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Reading Comprehension Skills – Finding the Main Idea and Details for Beginners TutorGiant.com The ability to find the main idea and details is critical for reading comprehension. Students of all ages read text and try to find the main idea and details to better understand what they are reading. The skill of finding the main idea does not change a great deal from the earliest elementary grades up to high school. The only aspect that truly changes is the content. You can help your child find the main idea and details when reading at home, regardless of your child’s age (for older students, see the article on ‘Inferring’ in Tutorgiant’s Free Tips section). 1. Pictures have a main idea. The main idea is a visual representation of the main idea. The details are also found in the picture. When reading a story to your child, ask him/her what he/she thinks the picture is about. Also ask for supporting details (i.e. other items or actions in the picture). 2. Like a picture, a paragraph has a main idea. The topic sentence, which is usually the first sentence, introduces the main idea. Read a paragraph with your child. Discuss the first sentence (check first that it is in fact the topic sentence) and have your child make a prediction as to what the rest of the paragraph will be about. Then, have your child tell you about the details (the other sentences in the paragraph). 3. Once your child has mastered finding the topic sentence in a paragraph, you can explain that topic sentences aren’t always the first sentence in a paragraph. You can find a non-fiction text and look for paragraphs that contain the topic sentence in the second sentence or in the last sentence. It is probably easier to read with your child and explain this concept when you come across it. Also, have your child look for the details that support the main idea (i.e. the other sentences). Once your child is able to find the main ideas and details in a paragraph, you can help him/her practice inferring strategies ©Tutorgiant.com Tutorgiant.com provides complete Reading Comprehension lessons with worksheets. See some of the lessons in our video library. |
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