central Idea” is enlarged to show emphasis.