University of Houston
University of Houston: Extra! Extra! What's the Big Idea?!
Get the feel of running a newspaper by selecting articles and pictures. If you are interested in checking out real newspapers, there is a clickable list of online newspapers for younger readers.
University of South Florida
Fcat Express: Main Idea With Supporting Details
Strategies to help students recognize main ideas and supporting details provided by a standardized test preparation site intended for fourth grade. Includes strategies such as Main Idea Pyramids, Number Notes, QAR (Question/Answer...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Introducing Text Structures in Writing 5th Grade
This lesson engages students in learning about text structures. Graphic organizers are provided to assist students in planning writings that have the following text structures: problem and solution; sequence; cause and effect; and...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Write an Expository And/or Procedural Text
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] You will learn how to write an expository/procedural text that synthesizes ideas from several sources.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Summarize Informational/expository Text (English 6 Reading)
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to summarize the main ideas and supporting details in text and understand that a summary does not include opinions.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Where Did I Come From
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Changing America
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Duck & Cover: School Drills During the Cold War
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
CPALMS
Florida State University Cpalms: Florida Students: Integrating Information: A Titanic Challenge
Read about the sinking of the Titanic and learn to identify key ideas in multiple texts, review similarities and differences between those key ideas, and identify the difference between important and interesting key ideas. This...
Other
Reading Quest: Making Sense of Social Studies
Teaching students to read well in areas other than language arts requires teaching and reinforcing the kinds of reading strategies taught here. There are 27 strategies, ranging from brainstorming to word mapping. The site includes PDF...
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: Intervention for Reading: Summarization Strategy
Improve understanding of expository materials by summarizing the main ideas. The summarization strategy helps students recall the main ideas and specific facts of materials they read. There are five rules for writing summaries.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Lesson Plan for Nonfiction Comprehension: Skimming Text
Build comprehension by developing reading strategies for use with nonfiction text. This lesson focuses on teaching students to recognize text elements as clues to help them quickly locate key information in text.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: The Wacky Advertisement (With Disclaimer) Activity
Inspired by Barry Lane's book 51 Wacky We-Search Reports, in this cross-curricular lesson students learn how to summarize properly.
Wisconsin Response to Intervention Center
Wisconsin Rt I Center: Text Dependent Questions [Pdf]
Describes a reading strategy where students must respond to text by supporting their ideas with text-based evidence. Lists different categories of questions the teacher can prepare based on the text chosen, with examples for each.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Informational Text: Connections Within Text
Learn how information in a text can be connected through compare and contrast, cause and effect, and sequence.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 1: Reading Literature: Show Understanding of Text
This quick lesson from the Common Core Literacy eHandbook teaches students what questions to ask and how to answer questions to show your understanding of literature.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Determine Main Idea and Supporting Details
A reference article for students to learn about how to determine the main idea and supporting details from the text. Click on the Model for an example with explanation and then click on Practice for a practice exercise.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Determine Main Idea and Supporting Details: Model
An example to guide students in choosing the main idea and supporting details. Click Practice for a practice quiz.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Informational Text: Summarize
Learn how to summarize a text based on the main idea and supporting details you found.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Informational Text: Cause and Effect Text Structure
Cause and Effect is a text organization structure and knowing this structure can help you in comprehending a text. Learn about these strategies on this site.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Determine Main Ideas and Supporting Details
See how to pick out the main ideas and supporting details on this site. Click on Model at the bottom right.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Determine Main Ideas and Supporting Details
See an example of how to determine the main ideas and supporting details of a story.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Read to Learn, Share What You Learn [Pdf]
Several tips for reading to learn are provided on this page. Students will explore the BIG idea presented in a nonfiction piece.
McGraw Hill
Mc Graw Hill:informational Text: Analyze Development of Text Elements:individuals
Read an informational piece, and learn how to analyze the development of individuals in the text. Includes practice exercises.