Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Explain the Controlling Idea, Purpose, and Distinguish Details
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, students will learn how to pinpoint the controlling idea, which not only identifies the main idea, but also answers questions about the author's goal or...
Read Works
Read Works: Main Idea Kindergarten Unit: What the Book Is Mainly About
[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses Amazing Tigers! by Sarah L. Thomson and Ladybugs by Monica Hughes to teach students to use titles, pictures, and text to identify the main idea of an informational text. Ideas for direct...
Read Works
Read Works: Main Idea 1st Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students learn to use titles and supporting details in both fiction and non-fiction texts in order to identify the main idea of the book in this three-lesson unit. The lessons utilize the books Animal...
Read Works
Read Works: Main Idea 3rd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A three-lesson unit teaching students to use the first and last sentence to identify the main idea of a paragraph and the first and last sentence in each paragraph to identify the main idea of a...
Wisc-Online
Wisc Online: Identifying the Main Idea
This resource defines main ideas and is an interactive way to assess a student's ability to correctly find main ideas from paragraphs.
Other
Scribd.: Kindergarten Reading Comprehension Lesson Plan: Main Idea and Details
A five-day lesson plan to teach learners how to find the main idea of a story and generate a title, identify facts and details from a story, and differentiate between main idea and supporting details.
TES Global
Blendspace: Main Idea and Supporting Details 3.5 Ij, 3.6gh
A twelve-part learning module with links to images, videos, and a website on identifying the main idea and supporting details within a text.
TES Global
Blendspace: Main Idea and Supporting Details
An eight-part learning module with links to images, texts, videos, slides, and a quiz on identifying the main idea and supporting details within a text.
TES Global
Blendspace: Main Idea
A five-part learning module with links to videos and images about finding the main idea of a text.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Main Idea and Details Cloud
Students practice distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant ideas by identifying relevant details in a video segment about a wild horse roundup. Students watch the video, read the transcript, and identify details they believe are...
University of Houston
University of Houston: The Journalist's Desk
This site includes eleven brief newspaper stories. Students must identify the main idea of each short news story.
Read Works
Read Works: Main Idea Kindergarten Unit: Using Details to Create a Title
[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses Amazing Gorillas! by Sarah L. Thomson and In the Wild: Leopards by Stephanie St. Pierreto to teach students how to use textual details to create a title for informational text. Ideas for...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Main Idea Lesson
[Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson focuses on the determining the main idea and details.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas and Details in Several Texts (English I Reading)
In this lesson, you will practice making connections between ideas on the same topic. Some of the ideas will differ from each other, so we will learn how to identify and synthesize important details and draw conclusions. W.9-10.7 Research
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Analyze Nonfiction: Central Idea [Pdf]
This graphic organizer will help students analyze nonfiction pieces. Students will use the graphic organizer to guide them as they identify the central idea and supporting details.
SMART Technologies
Smart: Main Idea and Details
The interactive lesson is a review of main idea and supporting details.
Other
Resource Room: What's the Big Idea?
This exercise can be used to help students develop understanding of main idea and supporting details. Students are given a list of words to analyze, decide the theme and write a common subject that defines the group.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Lorraine Hansberry: "A Raisin in the Sun": Analyzing Theme
In this interactive lesson, discover how literary techniques like setting, characterization, and conflict contribute to the overarching theme of a text. Through analysis of Lorraine Hansberry's iconic play A Raisin in the Sun, explore...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Supporting Ideas Quick Guide
Supporting Ideas Questions: These questions ask you to identify the supporting ideas and specific details mentioned in a passage. What does the passage say? Perhaps the most basic task of the Praxis Core Reading Test is recognizing...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Recurring Themes the Lives of Nanavi and Neeraj
Students practice identifying themes using questions from varying perspectives (their own, the author's, and the main character's).
Savvas Learning
Pearson Longman: Main Points, Support Points, and Specific Details
Part of the Pearson Longman series entitled "Sentence Resources for Writers", this site assesses the high school student's ability to identify main points and develop specific details and support points. Includes ten multiple choice and...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Nonfiction Pyramid
A printable pyramid for use with nonfiction texts while students identify the main ideas and supporting details within a text. Students also determine author's purpose and key vocabulary words. Directions on how to use this type of...
Education Development Center
Tv411: Tune in for Reading: Reading: Strategies for Better Reading
Self-checking interactive tutorial puts reading comprehension skills to work by asking learners to make inferences, predict what happens next, and identify the main ideas in a series of short reading passages. Related materials include...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Graphic Organizer Spider Graphic
[Free Registration/Login Required] This graphic organizer provides a webbing framework for students to analyze the main idea/theme and supporting details of a reading passage or historical event. A template for students to follow is given.