Even first graders can be exposed to good reading strategies and comprehension skills. The teacher demonstrates how to read informational text, look at the questions, reread the text, locate answer, then locate supporting details to...

Find key details in books using this note card strategy. Each reader gets six cards with the classic who, what, where, when, why, and how detail prompts. After they read the book, they choose a card and locate a key detail...

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...

Individuals complete a pre-assessment to gauge their ability to determine the main idea and supporting details in nonfiction text. They examine a new piece of nonfiction reading by looking at the table of contents, headings, and index...

A biography writing lesson with a tasty twist! Kids create a "visual biography" in which each pizza slice represents a paragraph, and toppings represent supporting details. They learn research techniques, note-taking skills, and how to...

Create an artifact kit to engage your young learners. Then, assign small groups a section of chapter three. They will identify the main idea and three supporting details for their section. Then, they select one artifact from the kit that...

Provide extra support with a unit that follows a teach, blend, guided practice, and practice/apply routine to reinforce reading, grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills. Reading and writing lessons include supporting details,...

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...

Readers organize and display three ideas that support a topic, as well as two details that support each idea. 

Examine the process of summarizing a piece of text using the book So You Want to Be a President? Kids review the definitions for main idea, topic sentences, superordinate terms, and supporting details. Next, they work in small...

Children in first grade listen and read along with the teacher to practice main idea identification. They use the provided reading passages to read, locate the main idea and supporting details. This is a fully scripted lesson which means...

Explore non-fiction comprehension strategies with your class. They will visualize daily activities and label a 4 circle Venn diagram with related phrases. They must identify the overlapping sections as "main ideas," then complete a...

A desk is used as a visual analogy to construct the main idea and supporting details in a story. The top of the desk is the main idea, and each of the four legs provides supporting details. The legs of the desk provide support for the...

Learn how to summarize by identifying main ideas and supporting details. Readers cross out unimportant information as they read through a text. Is it a random detail? Cross it out! They then draw a concept map, placing the main idea in...

The skill set required of readers of informational text includes the ability to identify an article’s thesis or main idea, as well as the supporting points. Learners can practice these skills by analyzing an essay about the treatment of...

Close your colonial America unit with a performance-based assessment. Class members will show their proficiency in several skills including using details to back up inferences, determining the meaning of words in context,...

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...

Model for young learners how to determine the theme of a story. Read aloud Aesop’s The Fox and the Stork. Chart the plot and the main idea of the fable, showing class members how these elements support the theme. Fable titles for...

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...

Students explore "main idea." In this main idea and details reading comprehension lesson plan, students view a Brain POP video about main idea and then identify sentences displayed on the SMART Board that would be included in a paragraph...

Examine informational text with a three-page learning exercise that focuses on taking notes, identifying the main idea, and locating supporting details in order to form a summary paragraph. 

Follow a teach, practice, and apply routine to provide extra support with a themed unit created by Houghton Mifflin. Topics include compound words, noting details, action verbs, suffixes, compare, and contrast, verbs, fantasy,...

Analyze informational text with a set of three worksheets that focus on the main idea and supporting details, and reinforces note taking skills, and the use of context clues to define new words. 

Plant or animal? As part of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic unit Our Earth, learners engage in activities and exercises that provide them with extra support to master the concepts in the unit.