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Lesson Plan
CPALMS

Cpalms: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, students will use What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page to identify the main topic and key details using the illustrations and text. Students will work to...
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Graphic
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Nonfiction Pyramid

For Students 2nd - 8th Standards
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...
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Activity
Education Development Center

Tv411: Summarizing Activity 2

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
This activity asks students to differentiate between main ideas and supporting details.
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Lesson Plan
Florida Center for Reading Research

Florida Center for Reading Research: Expository Text Structure: Summarizing [Pdf]

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
A lesson plan in which students read a text and record the main ideas and supporting details on a graphic organizer. Students then complete the organizer by writing a summary of the text. Materials are included.
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Lesson Plan
Louisiana Department of Education

Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 5: Shutting Out the Sky

For Teachers 5th Standards
Focused on immigrant life in the United States and how families sought the American dream, this unit offers students an understanding of how members of a culture meld into communities while trying to maintain cultural identity and honor...
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Lesson Plan
Florida Center for Reading Research

Florida Center for Reading Research: Expository Text Structure: Just the Facts

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
A lesson plan in which students read a text and complete a graphic organizer to identify the topic and supporting details or facts. Materials are included.
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Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Reversing the Chicago River [Pdf]

For Teachers 5th
"Reversing the Chicago River" is a one page, nonfiction passage about how the leaders of Chicago reversed the polluted Chicago River so that it emptied into the Mississippi River instead of the lake. It is followed by questions which...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Informational Text: Reasons and Evidence in Text

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
Reasons and evidence are given by the author to support topics or ideas. In this resource, learn about finding reasons and evidence in a text. Includes downloadable worksheet.
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Interactive
Wisc-Online

Wisc Online: Identifying the Main Idea

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
This resource defines main ideas and is an interactive way to assess a student's ability to correctly find main ideas from paragraphs.
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eBook
Curated OER

Mc Graw Hill: Identify the Main Topic and Key Details

For Students 1st - 2nd Standards
This is a practice exercise to help teach how to find the main topic of a passage by looking at key details. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2
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Graphic
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Essay Map

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A fillable essay map in PDF format with boxes for an introduction, main ideas, supporting details, and a conclusion. Directions on how to use this type of graphic organizer as well as lists of teaching ideas and related resources are...
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Lesson Plan
Other

Curriculum Associates: Determining Theme or Central Idea [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
In 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...
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Unknown Type
Savvas Learning

Pearson Longman: Main Points, Support Points, and Specific Details

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
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...
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Unit Plan
Thinkport Education

Thinkport: Central Idea and Evidence: Sea Turtle Nesting

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Students practice finding the central idea and summary of a nonfiction piece about sea turtle nesting.
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Unit Plan
Thinkport Education

Thinkport: Determine the Central Idea: Human Impacts

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Students will learn how to identify the central idea of a text about human impacts by examining key details.
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Unit Plan
Beacon Learning Center

Beacon Learning Center: Web Lesson: Get the Idea

For Students 1st - 4th Standards
Read through a lesson about main ideas and supporting details to understand their importance. Practice choosing the main idea of three nonfiction paragraphs. Features practice activities to enhance learning.
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Activity
ACT360 Media

Writing Den: Paragraphs

For Students 4th - 8th Standards
How do you write a paragraph? Use this site to learn more about the different parts of a paragraph.
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Unknown Type
Quizlet

Quizlet: 2nd Grade: Unit 2 Reading: Main Idea: Test

For Students 2nd Standards
This interactive assessment features 6 matching and 5 multiple-choice questions over terms relating to the main idea and their definitions. These terms include the following: topic, topic sentence, main idea, detail, supporting details,...
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Activity
Quizlet

Quizlet: 2nd Grade: Unit 2 Reading: Main Idea: Match

For Students K - 1st Standards
In this interactive learning game, students match terms relating to the main idea with their definitions. These terms include the following: topic, topic sentence, main idea, detail, supporting details, summary, summarize, retell, infer,...
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Activity
Other

Resource Room: What's the Big Idea?

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
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.
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Website
Other

I Pathways: Language Arts: Stated Versus Implied

For Students 7th
Learn about the difference between a stated main idea and an implied main idea. Then, practice finding the stated and implied main ideas in two short texts.
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Handout
Other

Oakland Writes: Student Exemplars: Sixth Grade: Expository Essay [Pdf]

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
An expository essay written by a sixth-grader with notes calling attention to important writing concepts evident in the essay including a well-written title, opening sentence, thesis, main ideas, supporting details, and more.
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Unknown Type
Other

Academic Reading: Sample Task [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This Academic Reading task provides a practice assessment for identifying headings and subheadings. In the task, students must read the selection and then determine the best subheading for each of the sections.
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Graphic
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Power Notes

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A printable note-taking format where students create an outline by assigning powers to the main idea and supporting details. Directions on how to use this type of rubric as well as lists of teaching ideas and related resources are also...