Main idea - Reading Comprehension - How to Help Your Student Find the Main Idea

Being able to explain what the main idea of a story is demonstrates a deep understanding of a text. To get your students to this point, first guide them through the process of finding the main idea of each paragraph.

You can do this by asking your students to do any or all of the following.

Drawing

Read each paragraph slowly and then draw an illustration of what is happening. If your student's find this confusing, help them focus on the task by asking them to draw what the characters in the paragraph are doing. 1. Identify the characters 2. Identify what they are doing

Listing

As you read each paragraph, write down what each character is doing (The Three Little Pigs are leaving home, The Three Little Pig's Mother is waving goodbye).

Writing

Write one sentence that describes what happens in each paragraph. Often the main idea of the paragraph can be found in the first sentence. The sentences that follow will add more information to the main idea.

This process of analyzing each paragraph works well for short stories. If you are exploring a novel with your class, ask your students to analyze each chapter.

When your students have analyzed each paragraph (or chapter) they can move on to the task of identifying the main idea of the story. Ask each student to write what they think this is. Let students share and discuss what they have written with small groups of students or the class as a whole.