29.2. "Best Practices for Raising Kids? Look to Hunter-Gatherers," by Jared Diamond, RI2.

What Are We Practicing Today?

We're practicing reading a passage and identifying the central idea. This will help us answer multiple choice questions on the passage. (RI2)

We also wish to think about how a writer, when composing an information article or an essay, will place reasons or examples into categories to help us understand their point better. Sometimes, the author will use subheading to break the piece into smaller pieces, sometimes not.

Things That You Can Keep in Mind to Make Your Work Easier and Better

1. The central idea is our way of saying "the main idea of the whole thing." They mean the exact same thing; I just like "central idea" better because it is shorter (I'm lazy and don't want to write) and clearer (I'm lazy and don't want to explain).
2. The central idea for any reading in our class -- short story, informational article, nonfiction narrative, or essay -- takes the same form, WHO+WHAT+WHY.
3. WHO is the main character or main topic (the WHO can mean "the subject," like, "Andersonville prison camp" or "the Titanic."
4. WHAT is what they are doing or what is being done to them.
5. WHY is why a smart English person would care -- for stories, it's the theme, for nonfiction, it's the answer to, "Why does knowing this make you smarter/more successful?"

The Text

This article, "Best Practices for Raising Kids? Look to Hunter-Gatherers," is by the excellent writer Jared Diamond who wrote Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. His new book, The World Before Yesterday, is probably also really interesting and great, and I think that you should buy (or borrow it from a library and read it).