Finding Main Idea & Key Details: Summarizing Nonfiction Text 3rd, 4th, 5th Grade

Teach summarizing with confidence! A slideshow, five high-interest texts, and graphic organizers support your third, fourth, or fifth grade students – and you! Kids will learn to find the main idea and key supporting details. Then write summaries.

Open the preview to take a closer look. This informational text unit takes kids through an entire learning cycle with direct instruction, practice, and assessment.

First, kids read “A Chocolate a Day Keeps the Doctor Away.” Is chocolate really good for you? This five-paragraph informational text explores facts behind the urban myth. The high-interest passage was specially written for kids who are just beginning to summarize.

Second, you model the process for summarizing nonfiction text with the slideshow.

• It begins with an explanation of the hamburger analogy. Paragraphs with supporting details provide the “meat” of the essay. They are sandwiched between the introduction and conclusion, which hold the thesis, or main idea.
• The slideshow presents each paragraph of “A Chocolate a Day Keeps the Doctor Away” as a part of a hamburger. It moves through each, modeling how to find the central idea in the top and bottom bun, as well as key facts and evidence in the burgers.
• Then it shows how to paraphrase and organize the main idea and supporting details with a simple box and bullet graphic organizer.
• From there, the information is written in a short paragraph: the summary!

Third, students practice with three additional informational texts. Each examines an urban myth:

• “Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy” – Should you feed a cold and starve a fever?
• “The Men on the Moon” – Were the Apollo missions a hoax?
• “This Sounds a Little Fishy” – Can it really rain fish?

Corresponding worksheets ask them to organize the main idea and key details with a box and bullets. Beneath that, they use the information to write a summary.

Fourth, kids read and summarize “Bigfoot” as an assessment.

Files include everything you need to introduce summarizing nonfiction texts:

• Lesson plans
• Slideshow
• Exit ticket
• 5 one-page informational texts with corresponding organizers
• Answers
• 2 generic hamburger organizers
• 2 generic box and bullets organizers
• Bonus: quick planner, teaching tips, additional organizer, list of transition terms

Resources can be used in a variety of ways.

• Whole class instruction
• Small group work, remediation, or tutoring
• Test prep
• Sub plans
• Homeschool

Summarizing materials come in several formats.

• Slideshow - PowerPoint and Google Slides
• Resources - printable PDF, digital Easel Activities and Google Slides

Your third, fourth, or fifth grade students will love it – and you will too!

• The scripted slideshow lets you teach this skill with confidence.
• Texts featuring urban myths grab kids’ attention. Each has a straightforward format with a clear central idea and easy-to-spot supporting details.
• The corresponding worksheet provides a simple box and bullet graphic organizer with lines to write the summary below.
• This practice activities addresses the intent of your reading standards. For example, if you teach CCSS RI.4.2, your students will learn to find the main idea, explain how it’s supported by key details, and summarize the text.

Enjoy teaching ELA!

Brenda Kovich