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...

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...

Did you hear that? It's the main idea! Teach your class listening and note-taking strategies for determining the main idea by following the steps provided in this plan.

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...

Reinforce main idea and supporting details with your seventh graders in this language arts lesson. Using a SMART board presentation and handouts (all attachments are provided), they review and practice finding main idea and details in...

Practice comprehension skills using the story, The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert. Learners answer questions, fill out graphic organizers, and engage in extension activities involving writing and...

Quite often, learners confuse the main idea in a selection of reading with the supporting details. In this lesson, pupils practice the skill of finding the main idea and the supporting details in pieces of writing. Newspaper articles...

Fourth graders view examples of help-wanted ads as they plan and create their own writing in the fourteenth instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. The engagement of the class is captured when the teacher shares an actual...

After examining a brief article about the major art periods, readers use the provided graphic organizer to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in the paragraph.

After examining a short passage about the Mississippi River system, readers use the provided graphic organizer to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in the article.

A passage about the Magna Carta provides readers with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in an article.

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...

In instructional activity 13 of this unit on colonial trade, young researchers learn about apprentices as they prepare to write help-wanted ads for the specific trade they have been researching. To begin, the class listens closely as the...

Cement comprehension skills using the strategies in this activity. After reading the story, Juan Verdades by Joe Hays, learners use context clues to answer questions, identify main ideas and details, and sequence events.

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...

Let’s learn about frogs! Young readers are led through “Freaky Frogs,” a non-fiction article. Teach learners how to edit an article so there are fewer details to sift through. After talking through the article, they learn the six steps...

Acquaint your class with informational text through a close reading. First, examine a couple of pages together, looking at text features and content. The whole class focuses on marking down a brief summary of each paragraph before...

Discuss the environment of the Arctic tundra using this resource. The focus of this lesson is the story A Walk in the Tundra by Rebecca L. Johnson. The appealing illustrations are bound to captivate your class! After reading the...

As part of a group of lessons, your class will return to the primary text for this unit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key vocabulary as well as close reading strategies continue to be the focus skills; however, this lesson...

Practice outlining and evaluating expository writing in this lesson. After discussing main ideas and seeing examples, young writers go through a sample outline and discuss the way to properly format a piece of writing. They then create...

Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.

Bring the imagery of the desert to your classroom with this ELL lesson plan. After reading Madeleine Dunphy’s Here in the Southwestern Desert, learners complete a graphic organizer about the features and images of the poem. The...

Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...