4.9.D.i
The Standard
the central idea with supporting evidence
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read an informational text and explain the main point the author wants readers to understand. They identify facts, examples, and explanations that support that point.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students state the main point as a complete sentence, not just a topic. They select relevant facts, examples, or explanations from the text and explain how each supports that point.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may choose the topic, such as “volcanoes,” instead of stating the author’s main point about volcanoes. They may select an interesting fact that does not support that point.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short informational paragraph. Ask them to write its main point and underline two details that support their answer.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups sentence cards from one article to sort under main point, supporting detail, or unrelated detail labels.
Ask students to write one sentence explaining the author’s main message, then defend it with two facts from the text.
Play Evidence Match by having pairs connect main point cards to supporting detail cards and explain each match.
Read a school safety flyer and identify its main message and the facts used to persuade readers to follow it.
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