I try to teach main idea
and summary towards the beginning of each school year, because I know that once
my students can understand the central ideas of a text, it is much easier to
delve deeply into the finer details.
Main idea isn't an easy
skill to teach, however, especially once you reach fifth grade and beyond, where the
Common Core State Standards require that students find two or more central ideas in a text I can't express how many times I've heard cries of, "What?!
There's more than ONE big idea in the text?!"
Like with anything you
are teaching, main idea will stick best when it is made meaningful and
relevant. The following steps have helped immensely in my quest to bring students towards mastery of this
difficult concept.
