Use the 3 free main idea and details graphic organizers below to make your lesson planning easier. Use these graphic organizers to review main idea / central idea in both fiction and nonfiction texts with your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students.
Download a printable pdf version of all the graphic organizers below for free below!
Looking for other resources that can be used with any text? Check out these 11 reading response ideas for any fiction text or any nonfiction text.
Free Main Idea Graphic Organizer Worksheets
Use the different graphic organizers depending on your needs and your students' abilities. There are 3 different graphic organizers:
- A graphic organizer that requires students to differentiate between the topic and main idea, as well as details.
- A graphic organizer that focuses on the differences between main idea and supporting details.
- A more advanced graphic organizer that allows students to determine the main idea and details of several different paragraphs or sections of text.
Scaffolding Main Idea Graphic Organizers for Extra Support
Unless upper elementary students have a solid understanding of main idea, it might be difficult for them to fill in a blank main idea graphic organizer without any support.
Scaffold this difficult skill by providing students with both the main idea and the details statements that go in the graphic organizer - but not telling them which statement is the main idea and which are the details. This gives students much-needed practice with distinguishing between main idea and supporting details without the overwhelm.
Minimize your prep work with this free main idea resource with a scaffolded graphic organizer and reading passage! Or, check out these tips for teaching main idea so students actually understand.
You might also like these point of view graphic organizers!