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Determine the Main Idea
Learners identify the main idea of a reading passage. For 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...
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Main Idea/Detail Relay
Fourth graders discuss the difference between main ideas and supporting details. They use large placement cards made by the teacher with main idea and supporting detail statements on them to practice.
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Finding Main Ideas
What is the main idea? Previewing a text is a great way to identify the main idea without even reading, but what areas of a text do you preview? Teach your third, fourth, and fifth graders the most important areas to preview before...
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What's The Idea?
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...
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What's the Big Idea
Discuss the concept of main idea in a story or other reading material. Middle schoolers identify the main idea in a passage using a technique that eliminates unnecessary words not relevant to the main idea.
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Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes
Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...
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6th Grade: Express Yourself, Lesson 1: Poem
While originally created to accompany The Cay, this poetry lesson could be used on it's own, especially if you are working on dialect. Class members conduct a close reading of "When Malindy Sings" by Paul Laurence Dunbar and listen to an...
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Comprehension: Create a Summary from an Expository Text
Children can learn to analyze expository or informational texts at nearly any age. This scaffolded and scripted resource provides teachers with the support needed to facilitate a thoughtful lesson on summarizing informational text by...
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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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Differentiated Language Arts
Pupils read speeches and identify the main idea as well as the literary techniques employed, paying careful attention to the persuasion and repetition elements that each speech possesses. Using a graphic organizer, they analyze,...
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Topic Sentence
Learners 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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Treasure Tales
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...
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Main Idea and Details-Cloud
Students distinguish between main idea and details. In this writing process lesson, students use a video on horses to learn about note-taking. They write details from the video on sticky notes, and then determine which ones are most...
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Determining Main Idea and Supporting Details-Wild in the City
Students discuss the main idea of a story. In this writing process lesson plan, 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...
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Main Idea 2
Eighth graders explore the main idea of stories. In this literacy lesson, 8th graders summarize the last TV show they watched, identify the main idea of the show, and list its supporting details. After a discussion of main ideas, they...
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Main Idea- Fiction
Eighth graders investigate the concept of main idea and supporting details, and how they are used in the genre of fiction. In this literacy lesson, 8th graders listen to a fictional passage and take notes on the characters, setting,...
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Main Idea and Supporting Details
Eighth graders identify the main idea and supporting details in paragraphs. In this language arts lesson plan, 8th graders review organizational patterns in paragraphs and determine which pattern is best for a given situation. ...
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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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Which Story Matches the Given Theme?
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 guided...
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Classifying Information About Main Idea
In this reading for understanding lesson, students underline information in a text that is important in identifying the main idea. This lesson provides good practice for students who usually have difficulty in finding the main idea in...
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Main Idea and Supporting Details
High schoolers identify main idea and supporting details from a short reading selection using a two-column note taking process. In this literacy lesson, students work in groups of three to four, then compare their papers with the other...
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Identifying Main Idea
Students locate the main idea in a nonfiction text. In this language arts lesson, students participate in a think aloud to locate the main idea of the story. Additionally, students respond to a text and locate the main idea and complete...
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Main Idea and Supporting Details on Two Topics-Neeraj and Moths
Students explore details, supporting details, and main idea statements. In this details and ideas lesson, students view two video segments and determine relevant details. Students identify the main ideas and defend them.