Finding the Main Idea (BPP)

The main idea is what a text is mostly about. It's the most important idea about the topic OR the #1 thing the author wants you to remember.

When you're in elementary school, sometimes the article you read have the main idea directly stated IN the text. However, middle and high school are a different story. You have to INFER the main idea - figure it out on your own.

Read the first paragraph:

In 1969, a group of children sat down to a free breakfast before school. On the menu: chocolate milk, eggs, meat, cereal and fresh oranges. The scene wouldn’t be out of place in a school cafeteria these days—but the federal government wasn’t providing the food. Instead, breakfast was served thanks to the Black Panther Party.

Read the first paragraph:

In 1969, a group of children sat down to a free breakfast before school. On the menu: chocolate milk, eggs, meat, cereal and fresh oranges. The scene wouldn’t be out of place in a school cafeteria these days—but the federal government wasn’t providing the food. Instead, breakfast was served thanks to the Black Panther Party.

What would be a good main idea statement for this paragraph?

When you are taking a multiple-choice test, and a question asks you to identify the main idea of a certain paragraph, the test will try to trick you by making at least one of the answers a sentence from the paragraph.

Remember, the main idea is usually something you have to infer - it's not directly stated in a text.