Martin Luther King Day 2nd Grade Nonfiction Text RI.2.2 Main Topic & Key Details

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an important holiday with many meaningful lessons for elementary students. Teach your students valuable, life-long lessons with these useful reading, writing, and vocabulary activities. This MLK Day Nonfiction Text RI.2.2 main topic & key details Lesson for 2nd grade has just what you need. Learn all about identifying the main topic and supporting details while also reading about Martin Luther King Jr.. Help students appreciate diversity and learn about standing up for justice and equality as they move into the new year. Whether you are studying Black History Month or Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights movement or the fight for fairness for all people Martin Luther King Jr. is an important historical figure to study and learn about.

Cover important standards with this festive resource all about Martin Luther King Jr.. From the birth, early life, and education of Martin Luther King Jr. to his leadership role during the Civil Rights Movement, from his Nobel Prize and the passing of the Civil Rights Act to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and his assassination learn all about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact on history.

With three different text levels about Martin Luther King Jr., this lesson is accessible for multiple students. Practice sorting key details from minor details. Read paragraphs and find the topic of the paragraph. Record the main topic on a MLK-themed main topic paper. And more!

This printable resource has 22 Unique pages and 102 total pages.

Documents are available in full color, ink-saving color, black and white, and ink-saving black and white

Answer sheets are available where applicable

A Lesson Plan is provided

TELL ME MORE

Introduce the topics with two posters. One decorative poster is the cover for the unit. This poster includes the subject for the unit Martin Luther King Jr. with a cute Martin Luther King Jr.-themed illustration. There is another poster that introduces the main vocabulary for the unit Civil Rights. This poster also includes a definition of the word Civil Rights. This poster is available in a smaller version if you want to save ink. You can use this poster to help you introduce the subject.

The nonfiction text about A Hero for Equality: Martin Luther King Jr. is available in high, mid, and low versions. The text content is the same but the words and sentence structures are different from text to text. Each text has introductions, main body paragraphs, and conclusions. The same vocabulary words are used throughout the texts.

Speaking of vocabulary, there are 16 vocabulary cards. Eight vocabulary words and eight definitions with photos. The words are: civil rights, boycott, equality, Jim Crow, illegal, arrested, protest, and segregation. These words are used frequently throughout all the resources to make sure kids get lots of practice with them. Play a game such as Pictionary or charades with the cards or reinforce understanding. There is also a vocabulary drawing paper included to help kids visualize the word meanings. Students will choose tricky words and help to visualize the meaning by drawing a picture to help them remember. An additional paper with sentences using the vocabulary words is also included. Students will practice reading the vocabulary words in the sentences. There is also a paper where students can practice filling in the correct vocabulary words to complete a sentence. A word box of the vocabulary words is provided.

What learning goals are addressed in the resources?

RI.2.2 Identify the main topic of the multi-paragraph text about Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.

This resource includes a MLK-themed lesson plan for RI.2.2 Identify the main topic of the multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text. This lesson plan explains how to use all the resources in this lesson. You can, of course, pick and choose which parts of the lesson you want to follow. If you have taught a previous version of this lesson using one of my other resources, you will find this layout to be similar.

Introduce RI.2.2 Main Topic & Key Details with three definition cards: Main Topic, Key Detail, and Minor Detail. These cards have MLK-themed examples and cute backgrounds. Each card comes in a large version but there is also a one-page printable version that has all three cards on it. You can therefore use these cards as posters to hang in the room as a reminder during the lesson. Or you can hand out the small cards to kids to use in groups or individually.

Once kids know the main topic, key details, and minor details, it’s time to practice. This resource has a worksheet for students to practice sorting minor details from major details. This sort includes details from the main text about Martin Luther King Jr. but sometimes adds details as well. An answer sheet is provided. Because it can be somewhat subjective, I allow kids to explain why they think something is a key detail if they vary from what I thought the answer should be. The important thing is that they understand the core of the concept. It’s not a huge deal if there’s one detail they think could be sorted differently.

Before we are able to understand the whole text, it’s important we know what a paragraph is about. Next, there is a worksheet where students can work with identifying the topic of different paragraphs. These paragraphs are mostly from the main text about MLK. They may be reworded slightly to make the topic more obvious. Again there is an answer sheet provided but the answers may vary slightly since this is an open-ended worksheet where they write their own answers.

Now they are ready to read the main text and identify the topic. They can use the adorable MLK-themed recording sheet to write the main topic and key details for the main text. This recording sheet has space to write the main topic as well as three key details. I tell students that there may be more than three key details, but we only need to record three of the most important. I find that giving them too many details to write often leads to them writing down minor details. I have a student who loves to write details and he often records more than one per box which is also okay. The reason I chose three is because this follows the typical structure of a short text with an introduction, three main body paragraphs [3 key details], and a conclusion.

Early finishers have a MLK-themed coloring page with a short writing prompt as well. There are three different main topic exit tickets for a quick assessment of student understanding.

Documents are available in full color, ink-saving color, black and white, and ink-saving black and white

Answer sheets are available where applicable

A Lesson Plan is provided

WHAT'S INSIDE?

This Printable Resource includes:

• 1 MLK-Themed Unit Cover Poster

• Main Topic Lesson Plan for RI.2.2

• 1 Large MLK-Themed Poster

• 1 MLK-themed Nonfiction Reading Text about A Hero for Equality: Martin Luther King Jr. [on 3 reading levels high, mid, low]

• 16 Vocabulary Cards [8 word cards, 8 definition cards] *Some resources have more vocabulary than others

• 1 Vocabulary Visualization Paper for Martin Luther King Jr.

• 1 Read the Vocabulary Word Paper for Martin Luther King Jr.

• 1 Fill in the Vocabulary Word Paper for Martin Luther King Jr.

• 3 Definition Cards [Main Topic, Key Detail, Minor Detail]

• MLK-themed Key Details/ Minor Details Sort

• MLK-themed Identify the Topic of Paragraphs Worksheet

• MLK-themed Main Topic and Key Details Recording Paper

• Early Finisher MLK-themed Coloring Page Writing Prompt

• 3 MLK-themed main topic Exit Tickets

This printable resource has 22 Unique pages and 102 total pages.

Documents are available in full color, ink-saving color, black and white, and ink-saving black and white

Answer sheets are available where applicable

A Lesson Plan is provided

The Text level can be compared with: 2nd grade, age 7-8, lexis 810, AR 2.5, DRA 28, Fountas & Pinnell L, reading recover 20, PM readers 22 gold

This unit was originally made for 2nd grade but can be used with many elementary grades and possibly even an advanced preschooler.

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