Outlining Practice: The Rush Hour Puzzle

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Study Skills and Advisory · Study Hall / Advisory / SEL
SP-STUDY-003 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 2
Outlining Practice: The Rush Hour Puzzle
Study Skills and Advisory · Study Hall / Advisory / SEL · Grades 9-12 · 50 minutes
Time needed
50 minutes (one class period)
Prep
Copy the 2-page worksheet (one per student). Write a sample outline frame on the board.
Technology
None.
Student
independence
High. Students work alone.
Copies to make
One 2-page worksheet per student
Materials
Pencils, Worksheet, Whiteboard or chalkboard
Goal for today: Students will identify main ideas and supporting details in a reading and organize them into a
Roman-numeral outline.
Before the bell
☐ Copy the worksheet, one per student (2 pages).
☐ Write on the board: I. Main idea A. Detail B. Detail C. Detail II. Main idea A. Detail ... (this is the outline
pattern).
☐ Keep the answer key on your desk.
Say this to start
Good morning! Today is practice with outlines. An outline is a map of a reading. The Roman numerals (I, II, III) hold the
big ideas, and the capital letters (A, B, C) hold the details under them. You will read a passage, finish an outline for it,
and then build a small outline of your own. Work quietly and on your own.
Run of show
Minutes
What you do
What students do
0–5
Take attendance the way the school requires. Hand out the
worksheet.
Settle in and take out a pencil.
5–10
Point to the pattern on the board. Say: “Each big idea gets
a Roman numeral. Each detail that supports it gets a letter
underneath.”
Listen and copy the pattern if they like.
10–18
Tell students to read “The Rush Hour Puzzle” silently.
Suggest they underline the first sentence of each
paragraph.
Read and underline the main idea of each
paragraph.
18–32
Tell students to complete the outline in questions 1
through 9, using words from the passage.
Fill each blank with the word that
completes the detail.
32–42
Tell students to answer questions 10 and 11, then read the
practice paragraph and complete question 12.
Answer the questions and write a short
outline of their own.
42–50
Read the answers to questions 1 through 9 aloud from the
key. Students check their own work. Collect all worksheets.
Check answers and hand in the worksheet.

SubstitutePlans.com
Study Skills and Advisory · Study Hall / Advisory / SEL
SP-STUDY-003 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 3
If things go wrong
• If students ask how to tell a main idea from a detail, say: “A main idea is the big point of a paragraph. A detail
is a fact or example that supports it.”
• If students cannot find a word, tell them to look in the paragraph named in the outline heading.
• If students finish early, tell them to use the early finisher task.
• If a student writes a different word that still fits, accept it if it matches the passage.
Early finishers
• Write a short paragraph with three supporting details about a topic you know well. Trade it with a partner,
who outlines it.
• Add a fourth detail to one of the outline sections that is not in the passage but fits the idea.
Support and challenge
• Support: Tell students to fill in only the blanks in sections I and II, then continue if they have time.
• Challenge: Ask students to write a one-sentence summary of the passage that uses all three Roman-numeral
headings.
Notes for the teacher (you fill this in)
Jot a few lines before you leave. A full Daily Sub Report is in the free Sub Survival Kit at SubstitutePlans.com.
How far the class got / what to pick up next:
Students who were especially helpful:
Anything the teacher should know: