1. HOW DO YOU
DETERMINE
WHAT IS IMPORTANT?

2. A Typical Student’s “To Do” List
• Daily homework
• Big project worth mega points
• Major sports event
• Junior Prom attire shopping
• Facebook time
• Gaming or TV time
• Reading a book for fun
• Going to the latest, hottest movie

3. Prioritize: Ask Yourself …
• What is due NOW and what can wait a
few days?
• How can I break a big project up into
more manageable steps?
• What will make the biggest difference in
my success as a student?
• Deal with the BIG things first!

4. When Listening to a Lecture, Pay
Attention to Words like…
• This is going to be on the test…
• Make sure to write this down…
• Highlight this in your notes…
• This is a good place
to put a sticky note…

5. HOW DO YOU
DETERMINE
WHAT IS IMPORTANT
WHEN READING?

6. Distill the Main Ideas and Important
Thinking from Details

8. Sift and Sort Information
• Facts
• Interesting details
• Information that supports bigger ideas
• Merge thinking with text

10. Two Types of Main Ideas
Explicit Main Idea: obviously stated in the
passage, usually in the first paragraph
Implicit/Inferred Main Idea:
connecting relevant information to come up
with the most significant points/author’s
purpose

11. MODEL
Alligators are dangerous animals! They are cute
when they are small, and some people have tried
to make them pets. As they grow older, the
alligators grow very sharp teeth and gain lots of
strength. They are not friendly animals, and do not
enjoy human company. It is uncommon, but
alligators will attack humans. If you see an
alligator, by all means, stay away from this
dangerous animal!
EXPLICIT MAIN IDEA: obviously stated in the
passage, usually in the first paragraph

12. Using the same paragraph about
alligators, determine which choice
below would be the
implicit/inferred main idea?
a. Alligators have sharp teeth.
b. Alligators will attack humans.
c. Alligators do not make good pets.

13. Implicit/Inferred Main Idea:
Connecting relevant information to come up
with the most significant points/author’s
purpose

14. GUIDED PRACTICE
Barack Obama Biography
Barack Hussein Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His
father, Barack Obama, Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. He
grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.
Although reared among Muslims, Obama, Sr., became an atheist at some point.
Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Her father
worked on oil rigs during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
he signed up for service in World War II and marched across Europe in Patton’s
army. Dunham’s mother went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they
studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and
moved to Hawaii.
Meantime, Barck’s father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave
Kenya (to) pursue his dreams in Hawaii. At the time of his birth, Obama’s parents
were students at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced.
Obama’s father went to Harvard to pursue Ph.D. studies and then returned to Kenya.
Four years later when Barack (commonly known throughout his early years
as “Barry”) was ten, he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents,
Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and later his mother (who died of ovarian cancer in
1995).
In his memoir, Obama described how he struggled to reconcile social
perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He saw his biological father (who died in a
1982 car accident) only once (in 1971) after his parents divorced.www.biography.com

15. Important Points
• Father was Kenyan; pursued a Ph.D. in USA
• Mother was American from Wichita, KS

16. Important Points
• Father was Kenyan; pursued a Ph.D. in USA
• Mother was American from Wichita, KS
• Parents and grandparents were very
interested in education
• At age 10, Obama went to live with maternal
grandparents in Hawaii; mother lived with
Barack and grandparents until her death in
1995
• Parents divorced and Obama only saw father
once following that

17. Main Idea
This is a biographical piece that gives
information about…

18. Main Idea
This is a biographical piece that gives
information about the Barack Obama’s
multiracial background and a changing
family structure.

19. Independent Practice
Determine what is important to come up with
the main idea of the following passage

20. Imagine thick clouds of black smoke and hot,
blistering flames rushing toward you. Now imagine
forest land so rugged that firefighters can’t reach it
on foot. Enter the smoke jumpers – firefighters
who parachute out of airplanes into forest fires.
“Jumping into a fire is, of course, very appealing.
It would be to anybody, right?” says Jody Stone in
Smokejumper Magazine. Ms. Stone is one of only
27 women smokejumpers in the United States.
Until 1981, women left this dangerous job to men.
This may seem like a wise decision to some, but
not to Leslie Anderson. Ms. Anderson was one of
the early women smokejumpers. She says she
loved the adventure and challenge of fighting fire
from the sky.

21. Important Points
• Smokejumpers parachute into forest fires
• There are some women smokejumpers
• They like the adventure and the challenge

22. Connect the Relevant Points
“Smokejumping is a dangerous job, and
some women like it.”
“Women smokejumpers risk their lives but
enjoy the challenge.”