Main Idea in a Sequence Text

In step-by-step or time-order texts, the main idea is about the whole process.

Sequence texts explain events in time order or steps in a process. Signal words include first, next, then, after, finally, and dates. It's easy to mistake one step for the main idea, but the main idea is about the whole process. Read: 'First, a caterpillar hatches from a tiny egg and eats leaves constantly. Next, it forms a chrysalis around itself. Inside, its body is completely rebuilt.

Finally, an adult butterfly breaks out, dries its wings, and flies away. ' Each sentence is one stage. The main idea pulls them together: 'A caterpillar goes through several stages to become a butterfly. ' A history timeline works the same way. If a passage lists events from a town's founding to today, the main idea is about how the town changed, not about a single year.

• 1Sequence texts use time order or steps.
• 2One step is not the main idea.
• 3The main idea describes the whole process or change.