To understand a text, you must understand the central idea of the story. Learn how to recognize the central idea and supporting details with this article. Click the links at bottom right.

Begin practicing skills that will help identify the central idea and details while reading literary nonfiction.

This lesson operates on the Scaffold Instructional of Release model (I do, we do, you do). Students will use the main idea and supporting details to expand understanding of a variety of texts.

In this science-themed literacy lesson, students learn how to identify the central idea and key details in an article about sea turtles.

This lesson uses the story Corduroy by Don Freeman to teach the main idea and supporting details of a story, as well as what we mean by the character's point of view. The lesson is done using print materials and a whiteboard with...

[Free Registration/Login Required] A two-lesson unit on main idea and details through which young scholars use the topic sentence to identify the main idea of a paragraph and categorize details as main idea or supporting. With free...

Analyze the controlling idea and the specific purpose of the text, identifying the textual elements that support that purpose including the most important details. RI.9-10.2 central idea/summary [Unarchived version is accessible by TX...

[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of three lesson plans designed to teach young scholars to identify main ideas through headings and chapter titles, and then to write appropriate titles of their own. Lessons are based on the...

In this lesson, 5th graders learn how to identify a generalization in a text so that they can then spot lies or inaccuracies. Includes downloadable workbook with a generalization activity on page 53.

The first question in most Reading Comprehension sets will ask you to identify the statement that best expresses the central idea or the main point that the passage as a whole is designed to convey.

A Seed Discussion is a two-part strategy used to teach students how to engage in discussions about assigned readings. In the first part, students read selected text and identify "seeds" or key concepts of a passage which may need...

During this lesson students begin to identify the main idea of a story they read or hear. Students use graphic organizers to discover the main idea of The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss, and Marsupial Sue, by John Lithgow.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Based on Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems, a lesson in which students learn how to utilize text and picture clues to determine a when and where the story takes place.

This site offers links to several lesson plans for teaching main ideas to first and second graders; it also provides and explains some activities for teaching the main idea to first graders.