Regarding the concepts of main idea and supporting sentences:
Recognizing the main idea is the most important key to good comprehension. The main idea is a general “umbrella” idea; all the specific supporting material of the passage fits under it.
Three strategies that will help you find the main idea are to 1) look for general versus specific ideas; 2) use the topic (the general subject of a section) to lead you to the main idea; 3) use key words—verbal clues that lead you to a main idea.
The main idea often appears at the beginning of a paragraph, though it may appear elsewhere in a paragraph.
Major and minor details provide the added information you need to make sense of a main idea.
List words and addition words can help you find major and minor supporting details.
Outlining, mapping, and summarizing are useful note-taking strategies.
Outlines show the relationship between the main idea, major details, and minor details of a passage.
Maps are very visual outlines.
Writing a definition and summarizing an example is a good way to take notes on a new term.
This catchy song offers interesting examples of main ideas and supporting sentences.
Source: YouTube
This brief clip offers information on paragraph structure, which is intrinsically related to the concepts of main idea and supporting details.
Source: YouTube
"I really liked the final activity to apply the learning and with the pictures as part of the exercise, that is so helpful for visual learners to connect the images to their writing where they might be struggling!"
"Love the exercise at the end. It's a great way to put everything together and see what students have learned."