Reading

The main idea expresses the central point or the most important idea and gives the paragraph focus, purpose, and direction.

• Main Idea Study Sheet provides instructions, examples, and practices on how to find the main idea in a paragraph.
• Main Idea Practice allows students to choose the sentence that expresses the correct topic sentence in each of the selections.
• Main Idea and Supporting Details is a video that assists with explaining this topic in a fun way.

Supporting details are reasons, examples, facts, steps, or other kinds of evidence that back and explain the main idea.

• Supporting Details Study Sheet explains what supporting details are and how to use them.
• Supporting Details Practice 1 helps students identify supporting details in a paragraph.
• Supporting Details Practice 2 helps students identify major supporting details.

Effective communication begins with a clearly organized set of ideas following a logical, consistent pattern.

• Patterns of Organization Study Sheet provides instructions, examples, and practices on using supporting details in paragraphs.
• Patterns of Organization Practice 2: In this practice, students choose the correct pattern of organization in each sentence.

Facts are statements that can be verified or proven true or false; whereas, opinions cannot be verified.

• Facts and Opinions Practice 1 and Facts and Opinions Practice 2 provide statements that need to be identified as either facts, opinions, or both.

Inferences are ideas that are not stated directly, but are implied by the content of the material.

• Inferences Study Sheet provides instructions, examples, and practices on how to identify and make accurate inferences.

Paying attention to words and phrases within a sentence can help students figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.

• Vocabulary in Context Study Sheet provides instructions, examples, and practices on using clues to figure out the meaning of the unknown.
• Vocabulary in Context Practice 1 and Vocabulary in Context Practice 2: For these practices, students use context clues to find the best meaning for each word.
• Context Clues video

Fluency and General Reading:

• Reading Skills for Today's Adults
• ESL BITS
• READTHEORY
• Townsend Press 

Online Encyclopedias:

• DKfindout!
• Q-files

Online Dictionaries:

• The Free Dictionary's Idiom Dictionary
• Crossword Solver: Synonyms & Related Words

Visual Dictionaries:

• Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online
• Ikonet Visual Dictionary
• The Visual Dictionary

Word Maps:

• Snappy Words
• VISUWORDS
• WordVis
• Quizlet