Summarising Non-Fiction Main Ideas
Determine two or more main ideas of an informational text and explain how they are supported by key details, then summarise the text without personal opinions
How to tell they’ve got it
Tick these off as you see them — no test required.
🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.
Try this together
After reading a long non-fiction article, can your child identify two or three main ideas it covers and write a brief summary that captures all of them — without adding their own opinions?
Where this sits on the map
Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.
solid = must come firstdashed = helps
Curriculum alignment
Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).
Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC
Australian Curriculum v9 candidate
understand how texts can be made cohesive by using the starting point of a sentence or paragraph to give prominence to the message and to guide the reader through the text
explain how texts across the curriculum are typically organised into characteristic stages and phases depending on purposes, recognising how authors often adapt text structures and language features
present an opinion on a literary text using specific terms about literary devices, text structures and language features, and reflect on the viewpoints of others
NSW syllabus codes & stages only
Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only
These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.