Main Idea Paragraph Practice- STEP BY STEP

I actually used this as a game in groups. They could answer on white boards, or I had them use their devices and post up on the Smart Board their answers for each step if you are tech and SmartBoard savy.

I ask students to first narrow down the topic by looking for the repeated subject- not forgetting similar words or pronouns that could be the same as the subject. Example: Topic is students but also circle "they" "them" because it was referring to students.

I then ask students to underline everything after they have narrowed down there topic. In quick fragments sentences- bullet notes they found each time their topic was mentioned. (note other repeating words may show up in the author's point)

Next, have students see if they can make connections among their notes and evidence collected around the topic they selected. (Note: If there was not a lot of info to collect, you may have decided on the wrong topic). Once they have connected some similar ideas in the evidence, I ask students to determine a point.

Once they have a topic and point - they just have to connect them both to create their main idea sentence of the passage. I then ask the students to go back and see if they could check off in the bullets where they collected evidence notes to see if their evidence would support and prove their main idea sentence. If not, they may need to reword it or look for a larger connection.

Please feel free to email me for further questions or advice on how to use this product! Thanks so much for looking and reading. I hope you enjoy!