Main Idea & Supporting Details Module Prototype

Main Idea & Supporting Details

The main idea in a paragraph is the most important idea. It is the central point that an
author is trying to get across to the reader.

The supporting details describe the main idea. They make the main idea stronger and
clearer.

Keep in mind that the main idea is often the first or last sentence of a paragraph.

To find the main idea, answer two questions:

(1) What is the paragraph mostly about?

(2) Which sentence best tells what the paragraph is about?

Example:

(1) The paragraph is mostly

about what mother
Mother gorillas do a lot for their babies. They nurse gorillas do.
their babies. They protect them from danger. And they teach
the tiny gorillas how to get along with other gorillas. (2) The first sentence tells
what the paragraph is
about. It is the main idea.

Main Idea

Mother gorillas do a lot for their babies.

Supporting Detail #1 Supporting Detail #2 Supporting Detail #3

They nurse their babies. They nurse their babies And they teach the tiny
They protect them from gorillas how to get along with
danger. other gorillas.

Move On

4
Dain Shimabuku Tia Mayberry Nikki Kinoshita Vincent Venzon
 Find the Main Idea
.BKPS
"SU
1FSJPET
Three major movements in the history of
art are Medieval, Renaissance and Modern.
The Medieval period, which encompasses
the time from around 600 AD into the 14th
century, is predominately religious in nature.
Objects are not portrayed realistically, but as
simple fl at images. During the Renaissance
period, beginning in the late 14th century
and continuing into the 16th century, artists
developed a more realistic style. Renaissance
artists also discovered the use of perspective,
which brought a three dimensional feeling to
two dimensional artwork. Prominent artists
of this time were Leonardo da Vinci and Jan Impression, Sunrise,
van Eyck. Modern art, which encompasses the Claude Monet, 1872
Impressionist and Cubist movements, began
in the late 19th century and through the 20th
century. Rather than focusing on realism,
artists explored the use of light, movement
and color. Modern artists include Pablo
Picasso, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

Write the main idea of the paragraph in the large box below. Write two
supporting ideas in the boxes.

Copyright © 2012 K12reader.com. All Rights Reserved. Free for educational use at home or in classrooms. www.k12reader.com
 Find the Main Idea
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Jack London’s story, Call of the Wild
Call of the Wild, tells of Buck, a dog stolen from California who is
taken to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s. Buck becomes a sled dog,
part of a team that transports supplies and people through the harsh winters.
Chapter III The Dominant Primordial Beast
It was inevitable that the clash for leadership should come. Buck wanted it. He wanted
it because it was his nature, because he had been gripped tight by that nameless, incom-
prehensible pride of the trail and trace—that pride which holds dogs in the toil to the last
gasp, which lures them to die joyfully in the harness, and breaks their hearts if they are
cut out of the harness. This was the pride of Dave
as wheel-dog, of Sol-leks as he pulled with all his
strength; the pride that laid hold of them at break of
camp, transforming them from sour and sullen brutes
into straining, eager, ambitious creatures; the pride
that spurred them on all day and dropped them at
pitch of camp at night, letting them fall back into
gloomy unrest and uncontent. This was the pride that
bore up Spitz and made him thrash the sled-dogs who
blundered and shirked in the traces or hid away at
Historic photograph of an harness-up time in the morning. Likewise it was this
Alaskan dog sled team pride that made him fear Buck as a possible lead-dog.
And this was Buck’s pride, too.

Find the Main Idea

Write the main idea of the paragraph in your own words.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Write two supporting ideas for the main idea.

1. ________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2012 K12reader.com. All Rights Reserved. Free for educational use at home or in classrooms. www.k12reader.com