Objective - Students will identify the main idea and supporting details in a story

Summary - Ahoy maties!  Pirate stories are sure to capture the imagination of your children as you read aloud from those in your classroom library!  Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail and Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy are just two of the many I use to help reinforce a difficult concept...finding the main idea and supporting details.  We begin by creating a category, such as "Pirate Stuff"  and then make a class list of all that we see in the illustrations and hear from the reading that identifies "pirate stuff" (ex.:  parrot, map, peg leg).  From there we use our list to help write a class sentence that we call the main idea from the category name and then three or four sentences which are the supporting details are created from the list of items.  I follow up with a 100 piece pirate puzzle at a learning station.  On a butcher block paper, the kids create a "pirate stuff" list from what they see in the puzzle.  One puzzle piece put in place and the child can add another item to the list. 

Implementation - Pirate stories are loved by my kids so they listen carefully and contribute to the list activity enthusiastically!  I am the writer, recording their responses and later lead the discussion about the wording for the sentences that we will record on chart paper as the main idea and supporting details.  The kids then record in their journals and illustrate.  This can work well with other groups of books from your class library (cowboy-themed for instance). 

Objective - Students will demonstrate mastery of reading skills through completing periodic book reports

Summary - Every three weeks, students will complete a book report on a novel of their choice.  For sixth grade, these novels need to be at least 130 pages in length.  The book report is a form on which students detail information about their book, including the title, author, genre, conflict, theme, characters, a plot synopsis, and their opinion of the the book.  A parent signature will also be required on each completed form.

Implementation - Most of my students have done very well completing these projects.  A few have been problematic about turning them in late or not at all, but this has been changing as they see how this affects their grade average.  Three weeks does seem sufficient time for reading.  The students enjoy getting to choose their own novel, and seem to feel a sense of accomplishment at mastering the many literary terms.