Mastering Main Idea Of Any Text With These Simple Teaching Ideas

Oct 28

Teaching the main idea and key details of a text is a major standard in grades 2-5 in elementary reading. I don’t know about you all, but my teaching experience usually looks like this:

Define what the main idea and key details are. Give students a series of articles and practice finding the main idea of each one for a week or two. Move on to another skill. Come back to do main idea another time. No one remembers what it is or how to find it. Spend a week reteaching a skill you already taught. Move on. Rinse and repeat.

If you’ve experienced the same thing, you are in the right place.

Instead of teaching our students how to find the main idea of an article, one article at a time, what if we just taught them the steps they need to take to find the main idea of any article or text?

Let’s simplify teaching main idea!

What does the standard say?

RI.2.2 - Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.

RI.3.2 - Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

RI.4.2 - Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

You can see how this standard progresses through the grades. We start with students seeing the main topic of an entire text, along with the specific topics of each paragraph, and move into students being able to truly identify the main idea of the text and key details.

But, what I’ve found in every reading curriculum that I’ve worked with is the expectation that kids in 2nd grade can identify the main idea of the text. The curriculum I most recently used had ‘identifying the main idea’ of a text as a series of lessons. Finding the topic was glazed over , and we dove head-first into synthesizing the text to find the main idea.

Knowing what the standards actually say is important.

If your 2nd graders are struggling with identifying the main idea, maybe they didn’t master even finding the main topic.

If your 3rd or 4th graders are struggling with the main idea, maybe they were pushed too quickly to do it in 2nd grade and they didn’t do things in the right order. Feel empowered to slow things down and go back to the basics if you see that your students have gaps.

How do I teach this standard?

The absolute fail-proof way to get your students to master this main idea standard, in any grade level, is to get them to do two things:

Analyze the text for details (clues).
Synthesize the clues together to make one statement about the main idea.

What does this look like? Let me describe a sample small group lesson that has worked for me every year.

Look at an article. Ask students to read out to you what the title is and any headings that they see. Jot down each detail on a strip of paper, sticky note, etc.
Go back into the article and ask the students to name and describe any text features in the article. Write them down on scraps of paper or sticky notes.
Look through the article again, looking for words or phrases that come up over and over. Is “cheetahs” in the text 8 times? Is Polar Bear adaptations in every paragraph? What do we see showing up again and again? Write those words on your scraps.
PAUSE HERE. Ask students if they have any predictions about what the main idea is going to be. Note - you haven’t even started reading the article yet. You’ve previewed and skimmed. But, because you’re noticing the clues the author gave the readers, students will be able to make some solid predictions! This makes this task accessible, even to students who are not reading on grade level yet. :)
Go through the article and read one paragraph at a time. Pause after each paragraph and jot down a sentence or two about what each paragraph was about. These are your key details!
Take all of those paper scraps and spread them out. Have students take turns grabbing a piece of paper and reading it aloud to each other. Discuss what all of these pieces have in common.
1. Example: If the title was ‘Creepy Creatures’, there was a photograph of a tarantula and a scorpion, the headings were Scorpion, Tarantula and Vampire Bat, we saw the phrase ‘this is what makes them creepy’ three times, and each paragraph described creepy features of each of the three animals…what does it sound like this article is mostly about? Answer: This article describes the traits of animals that many people find creepy.

Fostering Student Independence

Ok, so clearly you won’t pass out a pile of paper scraps every time your students are asked to identify the main idea and key details on a test. So, how do we get students to transfer these steps to other articles without all of the support?

Give them a highlighter! Instead of jotting down every feature or clue they see on a piece of paper, just have them highlight it. Ask them to jot down their predictions about what the main idea might be before reading. Then, read paragraph by paragraph and have students jot down their summary of what that paragraph was about.

When it comes time to synthesize, have students focus on re-reading the parts of the text that are highlighted. These are ‘bread crumbs’ from the author, leading you straight to the main idea!

Then, practice, practice, practice! Keep repeating these steps with new articles and texts until it is second nature for students to skim, predict, read, and synthesize.

How can I differentiate this standard for students above and below grade level?

Students below grade level are typically still working on closing gaps in phonics, fluency, and comprehension. Provide graphic organizers and additional time so students can jot down what they are reading and refer back to it. Be sure that students can synthesize one paragraph at a time and state the main topic of one paragraph before asking them to pull multiple paragraphs together and name the main idea. If you find that even remembering one paragraph long enough to name what it was about is a struggle, focus on comprehending one paragraph at a time before you try to work on an entire passage. Use data to determine where your students are and meet them there. Increase expectations and independence a little at a time.
Students above grade level are likely going to be able to read a grade-level text and easily identify the main idea and key details. If your students are demonstrating mastery of this skill right away, remember that this standard is cycled back through year after year. So, if you have a third grader who can find the main idea of a grade-level text with no problem, this does not mean that they should ‘move on’. Look for opportunities to engage them in texts that will deepen their vocabulary knowledge or enrich their learning. Use high-interest nonfiction texts about topics they do not already know much about. This will keep your high flyers engaged while working on a standard they will continue to see throughout elementary school!