Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Reading Strategies: Main Idea
Identify the main idea and the supporting details of a story in a literacy resource from Discovery Education. Complete with procedures, vocabulary, and assessment activities, this is a great way for pupils to practice their outlining...
Curated OER
Implied Main Idea
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...
Curated OER
Main Idea/Supporting Details Scavenger Hunt
Engage your class in a scavenger hunt to find the main ideas and supporting details in a text. They follow the teacher while s/he models how to determine main idea and find supporting details, and then they work independently. A fun way...
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.
Curated OER
Determine the Main Idea
Students identify the main idea of a reading passage. In this identifying the main idea lesson, students read short passages, highlight or underline important information and record the main idea of the passage. They participate in a...
Curated OER
What's The Idea?
Quite often, learners confuse the main idea in a selection of reading with the supporting details. In this activity, pupils practice the skill of finding the main idea and the supporting details in pieces of writing. Newspaper articles...
Curated OER
Using Details from the Text
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...
Bright Hub Education
"The Kid in the Red Jacket": Book Activities
Learning stations aren't just for little ones; middle schoolers can have fun while learning about the main character in the book, The Kid in the Red Jacket. Outlined are three different activities that are completed as each small group...
DePaul University
Egypt
The country of Egypt is more than just big pyramids and ancient pharaohs. After reading a brief overview of this African nation, young learners will demonstrate their understanding of the text by identifying the main idea and supporting...
Teacher Created Materials
A Volcano Awakes
Blow your pupils' minds with information about some of the world's most awesome natural occurrences: volcanos. Class members read a short article and respond to included questions. The focus of the resource is on understanding and...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Determining Main Idea and Supporting Details-Wild in the City
Students discuss the main idea of a story. In this writing process lesson, students use a video about parakeets as a tool to find the main idea of a story. After viewing the video, they engage in a discussion about determining which...
Curated OER
Elaborating the Main Idea, Using Supporting Details
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...
Curated OER
Classifying Defending Information about Main Idea
Students read and highlight important information gathered from text. In this reading strategies lesson, students define classify and then classify the important information they find. Students share and reflect on their answers.
Curated OER
Summing Up
The first verse of A.A. Milne’s poem, Beetle, is the basis for a model of how to summarize a text. The two-page learning exercise also includes a short story for guided practice, as well as summarizing questions, a story sharing...
Curated OER
What's In a Phrase? Finding Historical Understandings in an Immigrant Guidebook
Using a Chinese-English phrase book from the late 19th century, learners view a glimpse of life on the frontier for a Chinese immigrant. They work in groups and on their own to analyze and summarize the content of various phrases, given...
DePaul University
Breaking the Food Chain
Throughout history, the growth of big cities has resulted in the destruction of ecosystems. In the case of Chicago, IL, a grassland that was once home to bison, deer, wolves, and foxes quickly became a booming city of over three million...
Curated OER
Using Details From The Text
Begin this expository writing activity by reading a non-fiction book of your choice and modeling expository writing. The plan suggests The Trip of a Drip by Vicki Cobb but notes that other texts will work. Learners then choose a...
Curated OER
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.
InTouch
Warm-up and Cool-down Activities
What fun! Try out some of these PE warm-up and cool-down activities with your youngsters. Find several ideas written out along with tips to designing an effective warm-up or cool-down with elementary schoolers.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Silly Stories: Challenge Activities (Theme 1)
This packet, the first in the series of support materials for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on silly stories, contains enrichment activities for learners who have mastered the basic concepts of the lessons.
Curated OER
Making Active, Healthy Lifestyle Choices
What does the term "lifestyle" mean? What constitutes an active lifestyle? What constitutes a healthy lifestyle? The main ideas in this lesson focus on what an active healthy lifestyle looks like. There are questions for discussion, and...
Curated OER
8th Grade Reading Comprehension Success
Augment your eighth grade language arts curriculum with a thorough set of reading comprehension activities and assessments. Focusing on a variety of skills, including vocabulary in context, text structure, main idea, and author's style,...