Provide students with an opportunity to closely examine the difference between a topic and main idea in a nonfiction text. Use as a stand-alone activity or a support for the Finding the Main Idea and Details in a Nonfiction Text lesson.

Help your students absorb the details of a text and make inferences about what they read with the strategy of close reading. By reading closely, students will become better able to understand complex themes and nuances in a text.

In this lesson, your class will identify an author’s claim in nonfiction text by identifying evidence and reasons.

Teach your students about picture walks as a strategy to understand the author's purpose in a fictional text. This lesson can be used as a stand-alone lesson or as support for the Examining Author's Purpose in a Fictional Text lesson.

Guide students through the challenging task of unpacking the main idea of a text.

Use this lesson plan as a stand alone or support lesson to introduce or review nonfiction text features to your ELs.