What's important and what's not? Students work in pairs and cooperative groups to explore this question by completing fishbone maps that highlight the main ideas and relevant details from a cause-effect text. This lesson includes explicit instruction on how to use repeated references as a strategy for determining important information in a text and how to generalize main ideas from related details. Modeling and guided practice prepare students to use the strategies independently. As a final exercise, students write summaries of a content area text. Sample texts, reference materials, and a student self-assessment rubric are available at the website. (author/ncl)

This lesson offers some basics in reinforcing summarization of a text by first identifying main ideas and supporting details. It would be especially beneficial for kinesthetic learners that need to see and hear the information to appropriately process. The fishbone graphic organizer could be used with texts in all career fields. It could also be used to teach the formal structure and organization of a paper, to develop an outline, or to enhance comprehension of a complex idea. The fishbone mapping strategy would be beneficial in the Law & Public Safety classes to help students define the main issue of an argument and then supply the supporting evidence to bolster it. (sec)