The document explains the importance of identifying the main idea and supporting details in a text. It highlights that a main idea can be stated or implied and provides examples to illustrate how to determine these elements in various passages. Supporting details strengthen the main idea and help in its analysis.

1. Main Idea and
Main Idea and
Supporting Details
Supporting Details

2. Main Idea
• The main idea tells you what the story is
about or the central thought of a paragraph
or complete text.
• Complete stories have main ideas.
• Individual paragraphs within stories also
have main ideas
• The main idea may be the lesson learned or
moral of a story.

3. Identifying Main Idea
 Often the reader can find the main
idea just by looking at the title or the
first sentence of a paragraph.
 For example, a passage titled: “Why
Students Should Have Less
Homework” will be about why
students should have less
homework!

4. Identify the Main Idea:
• Homeless people have many problems. In
winter, it’s hard to stay warm and it gets too
hot in summer. It’s also hard to keep things
safe without a home. Worst is the lack of
privacy.
• Main Idea:

5. Answer:
• Homeless people have many problems.

6. Stated and Implied Main
Idea
• Sometimes, a paragraph has a stated main idea
usually in the topic sentence. This means the
paragraph “says” what the main idea is.
• Sometimes, a paragraph doesn’t have a stated
main idea, but has an “implied” main idea.
• When the main idea is implied, you must analyze
supporting details to make an inference, or
educated guess, about the main idea.

7. Supporting Details
• The supporting details are the
things that describe the main idea.
• These supporting details make the
main idea stronger.
• Use the chart in your notes in
order to collect supporting details.
• Analyze the details in order to find
the implied main idea.

8. Read the Passage and
Choose the Main Idea
• Niagara Falls is one of the most beautiful
sights in North America. It is on the
Niagara River halfway between Lake
Ontario and Lake Erie. Niagara Falls is
located on the American and Canadian
border. The American Falls is 167 feet
high. On the Canadian side, the Horseshoe
Falls is 161 feet high.

9. Question
What is the main idea of the passage?
Remember: main idea is what the story is
about.
Complete the graphic organizer in your
notes. List the main idea and four
supporting details. Re-read the passage if
you need to.

10. Lets Practice! Choose the Main Idea
of the following Passages.
• The Statue of Liberty is visited by
thousands of people every year. The
Statue of Liberty is a 151 foot statue
of a woman holding a book and a torch.
It was a gift of friendship from the
people of France. It has become the
universal symbol for freedom.

11. Question
• What is the main idea of
this passage?
• What was the passage
about?

12. Answer:
The Statue of Liberty is an
interesting place visited by
many people each year.

13. Find the Supporting
Details in this Passage
• The Erie Canal changed the way people
moved goods in the 1800’s. The 363 mile
canal connected Albany, New York to Lake
Erie in Buffalo for the first time. When
the Canal opened in 1825, building supplies
and goods could be transported quickly and
cheaply across New York State. Canal
boats pulled by mules carried people and
supplies across New York.

14. Question
Main Idea: Lake Erie changed the way
people moved goods.
• What are the supporting details of
this passage?
• Remember supporting details
describe the main idea.

15. Answer
• Supporting Details:
• 1-The 363 mile canal connected Albany and
New York for the first time.
• 2-The canal boats pulled by mules carried
people and supplies across New York
State.
• 3-The canal made a way for goods to be
transported cheaply and quickly.

16. Implied Main Idea
What do you think the main idea is?
“The Native Americans used the trees to build
their houses. They hunted and trapped animals
in the forest for food. They found roots and
berries that they could eat. Some plants found
in the forest were used for medicine.”

17. Answer:
• Native Americans used every
resource they could find in nature in
order to live.

18. Implied Main Idea
“Maria offered to help her mother clean the
house. She vacuumed the living room and
dusted the furniture. She picked up the toys
in the playroom. Then, she mopped the
kitchen floor.”

19. Answer:
• Maria is a helpful daughter.

20. Review
• Main Idea - is like the heart of the text or a
paragraph, either stated or implied.
• It is the controlling idea.
• All the other supporting details in the text
or within a paragraph should tell us more
about the main idea.