Reading Comprehension - Identifying Main Idea
Reading Comprehension Activities for Middle and High School in PDF
Identifying Main Idea
Identifying Main Ideas can be a difficult skill to teach. We've had noteworthy success with this resource, which includes a non-fiction article and a choice of 3 potential main ideas for each paragraph. Students are tasked with labelling each choice as “too general”, “too specific”, or “just right”.
Identifying Main Idea
This activity asks students to identify the main idea in ten distinct paragraphs of the article “Friend” by Marjorie Ingall by characterizing each of three options as “too general”, “too specific”, or “just right.”
These options clarify which details and the degree of detail convey the main message of the content. Because the article covers the author's relationship with their friend, students are thus able to identify with the content, therefore more effectively understanding the messages therein. By discussing the options afterward, students can better understand how the general option, while true, is not nearly specific enough to adequately communicate the intended message; how the overly specific option includes unnecessary details that cloud the conveyance of the message; and how the “just right” option clearly and concisely communicates the main idea.
More reading comprehension worksheets & activities from this learning package 52 Lessons Package
These worksheets and homework assignments expand students' vocabulary through exploration of word roots, contextual cues, prefixes, and suffixes, and develop their comprehension by increasing their understanding of conceptual relationships while improving their ability to paraphrase.
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A collection of 9 worksheets and activities that cover prefixes and suffixes, word roots, using context clues, paraphrases, conceptual relationships, and identification of main ideas.
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A collection of 52 language and communication worksheets and activities that cover a plethora of reading comprehension, writing, grammar, and social communication skills.