Identify supporting details in literary texts
Key notes:
Understanding Supporting Details
- Definition: Supporting details are facts, examples, and descriptions that clarify, explain, or enhance the main idea or theme of a literary text.
- Purpose: They provide evidence that strengthens the main idea, making it more convincing and relatable.
Types of Supporting Details
- Examples: Specific instances from the text that illustrate a point. For example, a character’s actions can support a theme of bravery.
- Descriptions: Vivid language that helps readers visualize scenes, characters, or emotions.
- Quotations: Direct excerpts from the text that reinforce the author’s message or themes.
- Statistics/Facts: In non-fiction literary texts, numerical data or factual information can serve as supporting details.
Identifying Supporting Details
- Look for Clues: Identify keywords or phrases that signal important information, such as “for example,” “such as,” or “this shows.”
- Ask Questions: Consider how the detail relates to the main idea. Questions like “How does this detail support the theme?” can be helpful.
- Summarize the Main Idea: Determine the main idea of the text first, then find details that clarify or enhance that idea.
- Take Notes: While reading, jot down details that stand out as particularly relevant to the main theme or argument.
Analyzing Supporting Details
- Connection to Theme: Discuss how each detail contributes to the understanding of the text’s central themes or messages.
- Character Development: Examine how details reveal character traits or growth throughout the story.
- Plot Advancement: Analyze how supporting details help to move the plot forward or create tension.
let’s practice!
Select the best evidence to support the statement that Jess regularly runs barefoot.
His dad had the pickup going. He could get up now. Jess slid out of bed and into his overalls. He didn’t worry about a shirt because once he began running he would be hot as popping grease even if the morning air was chill, or shoes because the bottoms of his feet were by now as tough as his worn-out sneakers. ‘Where you going, Jess?’ May Belle lifted herself up sleepily from the double bed where she and Joyce Ann slept.
From Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia. Copyright 1977 by Katherine Paterson
Results
#1. Select the best evidence to support the statement that Jess regularly runs barefoot.
This passage is about a young boy, Carter, replacing a lamp on a ship’s mast. Select the best evidence to support the statement that Carter enjoys the task of replacing the lamp.
As soon as he’d pocketed the old lamp in his rain slicker, he pulled out the new one and fitted it into the fixture, making sure not to let go before he’d tightened it down. Carter had changed plenty of lightbulbs before, but never like this. If anything, it was all too easy and over too fast.
When he was done, he unwound his safety line and gave a hand signal to Dex’s first mate, Joe Kahali, down below. Joe put both hands on the winch at the base of the mast and started cranking Carter back down the deck.
From Jeff Probst, Stranded. Copyright 2013 by Jeff Probst
Results
#1. This passage is about a young boy, Carter, replacing a lamp on a ship's mast. Select the best evidence to support the statement that Carter enjoys the task of replacing the lamp.
Select the best evidence to support the statement that the narrator is upset by her sister’s crush on a boy.
I turned back around, resumed reading, and made my way to the front porch, where I sunk into a chair and promptly got lost in the stampeding passion of the two on the English moors. I liked love safe between the covers of my novel, not in my sister’s heart, where it made her ignore me for months on end. Every so often though, I’d look up at her posing on a rock by the trailhead across the road, so obviously feigning reading her book that I couldn’t believe she was an actress.
From Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere. Copyright 2010 by Jandy Nelson
Results
#1. Select the best evidence to support the statement that the narrator is upset by her sister's crush on a boy.
Select the best evidence to support the statement that Jeth and other characters are very thin.
Exhaling, Jeth lowered his gaze again. Movement across the way drew his attention to the door, and he saw Lizzie’s yellow-haired cat stride into the common room, his bushy tail held high like a golden banner. In ironic contrast to the rest of them, Jeth realized how fat Viggo was looking these days, his belly a hairy satchel drooping between his legs.
Shaking his head, Jeth returned his focus to Sierra and Milton. ‘If Saar is so great, then how come I got away?’
From Mindee Arnett, Polaris. Copyright 2015 by Mindee Arnett
Results
#1. Select the best evidence to support the statement that Jeth and other characters are very thin.
Select the best evidence to support the statement that the narrator has heard lots of frightening rumours about one of her neighbours.
We lived on the main residential street in town—Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook.. . .
When I was almost six and Jem was nearly ten, our summertime boundaries (within calling distance of Calpurnia) were Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose’s house two doors to the north of us, and the Radley Place three doors to the south. We were never tempted to break them. The Radley place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end.
From Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. Copyright 1960 by Harper Lee