Teaching Main Idea / Central Idea – Activities to Build Understanding

Titles are powerful clues—especially in nonfiction. Have students predict the main idea and possible supporting details based only on a title. Then, confirm or revise their thinking after reading.

Let’s say your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade class is reading Sheila Keenan’s Animals in the House: A History of Pets and People. Just based on this title, students should be able to make reasonable predictions as to the main idea and supporting details of the text. You could ask some different questions to help encourage that thinking:

• What will this book be mostly about?
• Do you think one of the supporting details in this book will be about elephants? Why or why not?
• Do you think one of the supporting details in this book will be about dogs? Why or why not?
• What other animals might the author include to support the main idea? How do you know?
• Which of the following statements is more likely to be the main idea of the book: “Dogs make great pets because they are friendly, loving, and loyal,” OR “Throughout history, people have depended on a variety of pets for help, companionship, and protection.”

Just by thinking carefully about this title, students should be able to predict a reasonable central idea to the book, as well as possible supporting details. In nonfiction books or passages, students can also use headings to make similar predictions of the main idea and details of smaller sections.

You could also cover up the title of a book or passage, and have students make predictions about what the title is after reading. This will get students thinking about what was most important and what the text was mostly about.