Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...

This tutorial focuses on active reading comprehension strategies including reading aloud, taking notes, summarizing, and writing in the margins of books to improve retention and class discussion. It includes two Flickr videos on active...

Information that can be read or listened to that discusses two methods of how to write effective summaries as well as how to avoid plagiarism when summarizing informational texts. Finally, examples of literary summaries are provided....

A collection of differentiated reading activities are provided in this collection. Worksheets for the following reading topics are included: climax, story structure, elements of a story; fact and opinion; summarizing, narrative sequence;...

This lesson plan offers a step-by-step procedure for teaching students how to identify story elements and to summarize a story. It explains how to use a "Who Am I" activity, as well as a linkage activity in identifying characters and...

An explanation and example of summarizing a paragraph, especially helpful for taking notes on texts.

This activity asks students to differentiate between main ideas and supporting details.

Teach students to summarize nonfiction text with these lesson plans. Includes worksheets and activities that can be downloaded and printed.

This interactive assessment features 4 multiple-choice and 3 true/false questions relating to the main idea and their definitions. These terms include the following: main idea, details, summarize, data, connecting, explicit facts, and...

In this interactive game, students match terms relating to the main idea with their definitions. These terms include the following: main idea, details, summarize, data, connecting, explicit facts, and self-monitoring.

This set of interactive flashcards focuses on terms relating to the main idea and their definitions. These terms include the following: main idea, details, summarize, data, connecting, explicit facts, and self-monitoring.

For this reading comprehension lesson unit, students are guided in learning how to find the main theme or idea of a text and understanding how details in the text convey that. Includes lots of exercises and examples, as well as...

Read a short informational text and determine the main idea and supporting details. Click to check your answers then click on Practice.

In this lesson, students will read and summarize the book by pages. After publishing, students will use their slides as sequencing exercises. This lesson plan can be adapted for any grade level or book.

In this short video, the strategies of summarizing, clarifying, and asking-answering questions are used. These instructional tools will help teachers show students how to access complex texts. [5:54] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10

Article explains how to find the theme in a piece of literature by asking yourself a series of questions as you read. RL.9-10.1 Analyzing Theme. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2

[Free Registration/Login Required] During this MEA simulation, kindergarten students will be given the power of slelecting a classroom pet. Students, working in collaborative groups, must collect data about different potential classroom...

To understand a text, you must understand the central idea of the story. Learn how to recognize the central idea and supporting details with this article. Click the links at bottom right.