What it is. Notes show what belongs to what by moving further right.
Why our test works. Indentation is meaning, not decoration, and children indent by appearance — they make it look tidy. Asking whether it is PART OF the line above forces the logical question the layout is supposed to answer.
Leans on. Lesson 4's page setup.
Watch for. If everything is a main idea, nothing is. Force a choice: only one line at the margin.
Take two-level notes: a main idea with details indented under it. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher reads a short passage and writes the main idea at the margin, then indents two det The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher reads a short passage and writes the main idea at the margin, then indents two details beneath it, saying why each is a detail and not the main idea. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class hears a second short passage and decides together what the main idea is before any detail is written. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Take two-level notes on a short passage: one main idea, two details indented.
You close on the exit direction — Read out your main idea only. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Main idea on the line, details indented under it.
If everything is a main idea, nothing is. Force a choice: only one line at the margin.