Teaching Main Idea in the Primary Classroom

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Teaching main idea to students is one of the best ways to help students increase comprehension. Do you do guided reading? Whole class reading? A combination of both? This is a useful skill that can be taught in any setting.

It’s not always an easy task to teach it as it is a rather abstract concept. It’s important to know you can teach students using non-fiction or fiction readings. When students are reading stories for main idea, it is also known as “theme”.

In second grade, we transition from retellings (which include a lot of the details) to the main idea and supporting details. First, we spend some time learning more about the difference between a retelling and a main idea.

We practice a lot by listening to readings and having class discussions. I use get partner work and we work independently on printables. Students become really good at it! It’s a good idea to start with non-fiction as students can usually identify the main focus much more easily than with fiction.

The important thing when teaching students to find the “theme” of a story is that students understand that the story would not make sense without it. The supporting details would have nothing to attach onto, therefore, making it an incomplete story. I teach students to ask themselves questions as they read. Could that have happened without “__________” not happening? Could the idea stand alone? Maybe with different details? If not, it’s probably a detail. Here is an example of early stages of teaching of concept development. As time goes on, students learn to use less details in their description and only focus on the main theme of the story or chunk of the story.

Part of this resource is to put a visual in the students’ head that makes sense. Here is one I have included in the pack.

I have also included a 3-d visual for students to make to help demonstrate that the main idea “drives” the text.

Main Idea

Students can also practice their MAIN IDEA reading by completing some tasks cards. There are fiction and non-fiction task cards included. This set is perfect for your reading or literacy center too!

If you would like to see this resource on teaching main idea, please click here.

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