Help your class develop the ability to determine a main idea with a packet of materials that you can introduce and use over a period of time. The packet includes some information for the teacher and rationale for the exercises. There are several different graphic organizers provided, which can go with the provided reading passages, or be used with a separate text. Some passages also include writing prompts and questions.

Concepts

main ideas, central ideas

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Additional Tags

main idea, central idea, Informational Text, english language arts

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Pros

• There are many different materials provided here that are designed to help individuals move toward being able to determine the main idea
• The resource focuses on an important Common Core skill

Cons

• The quality of the reading passages varies, so you may wish to use your own selections instead
• Some of the exercises may require additional scaffolding, such as sentence frames; the more extended writing tasks, in particular, are bare bones

Common Core

RI.3.2 RI.4.2 RI.5.2 RI.6.2 RI.7.2 RI.8.2