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Main Idea Sentences
Comprehension Lessons »
- Analyze Character, Setting, and Plot
- Retell a Story
- Identify an Unstated Main Idea
- Main Idea Sentences
- Identify Problem and Solution
- Find a Solution
- Summarize
- The Summary Game
- Make Comparisons
- What’s the Difference?
- Listen for the Facts
- Analyze Author’s Purpose
- What’s Your Purpose?
- Make Inferences and Analyze
- Follow All Clues
- Cause-and-Effect Relationships
- Cause and Effect Buildup
- Order of Events
- Instructions in Chronological Order
- Draw Conclusions
- Play Detective
- Make and Analyze Predictions
- Can You Make a Prediction?
- Chronological Order of Events
- Directions Out of Order
- Identify Theme
- Theme Theater
- Identify Facts and Details
- It Looks and Sounds Good
- Make Judgments
- You Be the Judge
- Draw Conclusions
- Color Me Hidden
Explain Ask a student to define what the main idea of a paragraph is. Point out that identifying main ideas is important both when reading and writing. When writing, students should state the main idea of a paragraph in a topic sentence. Tell students that they will develop main idea sentences based on supporting details provided.
Guided Practice/Practice Write several sentences on the board that will serve as supporting details. For example, write: Skippy eats the best dog food. He gets plenty of exercise. Juanita takes Skippy to the vet when he gets sick. Ask students to read the sentences aloud and summarize them to find a main idea for the passage. (Possible answer: Juanita takes good care of her pet.) Then ask students to make up three detail sentences and exchange them with a partner. Each student writes a topic sentence that shows the main idea for the details.