National Humanities Center
Teaching Emily Dickinson: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: Myth About Fire
No matter what you read, you can always practice locating the main idea and key details to increase reading comprehension. Third graders read about an Aboriginal myth, they then complete three short-answer questions using key details...
Michigan Department of Education
Family Fundamentals for Summer Learning
Just because it's summertime, doesn't mean that learning has to stop. Support children with continuing to develop their reading fluency with this extensive collection of literacy activities.
DePaul University
Learn about Fables
Expose young readers to a new genre of fiction with a short reading passage. After learning about fables, children identify the main idea and supporting details in preparation for writing a short summary. Read the text as a class,...
Curated OER
Main Idea and Supporting Details on Pitcher Plants
Third graders read, Fly Traps! Plants that Bite Back. They locate the main idea and supporting details in the pitcher plants section. Then after they have located the information as individuals have them write it down in their reader's...
DePaul University
A Garden in Lawndale
We are all capable of changing the world for the better; all it takes is a spark. Read about a group of seventh grade students in Chicago, IL who took it upon themselves to improve their community by turning a vacant lot into a garden....
DePaul University
The Football Team
Playing team sports is about more than just scoring the most goals or winning the most games. Read this passage with your class and learn how athletes build character as members of a team. When finished, individuals identify the main...
Achievement Strategies
Fishbone for Main Ideas and Details
A key reading comprehension skill is the ability to identify the main idea and supporting details used in a passage of informational text. Here's a template that encourages young readers to practice this skill. They list the who, what,...
Curated OER
Main Idea and Supporting Details
Pupils identify main idea and supporting details from a short reading selection using a two-column note taking process. For this literacy lesson, students work in groups of three to four, then compare their papers with the other groups'...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Main Idea and Details
For this main idea and details worksheet, students read the paragraphs and the examples sentences. Students write if the sentences are a main idea or detail to complete the 8 examples.
Curated OER
Main Idea II: Pre Test
In this main idea worksheet, students answer multiple choice questions about the themes of different passages they read. Students complete 10 questions total.
Curated OER
Dogs: Comprehension Strategies
In this comprehension strategies instructional activity, students read the story Dogs and then complete comprehension strategies for the story. Students complete activities on cause and effect, main idea and details, inferences, details,...
EngageNY
Close Reading: The Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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...
K12 Reader
The Apprentice System
Readers are asked to identify the central idea and two supporting details that develop this main idea in an article about the apprentice system popular in colonial America.
Curriculum Corner
“I Can” Common Core! 3rd Grade Reading
Third grade readers are given clear learning goals with this Common Core checklist. By turning each reading standard into an I can statement, children can focus on mastering the required grade level skills.
K12 Reader
Hide and Seek
After examining a brief article about survival adaptations, readers identify the main idea of the passage and list two supporting details.
Beacon Learning Center
Did I Read It or Not?
With this interactive resource, students learn about the main idea skill and practice the skill.
EngageNY
Analyzing the Central Ideas, Part 1: “The Border”
What is your strategy? Scholars read "The Border" and work with a partner to practice reading strategies to use while independent reading. They identify difficult parts where they practiced rereading by marking them with sticky notes,...
College Board
Reading—Synthesis and Paired Passages
Good readers make connections between texts. The SAT regularly assesses the ability to make those connections using paired reading passages, a topic discussed in an official SAT practice lesson plan on synthesis. During the lesson,...
EngageNY
Determining Main Ideas and Details to Write a Summary Paragraph: “Food”
Let's eat! Scholars read pages 24-25 of The Inuit Thought of It to discover the foods eaten by the Inuit. They sketch a visual gist of the section in their journals and write a summary paragraph about the text.
Scholastic
Transitional Guided Reading
Use a fill-in-the-blank lesson plan template to enhance your guided reading lesson plans with details surrounding decoding strategies, fluency and phrasing, vocabulary strategies, comprehension, and more!
EngageNY
Shared Reading: Learning About Colonial Trades
Trading in Colonial America is the focus of a lesson plan that boosts reading skills. As a class, scholars examine the informational text for crucial details, use their newfound knowledge to share information with their peers, and write...
ReadWriteThink
Captioning the Civil Rights Movement: Reading the Images, Writing the Words
Scholars boost their knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement with a instructional activity that challenges writers, readers, and historians to analyze primary sources and caption their observations. By way of reading, writing, discussion,...