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Short and Sweet
Students explore how to summarize a text while reading. They discuss what it means to summarize. Students read a non-fiction text and practice summarizing the pages they read. They highlight the main ideas and important details within...
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Wrapped in Mystery
Sixth graders can identify five basic elements that most mysteries contain. They put the elements of mystery into a graphic organizer they can follow. They construct meaning after reading Poe's short story and identify or infer the...
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Map Making
Young scholars examine a variety of strategies to identify the structure of a story. They listen to the book Where the Wild Things Are and, as a class, complete a story element chart. Students independently read a passage from...
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Main Idea and Supporting Details
Eighth graders identify the main idea and supporting details in paragraphs. In this language arts lesson, 8th graders review organizational patterns in paragraphs and determine which pattern is best for a given situation. Individually,...
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Main Idea 2
Eighth graders explore the main idea of stories. In this literacy instructional activity, 8th graders summarize the last TV show they watched, identify the main idea of the show, and list its supporting details. After a discussion of...
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Persuasive Letters and The Tell Tale Heart
Pupils write persuasive letters based on "The Tell Tale Heart." They brainstorm topic sentences, main ideas, and details. They analyze the character and determine if he is innocent or guilty. They create a map listing their reasons to...
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Reading Discovery
Students investigate literature to discover details and focus upon the main idea to analyze it. They use reading comprehension skills to interpret passages of choice based upon literary importance to the overall meaning. While evaluating...
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Wheat: From Field to Oven
How does wheat go from the seed to the table? While focusing on main ideas and supporting statements, class members read an excerpt about wheat production and complete a worksheet. The end goal is a display that shows the different...
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What's The Idea
Students discuss the importance of identifying the main idea in reading selections. After reading newspaper articles related to nutrition, students identify the main idea of the selection and three supporting details. A reading log...
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Posters -- What's the Main Idea?
Students discuss the basics of poster productions. In groups, they follow written directions to make a poster about asthma, allergies, AIDS, or personal safety. They present their poster to the class and reflect on the process in a journal.
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Frog Tall Tales
Students identify and interpret a tall tale by creating one their own as it relates to the theme on frogs. Students apply frogs as their guide and basis for their tale. Students critique each others works and share them with the class.
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Simplifying sentences
Students read through several articles as a class and identify key words in sentences. Students work as a class to reduce the length of the article by shortening the sentences but ensuring that they still make sense.
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Myths
Students complete activities using a software program that allows them to read about myths, magic and monsters, and answer multiple choice questions about main idea, prediction clues, details and sequencing. They participate in a number...
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Gold Rush
Students use educational software to determine the main idea of paragraphs. They read about the Gold Rush and Frontier Life in America before writing a history log as they simulate that they are writing back to a cousin in New York. They...
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Main Idea
Students are read a book but not told the title. They determine the main idea of the story and possible names for the book. They develop their own story and illustrate them to show their classmates.
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What's the Point?
Students identify the components of a political cartoon and formulate the main ideas.
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Where's My Funny Paper?
High schoolers identify main idea of passages, reading selections, and cartoons.
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Main Idea and Supporting Details
High schoolers identify main idea and supporting details from a short reading selection using a two-column note taking process. In this literacy lesson, students work in groups of three to four, then compare their papers with the other...
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Skimming
Students examine how to skim textual material. They read an article, and identify the main ideas by reading first and last paragraphs, topic sentences, and other organizational clues.
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Identifying a Message's Purpose
Students examine the character trait of perseverance and identify a message's purpose. They read a biography of Jackie Joyner Kersee, discuss the main message, and develop an action plan with goals and a message.
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In Search of Food...Living Off the Vegetation
Fourth graders locate information to describe what Indians gathered and how they sustained life. They use 5 resources, select a paragraph from each and state the main idea and supporting details.
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What's in a Main Idea?
Second graders read newspaper articles. In this language arts instructional activity, 2nd graders identify the main ideas found in the articles by highlighting them. The entire class selects one interesting article from the sports...
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News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
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What's the Big Idea?
Students choose a paragraph from a book of their choice, identify the main idea, and draw an illustration of the main idea. They write original paragraphs, illustrate them, and trade with a partner, identifying the main idea of the...