How to Teach Main Idea and Supporting Details
Teaching students how to identify the main idea and details of a text can be tricky. We can give our students passages to read and then ask, “Okay, now what was it all about?” This skill can seem overwhelming for students to master and us to teach. In this post, I’ve compiled a list of activities that work wonders in teaching main idea! You can create these on your own or find them in my Main Idea and Supporting Details resource.
Start Small using one word details & main ideas
Finding the main idea of a text is not concrete so it can be difficult for students to grasp the concept. That’s why I like to start small with not so hard to understand word sorts. Give students several words that relate and that they’re familiar with. Use less or more words for differentiation. (Pictures of objects also work!) Have students determine what these words have in common. Example: Dining Table, Couch, Bed= Furniture. Explain that “furniture” is the main idea.
Once students get the idea using one set of words give them 2 or 3 groups of related words. Have students sort each word into their own groups. Then, students will determine what the main idea is for each group of words.
MAIN IDEA MYSTERY BAG
Another fun activity that is sure to get students engaged and excited about main idea are Main Idea Mystery Bags. This is another way to make the concept of main idea and supporting details concrete for students.
First, fill each bag with a few different items that relate to one another. For example, one bag may have a. candle, balloon and gift bag. Students will then use the items within the bag to determine the bag’s “main idea”. Use as many bags as you like and even sit them around the room and have students rotate to each of the different bags.
I love this activity because it really helps students understand the concept of what supporting details do for the main idea.
Give support through scaffolded instruction
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen main idea introduced by having students read a passage and determine the main idea right off the bat. This can be extremely difficult for students to try and come up with the main idea all on their own.
Rather than setting your students up for failure and a lot of frustration, why not scaffold your instruction a bit instead? This activity gives students the main idea and details, but it’s their job to determine which is which. I like to do this activity using two sets of main ideas and details, just to make it a bit more challenging. You can create this on your own or grab this activity as well as the entire set of Main Idea Resources by clicking HERE.
A Lesson Using Titles to Find the Main Idea
It’s always a great idea to have students practice using the title of a text as a strategy to determine the main idea. This can be students’ first step as they figure out what a passage is all about. Nonfiction texts almost always have a title that lets the reader know what the main idea will be in the text they are about to read.
You can use titles in a couple of different ways when it comes to teaching main idea. Have students read the title first, then make predictions about what the text will be about. Then have them revisit their predictions after they’re done reading to see if they were correct.
Another way to use titles to help teach main idea is by covering up the title, having students read the text, then have them determine what an appropriate title should be. Explain that they’ll want to consider what the text was mostly about and try and communicate this through the title. Naturally, students will begin focusing on the most important point of the text as they try to create a title for it.
Want these FREE Main Idea Graphic Organizers?
