First Find the Topic

1
First Find the Topic

• Topics are what reading
• passages are about.

2
What is a topic?

• The topic is the something or the someone
  that an author writes about.
• It is simply who or what the author is writing
  about.
• The topic is always a word, a phrase, or a name.

Is the dog asking what the topic of life is?
3
How do you find it?

• Ask yourself, Who or what is the paragraph
  about?
• Use the title, headings, first sentence, and
  graphics to help you.
• Be precise.

Finding the topic is the key to the main idea.
4
What are the topic clues?

• 1. Look for a heading or title.
• 2. Look for words in special print, such as
  bold, italics, or coloror some combination, such
  as bold italics.
• 3. Look for repeated words in a paragraph.

What are the parrots talking about?
5
Can you find the topic?

• Most New Orleans residents say they still face
  serious problems in finding housing, arranging
  home repairs, obtaining medical care and getting
  such basic city services as garbage pickup. But
  six months after Hurricane Katrina, three of four
  of those now in the city say they're optimistic
  about its future.

6
Its the positive attitude of New Orleans
residents!

• Most New Orleans residents say they still face
  serious problems in finding housing, arranging
  home repairs, obtaining medical care and getting
  such basic city services as garbage pickup. But
  six months after Hurricane Katrina, three of four
  of those now in the city say they're optimistic
  about its future.

7
Can you find the topic?

• Republican governors are openly worrying that the
  Bush administration's latest stumbles from the
  natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina to those of
  its own making on prescription drugs and ports
  security are taking an election-year toll on
  the party back home.

8
Its Republican governors worries about Bush.

• Republican governors are openly worrying that the
  Bush administration's latest stumbles from the
  natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina to those of
  its own making on prescription drugs and ports
  security are taking an election-year toll on
  the party back home.

9
Can you find the topic?

• Suspected Maoist militants triggered an explosion
  near a truck jammed with passengers Tuesday in
  central India, killing at least 20 people and
  injuring 30, police said. The blast occurred near
  the town of Darphaguda in rural Chattisgarh
  state.

10
Its about a terrorist explosion in India.

• Suspected Maoist militants triggered an explosion
  near a truck jammed with passengers Tuesday in
  central India, killing at least 20 people and
  injuring 30, police said. The blast occurred near
  the town of Darphaguda in rural Chattisgarh
  state.

11
How do you find a topic?

• The topic is the something or the someone
  that an author writes about.
• You find it by asking yourself who or what the
  author is writing about.
• The topic is always a noun phrase repeated in the
  passage.

What topic is the dog slow to learn about?
12
Can you use the academic vocabulary?

• Words to use final, conclusion, similar,
  definition, and area.
• The last exam is called the __ one.
• Are you __ to your parents or different?
• In what zone or __ do you like to work?
• How do you explain it? What is your __?
• In the end, the __ favored our team.

Look for these words on the next quiz.