Determining a Main Idea

The following is an email that was forwarded to me by our school librarian, and I thought it was good enough to pass along.

This is a testing trick that worked in the area of Reading Comprehension for a young lady retaking the Reading portion of an RN entrance test.  She wanted to be more competitive; this is an area that is generally low for her.



I asked her:  "How would you Google this article?"  (The reading passage on the standardized test).  Those power words are your main idea! 




That's all I said.  She took the test yesterday morning and raised her score from a 78 to a 94.7.  That's very significant and although she was more relaxed the second time taking the test, she said that tip made it so understandable.


In the season of standardized testing, I wanted to share this with you in the hopes that others would benefit as well.




Amy Watkins
Central Middle School
Lawton High School
Lawton, OK 

"You write in a journal, too?"

This was asked to me by one of my ninth-grade students-- we were writing in our journals (a typical start-up activity).  He was nothing sort of incredulous at the fact that his teacher was participating in the same activity she assigned the class.  You could almost hear the words in  his head, "So she writes because she likes it?"

It goes to show you-- just when you think they're not watching you, they are.  And what they see will always have an impact.