1. Main Idea and Supporting Details

2. Main Idea Every story or paragraph has a main idea.
The main idea tells you what the story is about.
The main idea may be the lesson learned or moral of a story.
The main idea is the most important part of a story or paragraph.
Usually, a main idea can be described as a single statement or idea.

3. Supporting Details
The supporting details are the things that describe the main idea.
These supporting details make the main idea stronger.

4. Activity
On the following slide, you will read a paragraph. Work with your group to find the sentence that is the main idea. Write the main idea, and then list at least 3 supporting details.

5. Locating the Main Idea
New Jersey has a lot of weird laws. For example, it is illegal to pump your own gas. It is against the law for a man to knit during fishing season. It is illegal to slurp your soup. A car cannot pass a horse drawn carriage, and you cannot frown in Bernards Township.

6. Question
What is the main idea of the passage?
Remember main idea is what the story is about.

7. Answer
New Jersey has a lot of weird laws.

8. Main Idea Tip
The main idea in this example was the first sentence. Many times, the first sentence of a paragraph serves as a topic sentence. This states what the rest of the paragraph will be about. The topic sentence does not always have to be the first sentence, however, as it can be found anywhere in the paragraph.

9. Topic Sentence
New Jersey has a lot of weird laws. For example, it is illegal to pump your own gas. It is against the law for a man to knit during fishing season. It is illegal to slurp your soup. A car cannot pass a horse drawn carriage. You cannot frown in Bernards Township.

10. Main Idea Tip
In the last example, the main idea was located within the paragraph. Sometimes, however, the main idea is not in the paragraph at all. It must be found by reading the passage, and then determining what the passage was about as a whole. (*Remember, try to narrow your main idea down to a single thought or idea.)

11. Locating the Main Idea
The greatest single industry in New Jersey is chemicals; the state is one of the foremost research centers in the world. Many large oil refineries are located in northern New Jersey. Other important manufactured items are pharmaceuticals, instruments, machinery, electrical goods, and apparel. Productive farmland covers about 790,000 acres, which is 16.7% of New Jersey's land area. The state ranks high in the production of almost all garden vegetables, as well as blueberries, cranberries, and peaches. Poultry, dairy products, and seafood are also top commodities.

12. Question
What is the main idea of the passage?
Remember main idea is what the story is about.

13. Answer
The paragraph describes what is made or manufactured in New Jersey.

14. Main Idea
Use the rubric you have to determine the main idea of the following passage. List at least 3 supporting details.

15. Passage
The Boston Tea Party was a major event in the lead up to the Revolutionary War. There was tea involved, but no one was drinking it. The Boston Tea Party was a protest by the American colonists against the British government. They staged a protest by boarding three trade ships in Boston Harbor, and throwing the ship’s cargo of tea overboard. Some colonists dressed as Mohawk Native Americans, but the British knew who had destroyed the tea.