Finding Main Ideas The Process: Lots of students struggle with finding Main Ideas. It’s not so hard picking the Main Idea out of several choices, but coming up with your own main idea statement can be tough. So here is a technique, a process, I want you to learn and practice for finding main ideas that you can be confident about.

Ask Questions There are several questions you should ask. What is the topic of the reading selection? What is the title of the reading selection? What does the author want me to know about the topic and how does the title help me understand this?

Doing It Next, you should actually turn the title and any subtitles into questions that you can answer.

Finding Supporting Details Make a graphic organizer- concept map with the Main Idea in the center and the details surrounding it. See if you can justify how the detail supports the Main Idea.

Decoding Short and LONG reading passages. Using prereading and active reading strategies. Prereading occurs before you read. Active reading occurs during your reading period.

Prereading Prereading requires For multi-paragraph passages: Ask your questions and use the first and last paragraphs as a way to narrow your concept of the main idea. Next, again as a prereading strategy, read the first sentence of each paragraph. This topic sentence should be followed by evidence. Make a brief note, or paraphrase, its meaning.

Active Active reading strategies. Notetaking during reading is ACTIVE reading. Read the entire passage with your questions in mind. Did your preliminary guess at the main idea appear to be correct? Write a main idea statement that answers your questions. For multi-page reading passages: keep track of the main ideas of each paragraph, using the first sentence, and your leading question in mind. Summarize these notes.