Determining and expressing the Central Idea by writing a WHO+WHAT+WHY sentence.
If I sent you home to read something – a short story, a newspaper article, a chapter in your history book, a biography of an author – anything that’s short enough to read in one sitting, I could assess whether you got it or not by asking one question – “What was the reading about?”
Really, what I am asking is “What’s the central idea of the story/article?”
Central idea means “main idea of a whole reading.”
Students Type #1 – Student didn’t comprehend the reading.
There will be some kids that didn’t get the reading: either they tried and it was too hard for them at the time, or (more likely) they just didn’t read it. These two groups tend to give the same answer. They look at the title and the first couple paragraphs, and they say “It’s about this girl and her grandma . . .”
These kids know the “Who,” but nothing else. They have 33% of what they need, which is a failure.
Student Type #2 – Student did comprehend the reading, but missed the bigger point.
This kid read the thing and comprehended the basics of it. They answer with something like, “It’s about this crazy guy who decides to kill his landlord because he has a creepy eye and kills him and then ends up confessing because he hallucinates the dead guy’s heart when the police are there.
These kids know the “Who” and the “What.” They have 66% of what they need, which is enough to pass, but not to get an A.
Student Type #3 – Student both understood the reading and why they were given the reading.
This kid both can read and gets their job, which is to figure out why the teacher gave them the reading. This is either a lesson (usually in stories, both fiction and nonfiction stories) or a reason to care about the topic, why it’s important. They say something like, “It’s about this girl that helps saves an immortal family from exposure and then decides whether to drink the immortal water herself, which really kind of made me think about how death is a necessary part of life and how living forever changes the way you look at the world.”
These kids get A’s because they make they get both the details and the big picture. They make the teacher’s job easier. Teachers can be pretty bad sometimes at explaining things.
Knowing how to express the central idea of a reading, then, is extremely valuable. Teachers build multiple-choice reading tests around the main idea. It’s really the only thing that you have to know to say that you “got” something.
We’ll call our one-sentence central idea a “Who-What-Why” sentence.
A “Who-What-Why” sentence is a convenient, one-sentence tool to determine and express the central idea of a reading.
Why it’s good – It works for short stories, essays, and informational passages. Anything short enough to read in one sitting. Novels and movies are too long, and it doesn’t work as well.
How does it work? You create one sentence that expresses the idea of the reading by answering three questions –
Who is this about? (Main character/Topic)
What did they do? (Plot/What you need to know about the topic)
Why is it important? (Theme/Why this topic affects the world)
Examples from Class Readings
Text | Who? | What? | Why? |
Fiction “Ribbons” | Character (girl) | learns to get along with and appreciate her Grandmother | people need to learn about each other’s perspective to get along |
Article “Google Cars Drive Themselves, In Traffic” | Google engineers and other company employees | have built and are testing cars that can drive themselves | these new cars might make driving safer, more environmental, and less stressful. |
Essay “Enough Bookshelves” | Anna Quindlen | Cares a lot about reading, both her own and her family’s | reading can be a great way to explore the world and connect to other people that you would like. |
Nonfiction Narrative “Jackie Robinson” | Jackie Robinson | played for the Dodgers as the first African-American major leaguer, changing baseball and American society | Everything important that you can accomplish in this world requires risk, sacrifice, and effort. |
Convert it to Sentence Form
Then you take the information and simply write it in a sentence.
Story – In “Ribbons,” the narrator meets her grandmother and they gradually learn to understand each other, which shows that you need to understand a person’s perspective before you judge them.
Article – In “Google Cars Drive Themselves,” engineers at Google are building and testing self-driving cars in California, which may make driving safer and less environmentally damaging.
Essay – In “Enough Bookshelves,” Anna Quindlen talks about how important reading is to her and her family, showing how books can enrich your life and bring people closer.
Nonfiction Narrative – In “Jackie Robinson,” the Dodgers Hall of Fame infielder overcomes the racism of America, baseball, and his own teammates, and shows that doing something important is always difficult and requires character and courage.