Key Concept Lesson

Key Concepts

What is it?

When students are given “dense” reading material, they often become frustrated and remark, “I read it, but I don’t get it!” or “I didn’t know what was important and what wasn’t.”  For many young readers, this frustration builds and they approach difficult texts feeling defeated before they even begin.  One strategy we can use is to provide a framework for the reading by creating a focus on the key concepts.  The process involves identifying the key concepts as they read, putting those concepts in their own words and explaining why the concept is important and/or making connections to other concepts.
What does it look like?
Using this strategy requires helping students to use a number of textual clues that will help them determine the key concepts in a reading.  Some elements that will aid students in the identification of key concepts are:

• Examining the text structure for any elements that the writer/publisher may have used to indicate major divisions in the subject matter (e.g. titles, subtitles, bold headings, and supportive graphics or visuals)
• Determining which sentence in a paragraph is the topic sentence; as texts get more sophisticated, students need to recognize that frequently it may not be the first sentence in the paragraph.
• Learning to identify statements that “forecast” main ideas or key concepts that will come at some point later on in the reading.
• Recognizing that transitions may sometimes help to identify a main idea or a possible shift in the writer’s thinking.  (e.g. when compared to, or another possibility is, or in contrast, etc.)
• Examining the summary statements in the paragraphs and/or the conclusions that summarize each section of the reading may help to verify and condense the main ideas or key concepts.
• Providing models and guided practice where students have opportunities to identify and explain the above elements is crucial.  Once students can understand and recognize these elements, provide them with sections of the current text they are reading and have them practice independently as preparation for the next class.  As students become more proficient in recognizing these elements as they read, a powerful addition is to have them identify these elements in their own writing.

Key Concept Lesson and Template