Read
Read the entire paragraph to get an idea of what the paragraph is
about. You may find it helpful to whisper the words as you read or to form a
picture in your mind of what you are reading. Once you have a general idea
of what the paragraph is about, go on to the next step.
Examine
Examine each sentence in the paragraph to identify the important words that
tell what the sentence is about. Ignore the words that are not needed to
tell what the sentence is about. If you are allowed to, draw a line through
the words to be ignored. For each sentence, write on a sheet of paper the
words that tell what the sentence is about.
Decide
Reread the words you wrote for each sentence in the paragraph. Decide which
sentence contains the words you wrote that best describe the main idea of
the paragraph. These words are the main idea of the paragraph. The sentence
that contains these words is the topic sentence. The other words you wrote
are the supporting details for the main idea.
Write
Write the main idea for each paragraph in your notebook. This will provide
you with a written record of the most important ideas you learned. This
written record will be helpful if you have to take a test that covers the
reading assignment.
Use REDW to help you understand the
information in your reading assignments.