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
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...
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.
University of South Florida
Fcat Express: Selective Underlining
Site provides extensive assistance in preparing 4th grade students for Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. This section focuses on identifying main ideas and significant details by selectively underlining them in 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...
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...
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.
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...
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 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 young scholars how to use textual details to create a title for informational text. Ideas...
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: Summarizing: Activity 3
In this activity, students choose the correct category to which details belong. Being able to categorize helps students to identify the difference between main ideas and details.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Identifying Key Question Words and Phrases
This lesson explains how to identify key question words and phrases. This tutorial lesson shares a short slideshow with the lesson's content.
SMART Technologies
Smart: Main Idea and Details
The interactive lesson is a review of main idea and supporting details.
Other
Almond Board of California
A collection of resources about almonds, with many educational pages and fact sheets available in languages other than English. Learn about the nutritional and health value of almonds, how they are grown, and their importance to...
Read Works
Read Works: Theme 3rd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] This site provides a series of three lesson plans designed to teach students to identify and support the theme of a fable and a fiction selection based on main idea and supporting details. Lessons are...
Read Works
Read Works: Grade 2: Three Lesson Unit: Author's Purpose
[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of three lesson plans designed to teach students to identify author's purpose including to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. Lessons are based on the books The Adventures of Taxi Dog by...
Read Works
Read Works: Grade 2: Two Lesson Unit: Theme
[Free Registration/Login Required] A set of two lesson plans designed to teach young scholars to use story elements to identify theme and to match a given theme to a story. Lessons are based on the book Aesop's Fables by Jerry Pinkney....
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.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Teaching the Engineering Design Process
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process (EDP) while learning about assistive devices and biomedical engineering. They first go through a design-build-test activity to learn the steps of the cyclical engineering design...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Community Progress? [Pdf]
"Community Progress?" is a one page, nonfiction passage about three community projects in Chicago; each group saw a problem, decided on a solution, and implemented it. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Digging Up Details on Worms: Using Science in an Inquiry Study
A lesson plan based on a study unit of earthworms, using the inquiry model to integrate scientific processes with literacy practices. Instruction plans, related resources, and standards are included.