| NSW Department of Education Literacy and Numeracy Teaching Strategies - Reading

Main idea
Stage 4
Learning focus
Students will learn to identify the main idea using the GIST process with increasingly complex imaginative,
persuasive and informative texts.

Syllabus outcome
The following teaching and learning strategies will assist in covering elements of the following outcomes:
 EN4-1A: responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis,
imaginative expression and pleasure
 EN4-2A: effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for
responding to and composing texts in different media and technologies.
 EN4-2B: uses and describes language forms, features and structures of texts appropriate to a range
of purposes, audiences and contexts.

Year 7 NAPLAN item descriptors

 identifies a key idea in an information text  identifies the main idea of a paragraph in
 identifies the main argument in a an information text
persuasive text  identifies the main idea of an information
 identifies the main argument of a text
paragraph in a persuasive text  identifies the main idea of each paragraph
 identifies the main idea of a paragraph in a in an information text
blog post  identifies the main idea of the first
 identifies the man idea of a paragraph in a paragraph of an information text
text  identifies the purpose of repeated
language in a text

Literacy Learning Progression guide

Understanding Texts (UnT9-UnT11)
Key: C=comprehension P=process V=vocabulary

UnT9
 identifies the main themes or concepts in moderately complex texts (C)
 summarises the text identifying key details (C)
 selects reading/viewing pathways appropriate to reading purpose (scans text for key phrase or close
reading for learning) (P)

education.nsw.gov.au
UnT10
 synthesises information from a variety of complex texts (C)
 reads and views moderately complex or some sophisticated texts (See Text Complexity) (C)

UnT11
 derive a generalisation from abstract ideas in texts
 identifies relevant and irrelevant information in texts (P)

Resources
 Lexical chains - Appendix 1
 Newsflash! scaffold - Appendix 2
 ‘Get the GIST’ - Appendix 3
 ‘Get the GIST’ student scaffold - Appendix 4
 ‘Get the GIST’ text examples - Appendix 5
 Generalisations match-and-sort - Appendix 6
 Generalisations match-and-write - Appendix 6

2 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Background Information
Main Idea
Being able to determine the main idea helps readers to recall important information. Locating the main idea
and significant details helps the reader understand the points the writer is attempting to express. Identifying
the relationship between the main idea and significant details can improve comprehension.
Students need to develop a main idea statement based on the following information:
 who or what the paragraph is about (the topic of the paragraph, which will usually be the subject of
the main idea statement).
 the most important information about the ‘who’ or ‘what’
(NSW Centre for Effective Reading Comprehension strategies Middle Years)

To find the main idea, the following process can help students develop their understanding:

Gather background knowledge and vocabulary

Identify the topic
Summarise the text
Top and Tail sentences will often reinforce the main idea (the first and last sentences in a paragraph)
Where to next?
 Literal comprehension
 Inference
 Text structure

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Teaching strategies
Task 1: What is a main idea?
1. Discuss what the main idea of a text is, reinforcing the difference between main idea and supporting
ideas. Teacher models identifying main idea and supporting ideas with colour coding using the
following excerpt:

Teens with at least one close friend can better cope with stress than those without.
Teenagers who have at least one close friendship are better able to bounce back from stress. This is one of
the latest findings from the ‘Growing Up in Australia’ study.
‘Growing Up in Australia’ has been following the lives of around 10,000 children since 2004. In 2016, the
older children in the study were aged 16–17. We asked them about aspects of their lives including their
peers, school environment and mental health.
One aspect of teen well-being we looked at was resilience. This is the ability to bounce back from stressful
life events and to learn and grow from them.
Stressful life events may include arguments with friends, sporting losses and disappointing test results. A
more serious setback may be family breakdown, the illnesses or death of a family member, or being the
victim of bullying.
Overall, teens said they displayed characteristics of resilience often, but boys significantly more so than
girls. Our findings also show a strong relationship between not having a close friend and a low resilience
score.

www.theconversation.com

Suggested ideas:
Teens with at least one close friend can better cope with stress than those without.

Teenagers who have at least one close friendship are better able to bounce back from stress. This is one of
the latest findings from the Growing Up in Australia study.
Growing Up in Australia has been following the lives of around 10,000 children since 2004. In 2016, the
older children in the study were aged 16–17. We asked them about aspects of their lives including their
peers, school environment and mental health.
One aspect of teen well-being we looked at was resilience. This is the ability to bounce back from stressful
life events and to learn and grow from them.
Stressful life events may include arguments with friends, sporting losses and disappointing test results. A
more serious setback may be family breakdown, the illnesses or death of a family member, or being the
victim of bullying.
Overall, teens said they displayed characteristics of resilience often, but boys significantly more so than
girls. Our findings also show a strong relationship between not having a close friend and a low resilience
score.
Key:
Main idea
Supporting ideas

4 Reading: main idea Stage 4

 1. Lexical chains: lexical chains are a sequence of related words in writing; these are a useful way of
alerting learners to the key role that lexis has in binding a text together. Students analyse text
sample (Appendix 1) to determine repetitive vocabulary. Using this information, students create a
vocabulary mind map and subsequently, determine main idea from this vocabulary.
2. Newsflash!: Students work in small teams to synthesise ideas on one of the following questions:
What is the main idea of a text? What is the difference between a topic sentence and a main idea?
What are some challenges of finding the main idea of a text? What is the difference between literal
and inferred main ideas? Students use the ‘Newsflash’ graphic organiser (Appendix 2) to synthesise
ideas into a clear headline, a series of supporting details and a visual representation of their
combined ideas. Each team presents findings to the class.
Headline
A succinct and catchy summary sentence of the main idea

Visual Representation Supporting Details

An image that represents the main idea or Dot points
a key element of the text

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Task 2: Identifying main idea in informative texts
1. Explicit Instruction: Teacher displays informative text ‘Chooky Dancers’ and use ‘Get the Gist’
(Appendix 3) to model the GIST process to identify the main idea of a text.

Get the GIST:

Gather information about background knowledge and key vocabulary:
Colour 1: Important vocabulary to understand which is pertinent to the text
Colour 2: Unfamiliar vocabulary
Colour 3: Repeated vocabulary

Identify the topic: Use vocabulary to guide ideas and refine to a word e.g. dragonflies or a phrase
e.g. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Summarise the text by placing vocabulary into key points

Top and Tail sentences- check first and last sentences as these may reinforce main idea.
2. Students apply GIST process to identify the main idea in a range of informative, persuasive and
imaginative texts (see Appendix 5).
3. Gallery Walk: Students add their information onto a class gallery e.g. posters/google docs.
Variation: Students determine the product or mode of presentation. If support needed, use ‘Chooky
Dancers go Global’ (Appendix 3) as the stimulus after explicit instruction. Using the GIST mnemonic
and scaffold (Appendix 4) is supportive of all learners.

Task 3: Deriving a generalisation

1. Give some examples of character behaviours we might find in texts, for example, telling the truth
and handing in a lost item. How could we describe this character? We can make a generalisation
that the character is honest as they are behaving in an honourable manner. We can make
generalisations in both fiction and non-fiction texts.
2. Discuss meaning of generalisation: a broad statement that applies to many examples, for example,
most kids prefer fruit to vegetables. These generalisations need supporting evidence to be seen as
valid by the reader. Readers might want to look at generalisations as they link to the main idea and
further extend upon them. Where the generalisation might be ‘most children prefer fruit to
vegetables, the main idea might be that ‘ensuring students eat fruit and vegetables can be a
struggle’.
3. Discuss that there are often clues or signal words that might indicate a generalisation such as: all,
none, most, many, always, everyone, in general, overall, usually, sometimes, some, few and so on.
4. Students complete either a match-and-sort (support Appendix 6) or a match-and-write (core and
challenge, Appendix 7) activity to match a generalisation with its possible evidence.
5. Display a range of short text extracts around the classroom. Students use sticky notes to
summarise with dot points, find the main idea by using the GIST process, then determine a
generalisation using the signal words. Students then rotate texts and either agree or disagree with
the generalisation and add a new one if there is evidence to support it.
Discuss: are generalisations true? Can you think of a generalisation that does not apply to
everyone?

6 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Appendix 1
Student copy - lexical chains
What are lost continents, and why are we discovering so many?
For most people, continents are Earth’s seven main large landmasses.
But geoscientists have a different take on this. They look at the type of rock a feature is made of, rather than
how much of its surface is above sea level.
In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the discovery of lost continents. Most of these have been
plateaus or mountains made of continental crust hidden from our view, below sea level.
One example is Zealandia, the world’s eighth continent that extends underwater from New Zealand.
Several smaller lost continents, called microcontinents, have also recently been discovered submerged in
the eastern and western Indian Ocean.
But why, with so much geographical knowledge at our fingertips, are we still discovering lost continents in
the 21st century?

We may have found another

In August, we undertook a 28-day voyage on the research vessel RV Investigator to explore a possible lost
continent in a remote part of the Coral Sea. The area is home to a large underwater plateau off Queensland,
called the Louisiade Plateau, which represents a major gap in our knowledge of Australia’s geology.
On one hand, it could be a lost continent that broke away from Queensland about 60 million years ago. Or it
could have formed as a result of a massive volcanic eruption taking place around the same time. We’re not
sure, because nobody had recovered rocks from there before - until now.

An extremely violent eruption formed this volcanic rock we recovered.

We spent about two weeks collecting rocks from this feature, and recovered a wide variety of rock types
from parts of the seafloor as deep as 4,500m.
Most were formed through volcanic eruptions, but some show hints that continental rocks are hiding
beneath. Lab work over the next couple of years will give us more certain answers.

Down to the details

There are many mountains and plateaus below sea level scattered across the oceans, and these have been
mapped from space. They are the lighter blue areas you can see on Google Maps.
However, not all submerged features qualify as lost continents. Most are made of materials quite distinct
from what we traditionally think of as continental rock, and are instead formed by massive outpourings of
magma.

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

A good example is Iceland which, despite being roughly the size of New Zealand’s North Island, is not
considered continental in geological terms. It’s made up mainly of volcanic rocks deposited over the past 18
million years, meaning it’s relatively young in geological terms.
The only foolproof way to tell the difference between massive submarine volcanoes and lost continents is to
collect rock samples from the deep ocean.

Plenty of soft, gloopy sediment covers the bottom of the Coral Sea.
Finding the right samples is challenging, to say the least. Much of the seafloor is covered in soft, gloopy
sediment that obscures the solid rock beneath.
We use a sophisticated mapping system to search for steep slopes on the seafloor, that are more likely to
be free of sediment. We then send a metal rock-collecting bucket to grab samples.
The more we explore and sample the depths of the oceans, the more likely we’ll be to discover more lost
continents.

The ultimate lost continent

Perhaps the best known example of a lost continent is Zealandia. While the geology of New Zealand and
New Caledonia have been known for some time, it’s only recently their common heritage as part of a much
larger continent (which is 95% underwater) has been accepted.
This acceptance has been the culmination of years of painstaking research, and exploration of the geology
of deep oceans through sample collection and geophysical surveys.
New discoveries continue to be made.
During a 2011 expedition, we discovered two lost continental fragments more than 1,000km west of Perth.
The granite lying in the middle of the deep ocean there looked similar to what you would find around Cape
Leeuwin, in Western Australia.

Other lost continents

However, not all lost continents are found hidden beneath the oceans.
Some existed only in the geological past, millions to billions of years ago, and later collided with other
continents as a result of plate tectonic motions.
Their only modern-day remnants are small slivers of rock, usually squished up in mountain chains such as
the Himalayas. One example is Greater Adria, an ancient continent now embedded in the mountain ranges
across Europe.
Due to the perpetual motion of tectonic plates, it’s the fate of all continents to ultimately reconnect with
another, and form a supercontinent.
But the fascinating life and death cycle of continents is the topic of another story.
theconversation.com/au

8 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Appendix 2
Student copy: Newsflash!

Headline (a succinct and catchy version of the main idea)

Visual Representation Supporting Details

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Appendix 3
‘Get the GIST’ – worked example

Year 7 NAPLAN Reading Magazine, 2012 ACARA

10 Reading: main idea Stage 4

‘Get the GIST’ Explicit Instruction – worked example

Get the GIST

Gather information Identify the topic

background knowledge and key vocabulary: Use vocabulary to guide ideas and refine to a word
e.g. dragonflies or a phrase e.g. The assassination
Colour 1: Important vocabulary
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Colour 2: Unfamiliar vocabulary
Colour 3: Repeated vocabulary
Indigenous dance group success story
International, multicultural, outback youth success
Island, disco, uploaded, sensation story
Perform, Indigenous, dance
Festivals, cultural events, Yolngu
traditional, global
success, upbeat version

Summarise text by placing vocabulary into key Top and Tail sentences- check first and last
points sentences as these may reinforce main idea.

An indigenous dance group has found global Top: Local children enjoying dancing
success Tail:
After uploading a performance, now performing
globally
Perform upbeat versions of multicultural dances

Main Idea:
The Internet helped start the trajectory of success for a local group of Indigenous students who share
their connection and love of dance and culture across the globe.

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Student copy: ‘Get the GIST’ Student Scaffold

Get the GIST

Gather information Identify the topic

background knowledge and key vocabulary: Use vocabulary to guide ideas and refine to a word
e.g. dragonflies or a phrase e.g. The assassination
Colour 1: Important vocabulary
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Colour 2: Unfamiliar vocabulary
Colour 3: Repeated vocabulary

Summarise text by placing vocabulary into key Top and Tail sentences- check first and last
points sentences as these may reinforce main idea.

12 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Appendix 5
Text excerpts to find main idea

Year 7 NAPLAN Reading Magazine, 2014 ACARA

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Animals and earthquakes
Earthquakes are massive in their force, devastating in their impact and, despite intensive scientific research,
still largely unpredictable. If we could predict earthquakes reliably and early, we could warn people and
hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved. Many people (including some scientists) hold out hope that
predicting earthquakes will soon be achievable – not by creating sophisticates, super-sensitive equipment,
but by observing the natural behaviour of animals.
Perhaps this hope is being built on shaky ground.
There are certainly many reports of animals behaving strangely before earthquakes: dogs running away,
cats hiding, caged birds growing restless, wild birds moving their effs from their nests, hibernating snakes
waking up, zoo animals howling. These behaviours, however, are generally reported after the event. How
trustworthy are these reports?
Before massive evacuations are authorised on the basis of animal behaviour and before hundreds of
thousands of people can be convinced to move great distances at a moment’s notice, we need to be
reasonably confident of two things:
 If an earthquake is about to happen, certain animals will act strangely
 If an earthquake is not about the happen, these animals will act normally.
At the moment, we can’t be sure of either of these things. There seems to have been erratic behaviour by
snakes, birds, cows and rats before the earthquake in Haicheng, China in 1975. However, in the same
region the next year, when another earthquake caused the death of more than 200 000 people, the animals
displayed no such behaviour.
There are animals all over the world that are behaving strangely at this very moment – nervous dogs, quirky
snakes, befuddled ants – but tomorrow, after the ground has remained stubbornly still, no one will recall this
behaviour and think, ‘Strange!’ Let an earthquake happen, though, and listen for the cries of ‘Rover knew!’
and ‘Those ants are smarter than scientists!’
Continue the research into animal behaviour by all means, if only because it may show up interesting
evidence about how animals sense changes in the physical environment. But don’t start building up hopes
that will almost certainly come crashing down.
Year 7 NAPLAN Reading Magazine, 2014 ACARA

14 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Text excerpts to find main idea

Year 7 NAPLAN Reading Magazine, 2014 ACARA



© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Year 7 NAPLAN Reading Magazine, 2014 ACARA

16 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Year 7 NAPLAN Reading Magazine, 2014 ACARA

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Excerpt from Agatha Christie’s A Pocketful of Rye
Agatha Christie’s Biography

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books
have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in 100 foreign countries.
She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only
by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story
collections, 19 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affairs at Styles, was written towards
the end of the First World War, in which she served as a VAD. In it she created
Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective who was destined to become the most
popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. It was eventually published
by the Bodley Head in 1920.

In 1926, after averaging a book a year, Agatha Christie wrote her masterpiece . The
Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first of her books to be published by Collins and
marked the beginning of her author-publisher relationship which lasted for 50 years
and well over 70 books. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was also the first of Agatha
Christie’s books t be dramatized – under the name Alibi - and to have a successful
run In London’s West End. The Mousetrap, her most famous play of all, opened in
1952 and is the longest-running play in history.

Agatha Christie was made a Dame in 1971. She died in 1976, since when a number
of books have been published posthumously; the bestselling novel Sleeping Murder
appeared later that year, followed by her autobiography and the short story
collections Miss Marple’ Final Cases, problem at Pollensa Bay and While the Light
Lasts. In 1998 Black Coffee was the first of her plays to be novelised by author,
Charles Osborne.

18 Reading: main idea Stage 4

Appendix 6
Generalisations match-and-sort
Create a list of evidence you might see in a text to support the generalisation.
Generalisation Evidence in a text

Most people are honest  Telling the truth

 Returning a lost item
 Telling someone how they feel

Generally, climate change is seen as a real threat  Temperature in water increasing

to the globe.  Glaciers disappearing at a faster rate
 Change in animal hibernation patterns

Some dog breeds are dangerous  Increase in dog attacks by certain breeds
 Examples of behaviour patterns in particular
dog breeds

Most people believe that learning to ride a bike is  Balancing on a bike is simple
easy  Very young children can ride bikes
 Once you learn to ride a bike you can pick it
up again quickly

Your own:

Your own:

© NSW Department of Education, Nov-24

Appendix 7
Generalisations match-and-write
Create a list of evidence you might see in a text to support the generalisation.
Generalisation Evidence in a text Challenge: a different
generalisation

Most people are honest  Telling the truth

 Returning a lost item
 Telling someone how they
feel
Generally, climate change is seen
as a real threat to the globe.

Some dog breeds are dangerous

Most people believe that learning

to ride a bike is easy

Usually, the only way to learn

another language is to go to the
country itself.

Not everyone believes that

customer is always right

Your own:

20 Reading: main idea Stage 4