Objectives

The student will discriminate between essential and nonessential information by using one standard method to outline main ideas and their supporting details.

Materials

Chalk & Board. A Chapter Outline from a textbook.

Initiation

"Outlining is an effective tool for organizing reading and writing materials and for taking notes during lectures." Put statement on board and ask how many students have used it for 1. reading 2. writing 3. taking notes. Discuss what outlining method they use and how it can help them in their studies.

Presentation

1. Give students a half-completed outline of a chapter from their textbook or teacher-made outline of an article on an interesting topic. 2. Discuss what the Roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numbers and lower case letters represent.

Roman numerals	I, II, III	Main Ideas
Upper case letters	A, B, C	Major Details
Arabic numbers	1,2,3	Minor Details
Lower case letters	a, b, c	Minor, minor details

3. Model by reading the material under a heading, then going back to outline the material. Explain the importance of reading before outlining so outline has only essential information. 4. Have students help teacher complete outline of material under next heading. First read, then go back and outline, then move on to material under next heading.

Application

Practice outlining skill with reading material, taking notes during lectures and for organizing ideas after brainstorming and before doing the writing.

Conclusion

Talk about how textbooks and many people organize their information but that others just use dots in the place of the letters and numbers. Most people use whatever method is easiest for them.

Evaluation

Student can do an outline that has an accurate representation of main ideas and supporting details.