Find Central Idea and Summarize Information

Determine an informational text’s central idea, connect it to supporting details, and produce or recognize an objective summary.

How the lesson starts: Find Central Idea and Summarize Information

Bolt's big problem
Meet Bolt, a robot tour guide at the Museum of Wonders. Visitors read each exhibit sign for about ten seconds. So every sign needs one big idea they can grab fast. That's the central idea. Let's help Bolt find it.
One idea on top
Bolt reads the octopus text. Octopuses change color, copy rock with skin bumps, and copy the shape of fish. All of it adds up to one idea on top: octopuses use amazing disguises to hide and hunt. Notice it is not just sentence one copied.
Worked example: big or small?
Bolt tests three choices. One kind copies a striped fish? That's one cool detail, only part of the text. The ocean is full of animals? Too broad, it could top any sea sign. Octopuses use disguises to hide and hunt covers every sentence. That's the central idea.