![]() If you intend to use one of the Main Idea assessment resources available in the English bank and are not familiar with teaching the main idea comprehension strategy, it would be useful to read the "Teaching and learning" section of the resource prior to administering the task. The main idea then, is what the author wants readers to understand is important and valued in the text, i.e., across the whole text, not just within sections of it. To paraphrase Gerald Duffy (2003), "Charlotte's Web" is a story about a spider called Charlotte and a pig called Wilbur, but the main idea is more to do with the things that give life meaning: friendship, love, birth and death. It is also important to note that the main idea is not simply what the text is about. Readers need to explore the text at a deeper level in order to confirm or put aside any tentative thoughts about the main idea that the text introduction may prompt. Although these text features are often useful in scaffolding readers towards finding the main idea, on their own, they are not enough. ![]() are briefly considered, and linked to background knowledge, prior to reading. It is not the information obtained during the introduction to the text when the title, headings, illustrations etc. ![]() (Contains 2 figures.It may be helpful to first explain what the main idea is not. Thus, the online discussion boards furnished an alternative for PSTs who may have been uncomfortable articulating their ideas during in-class discussions to still express the sense they were making of the mathematics. The course was structured such that the twenty-six female PSTs could earn participation points for engaging in in-class discussions or contributing to online discussions. The mathematical goal for the unit was to help the PSTs realize that the perimeter and area of different polygons are not always directly related. This article describes mathematical discourse that occurred over a two-week period during face-to-face class meetings and on an asynchronous, online discussion board (using Blackboard) and a teacher educator's efforts to listen and be responsive to preservice teachers' (PSTs) ideas about mathematics. Nevertheless, a teacher's ability to listen effectively and respond appropriately to students' thinking has been shown to play a critical role in effective mathematics instruction. Thus, engaging students in meaningful mathematical discourse can be rather daunting because it requires teachers to make careful pedagogical choices and spontaneous decisions in the midst of the instructional process and when students' ideas are considered, it can be difficult to predict and manage the direction of instruction. Teachers' follow-up moves, such as evaluating, rebroadcasting, acknowledging, or making a related statement or question, will shape "the nature and flow of classroom discussions and the cognitive opportunities afforded to students". However, merely getting students to talk in math class is not enough to assure that learning will occur once teachers get students to express their ideas, they must decide what to do with those ideas. Standards documents, such as the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics", expect teachers to foster mathematics learning by engaging students in meaningful mathematical discourse to expose students to different ways of thinking about and solving problems and positively influence their problem-solving abilities, reasoning skills, and thinking processes.
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