Keys in Burlington

Grade 1
Francis Wyman
Mrs. Clancy
Reading Specialist

I had the pleasure of going into Mrs. Ski’s first grade reading room to do a Keys to Literacy lesson with her readers. The lessons purpose was to introduce the readers to main idea skills. Categorizing is the most basic application of main idea skills and is where I decided to focus.

I began my lesson by reading the book, My Backpack, by Eve Bunting to the class. This fun, rhyming book tells the story of a boy who receives a backpack from his grandmother. The boy puts all kinds of goods into his new bag!



Next, I showed the students ‘my backpack’. One at a time, students pulled out items from the bag. We looked at all the items in the bag including keys, a book, an apple, a phone, a pen, a juice box, a baseball, a hat, and more! I began doing a think aloud. I told the students how I thought some of my items went together. I spoke about how an apple and a cookie have something in common; they are both something we eat. Students were asked to help sort the items. They did well! It fact, the students did so well that I asked them to generate the main idea of each group sorted. Again, they were amazing learners! We had a lot of smart conversations about how items were similar. It was exciting to listen to the students express their ideas. Students were ultimately asked to label the sort with the labels that I had prepared.








Students independently did a short assignment; they were asked to sort items that belong in a backpack and items that belong in a lunchbox! The first grade readers were super star sorters and are on their way to learning main idea skills!