ELA+-+Main+Idea

Clues to Find the Main Idea


 * Title
 * First few lines of a passage
 * Repeated text
 * Pictures/Illustrations
 * Cover
 * Sub-headings (nonfiction)

Sometimes to find the author's purpose or main idea we can ask ourselves... "What is the author trying to tell me?" "What was this passage mostly (mainly) about?" "What was the author's purpose?"