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Lesson Plan
In Search of the Main Idea
Young learners will love finding the main ideas in short informational texts. Featuring a bunch of fun worksheets, this lesson will help students learn about different topics while improving their reading skills.
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Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify main ideas and supporting details.
The adjustment to the whole group lesson is a modification to differentiate for children who are English learners.
Introduction
(10 minutes)
- Tell students that the main idea is the most important or central idea in a paragraph. Just like there is a main street in a town, there is a main idea in a written passage.
- Show students a box. Place various cooking supplies in the box. Pull out one object from the box at a time. At the end, ask what these items all have in common.
- Make the connection that the theme of this box is also its main idea.
- Beginning: Give students the name of all the objects. Allow ELs to act out how they would use the tools to show they're understanding.
- Intermediate: Encourage them to provide an example of how all the objects are used together. Provide a word box of the tools.
- Have ELs tell a partner the definition of main ideas and supporting details, either in English or their home language (L1). If needed, provide the sentence stem "The main idea is ___."
- Model with a familiar or culturally relevant topic.