Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Literature: Analyzing Theme
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
Beacon Learning Center
Beacon Learning Center: Get the Idea
Learn about and practice finding the main idea in short reading passages.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Atlantis: Main Idea Story 1
An exercise in finding the main idea. Read a short nonfiction paragraph about Texas, and click on the correct main idea.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Atlantis: Main Idea Story 2
An exercise in finding the main idea. Read a short nonfiction paragraph about pollution, and click on the correct main idea.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Atlantis: Main Idea Story 3
An exercise in finding the main idea. Read a short nonfiction paragraph about the solar system, and click on the correct main idea.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Atlantis: Main Idea Story 4
An exercise in finding the main idea. Read a short nonfiction paragraph about where different animals live, and click on the correct main idea.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Atlantis: Main Idea Story 7
An exercise in finding the main idea. Read a short nonfiction paragraph about computers, and click on the correct main idea.
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.
TES Global
Blendspace: Main Idea Activities
A learning module that includes six links to videos, images, graphic organizers, and websites that reinforce the reading skill of finding the main idea.
TES Global
Blendspace: Main Idea
A five-part learning module with links to videos and images about finding the main idea of a text.
Oswego City School District
Regents Exam Prep Center: Reflections: Line and Point
Lesson and activities focusing on line reflection. Here you will find a detailed explanation of the concept with picture examples, opportunities for interactive practice, and supporting classroom activities in the teacher resource pages.
Other
Internet4classrooms:3rd Grade Skills Builder: Main Idea
This interactive Language Arts skill-building site provides links to interactive activities that focus on finding the main idea of a reading selection. Online lessons, games and quizzes challenges students understanding of main idea.
Read Works
Read Works: Explicit Information Kindergarten Unit: Identifying Information
[Free Registration/Login Required] Use Animal Taste by Kirsten Hall to teach students to find explicit information inside informational texts. Includes ideas for teaching, guided practice, and independent practice. Although the book is...
E Reading Worksheets
E Reading Worksheets: Setting Worksheets
In this learning module, students will study the concept of setting in literary text. Worksheets and PowerPoint lessons are provided to help students practice with finding "settings" and then citing reasons that support their answers.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Introduction to Nature Journaling
In this activity, students will be introduced to nature journaling and discover the importance of detail accuracy in scientific drawings when used to observe and identify objects.
Wisconsin Response to Intervention Center
Wisconsin Rt I Center: Story Writing Frames [Pdf]
Teachers will learn how to use story writing frames with their students. Teachers will learn how to implement story frames; measure progress with story frames; and find research to support using story frames. A reproducible story frame...
Wisconsin Response to Intervention Center
Wisconsin Rt I Center: Event Map [Pdf]
Teachers will learn how to use event maps with students. They will learn how to implement event maps with literary and informational texts; measure progress with event maps; and find research to support event maps. A reproducible event...
SMART Technologies
Smart: Making Inferences
Inferencing is finding clues and using background knowledge to determine an explanation from facts in a passage or story. It's "reading between the lines" of a story to understand what the author doesn't state.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Parts of a Paragraph
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart covers all of the areas of a paragraph including topic sentence, supporting sentences, and clincher sentence. Different kinds of supporting details are explained and students can practice...
Quia
Quia: Metaphor Quiz
Read five short paragraphs and choose the main idea of each. Check the answers when finished to see how many were right.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze Thesis, Purpose, Textual Elements in Informational Text
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson focuses on how to locate the controlling idea or thesis and specific purpose in a text and analyze the roles they play in understanding what you read. You will...
George Mason University
Gmu: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution
This detailed analysis of the French Revolution ranges from the social and political causes that preceded it by a hundred or more years, through the Revolution itself, to the many and varied consequences. Every step of the way, the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Seeing Sense in Photographs & Poems
In this lesson plan, students will consider Seeing Sense in Photographs & Poems. Worksheets and other supporting materials can be found under the Resources tab. They will learn to support their analyses with detailed description of...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Oral Presentation Rubric [Pdf]
This reproducible resource provides an assessment rubric to be used with students' oral presentations. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4