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The Best Main Idea
What is the main idea? Interest your young readers with this fun introductory lesson! After selecting several items from a paper bag, the teacher leads learners to determine the big idea for those items. This concept is then applied to...
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Reintroduce: Main Idea
What would a main idea be without important details? Readers use a graphic organizer to record key details from an informational text (a fiction text would also work). Review main idea as a concept before beginning, asking scholars to...
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Introduce: Main Idea
Begin exploring main idea in a text by telling the class an interesting story. Can they recall the main idea after you finish? What clues told them this was it? Explain that you will apply this concept as you read a nonfiction book....
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Guided Reading: Main Idea
Readers are presented with a list of three questions and asked to actively listen to a story or article to answer them. They verbally answer the questions to learn the strategy. Next, read a story to them or have them silently read a...
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Using a Title to Determine Main Idea (Nonfiction)
Young readers explore a nonfiction text for its main idea. They will listen to the book Animal Sight by Kirsten Hall, and then observe as the teacher models a main idea think-aloud. Later, for independent practice, they listen to the...
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Build Mastery: Main Idea
Use a graphic organizer to get readers thinking about main ideas as they record the who, what, where, when, and why of a story. Consider modeling this process completely before kids do this independently. They fill in five boxes charting...
For the Teachers
Main Idea Outline
Find the main idea in an informational text with a versatile lesson. Three levels of differentiation help you implement the strategy in any age or class level, based on the ability and objectives of your learners.
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Lesson 1:Using Headings to Determine the Main Idea (nonfiction)
Sometimes all you need is a good heading to determine the main idea in a block of text. Young readers learn how to use headings to guild them to determining the main idea. They practice as a class, in pairs, and then on their own. The...
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Finding Main Ideas
Elementary schoolers read paragraphs one at a time in order to pick out the main ideas. They choose which sentences are most important in a paragraph. This type of exercise prepares learners to identify the main idea in longer narratives.
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Using Pictures to Support the Main Idea
Second graders practice using photos to support the main idea. For this reading comprehension lesson, 2nd graders read and explore the photos in the book, Amazing Tigers! Students examine the photos to identify and support the main idea....
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A Better Class of Journal-ists
Young academics create a current events journal by skimming newspapers for articles that fit defined guidelines for informational texts. After cutting out two articles each week to add to their journals, they write a brief description of...
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Topic Sentence
Students write a topic sentence to a paragraph and explain that it introduces the main idea. After a whole-class demonstration, students write a complete paragraph with their topic sentence and supporting sentences. There are some...
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Using Chapter Titles to Determine the Main Idea
Second graders listen to the passage titled Pumpkin Picking and identify the main idea based on the title. In this main idea lesson plan, 2nd graders discuss how the title of a book or chapter sets the tone for the reading.
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Story Elements that Support the Theme
Three great graphic organizers guide readers to see how the elements of plot and main idea can be charted to reveal the theme of a story. Model the process on the provided Direct Teaching Teacher Graphic Organizer using Aesop’s The...
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Determining Ideas and Adding Details
A handy TFDC (topic/fact/detail/conclusion) graphic organizer (included) allows young writers to outline and record their main ideas and supporting details in the prewriting phase. They then continue to add details to the topic sentences...
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Main Idea
Students are read a book but not told the title. They determine the main idea of the story and possible names for the book. They develop their own story and illustrate them to show their classmates.
PBS
Blue Ribbon Readers: Determining Important Ideas
Brenda Z. Guiberson’s nonfiction book, Cactus Hotel, launches a series of activities that model for readers how to determine the main idea in a passage. Class members engage in an online interactive game to test their understanding. The...
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What's in a Main Idea?
Second graders read newspaper articles. In this language arts lesson, 2nd graders identify the main ideas found in the articles by highlighting them. The entire class selects one interesting article from the sports section to discuss.
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What's the Main Idea?
In this main idea worksheet, students read 3 different words or phrases. Students then need to decide what they have in common or what the main idea is. There is a word bank to help.
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Only the Facts
Practice the strategy of summarizing to gain meaning and knowledge from an informational text. Young readers highlight supporting details and main ideas, and then they use this to summarize two articles: "The Great Quake" and "What is an...
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The Apple Pie Tree
Students read The Apple Pie Tree and discuss the story and talk about what was living in the tree. In this life comprehension lesson plan, students write the main idea of the book in a few sentences.
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When the Fly Flew In
Explore visual and verbal recall and sequencing with your youngsters. Start by reading a story and completing a worksheet after listening to the story. They work to identify the main idea and supporting details. The worksheet is included...
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Write a Story
Here is a great way to explore narrative writing! Learners review a previously constructed story map and identify the characters, setting, and main events in the book Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel. They...
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Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension
Beginning with anticipation guide strategies is a powerful method for improving reading comprehension. First, list initial ideas for a topic the class will be reading about. These ideas are formulated into statements, some of which are...
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