Main Idea & Details Reading Comprehension Strategy

To a student with an IEP, every sentence often carries the same weight. They might read an entire passage and, when asked for the big idea, fixate on a minor, colorful detail about a character’s shoes rather than the central message.

As a mentor, I’ve learned that our most important task isn’t just to teach them to read the words, but to teach them how to filter the information. We have to help them find the point, not just the paragraph. In my classroom, we’ve found that the only way to make the abstract concept of a "Main Idea" manageable is to turn it into a mechanical, repeatable process.

The Power of the Thinking Framework

For a neurodiverse learner, the instruction to "find the main idea" is often too vague. It feels like a guessing game where only the teacher knows the right answer. To shift this dynamic, I recently introduced the Main Idea & Supporting Details Strategy Toolkit into our literacy block.

I’ve found that students don't need more "practice" at being wrong; they need a better framework for being right. By using visual cues and structured task-analysis steps, we take the "guesswork" out of comprehension. We aren't just giving them a poster to look at; we are giving them a thinking framework that helps them sort "what’s important" from "what’s extra."

Observations from the "We Do" Phase

During our Whole Group Instruction, I watched a shift in the room's energy. We were working on a technical passage about internet safety—a topic we prioritize in our Digital Literacy Academy to prepare our students for the modern workforce.

I saw a student who usually waits for a neighbor to start before picking up a pencil. Instead of hesitating, they looked up at our Main Idea strategy anchor chart. The chart uses a "tabletop" visual: the main idea is the sturdy top, and the details are the legs that hold it up. I watched the student trace the visual with their finger, then look back at the text. They weren't overwhelmed because they had a specific job to do—find the "legs" first.

What surprised me most was the level of independence that emerged during our Partner Work. Instead of the usual "I don't know," I heard students debating which sentences were "key details" and which were just "extra info." One student pointed to a sentence and said, "This doesn't hold up the table; it’s just a decoration." They were using the visual metaphor to organize their own thinking, moving beyond basic recall into actual evidence-based analysis.

Scaffolding for Independence and Confidence

For our ELL and Tier 3 learners, confidence is built on predictability. When a student knows that every time they see an informational text, they can use the same three steps to dismantle it, their anxiety drops.

[Image: A student-friendly anchor chart showing the "Tabletop" method for Main Idea and Supporting Details]

In our Individual Work phase, the silence in the room felt different. It wasn't the silence of confusion, but the silence of focus. Because the strategy is neurodiversity-aligned and low-prep, the students didn't have to navigate a complex set of instructions. They simply followed the visual cues. I saw one student successfully identify the main idea of a workplace manual and then locate three key details to support it. The pride on their face was evident—they had found the point on their own.

Why Structure Matters for the Workforce

In our setting, we are always looking toward the horizon—preparing these students for life after the classroom. The ability to identify the most important information in a text is a foundational life skill. Whether they are reading a bank statement, a safety warning, or a supervisor's email, they must be able to filter out the noise and find the message.

Teachers love this toolkit because it makes abstract concepts concrete. It doesn't just help them "get through" a lesson; it builds a repeatable skill they can use all year across every subject. When students know what matters most in a text, everything else—their writing, their oral language, and their confidence—falls into place.

As you mentor your students through their reading blocks this week, watch for that moment where they stop treating every sentence like a mystery and start treating the text like a puzzle they actually know how to solve.

When you provide a visual "anchor" for an abstract concept like the Main Idea, what changes have you observed in the way your students handle the "productive struggle" of reading a text that is at the ceiling of their ability?