A Fun Way to Remember Main Idea and Supporting Details too!

Hi! My name is Micah. My teacher, Mrs. Bell, has been talking about main idea and supporting details for months. I have to admit, I still don’t understand what she’s talking about. I’m too embarrassed to ask her, so yesterday I decided to ask my friend Ian.

This is Ian. He gave me a great strategy for remembering main idea. He told me to remember the time last week when I got sent to the principal’s office. At first, I thought he was crazy. What did going to the principal’s office have to do with main idea?

Here’s what Ian told me. He said, “Last week, Kara told the recess monitor, Ms. Troyer, that you stole the kickball at recess.” “That’s right,” I said. “Later that day, I got called to the principal’s office to tell my story. When I got to Mr. Jenkins’ office, I told him there was no way I could have stolen the kickball at recess.”

But I was still confused. What did any of this have to do with main idea? Ian went on to explain, “When you told Mr. Jenkins that there was no way you could have stolen that ball, you were telling him the main reason why you were innocent. At that point, you hadn’t told him the whole story. You just told him one sentence that summed up why you were in his office.”

He continued, “That’s what main idea is all about. It is a general statement that tells the most important idea. But, it’s not the whole story. To learn more, you need some supporting details to back up your main idea. When you were in the principal’s office, it wasn’t enough to tell him you couldn’t have stolen that ball. You needed proof. You needed some help to support your innocence. That’s where Shelly and Dan came to the rescue.”

Mr. Jenkins said “I need more information.” That day when I was in the office, I could tell that what I told Mr. Jenkins was not specific enough. He needed more proof. So I asked him to call Shelly down to the office. She told Mr. Jenkins that I stayed in from recess to help her finish her reading project. She gave him specific information about what I was doing to help support my story.

Having one piece of evidence, is usually not enough, so I asked Mr. Jenkins if he could ask Dan about what happened. Dan came down to the office and said “It’s true. Micah didn’t steal the kickball because I accidentally kicked it on the roof. I was wearing the same color shirt as Micah that day. I bet Kara got confused and thought I was Micah. Then when the ball disappeared, she probably assumed it was stolen. But you can check, it’s on the roof.”

Now I was starting to understand. Ian said, “Shelly and Dan supported your story. They proved that what you had said was true. That’s what supporting details, and good friends, do.”

He added, “But it wouldn’t have made sense to ask Bobby to support you, he was in the nurse’s office. He was in a different part of the building and had nothing to do with what went on at recess. Remember that with details too. When you pick a supporting detail, make sure it comes from the same part of the story and gives more information about your main idea.” One more thing

I get it! Now I understand main idea and supporting details. I don’t know why it was so hard. Ian even showed me how I could put my story into a graphic organizer like Mrs. Bell does.

MAIN IDEA Micah did not steal the ball at recess. Supporting Detail Micah stayed in from recess to help Shelly with a reading project. Supporting Detail Dan accidentally kicked the ball onto the roof of the school.