Main Idea and Key Details is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on stating the main idea and the details that hold it up, aligned to Common Core standard RI.3.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 20 of them with different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.
Set 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
20 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.
Main Idea and Key Details
RI.3.2
NameDate
Read the text, then answer the questions.
1.Read the text, then answer the questions.
How Braille Was Invented
Louis Braille was blinded in an accident at the age of three.
At his school, blind pupils read by tracing raised letters pressed into paper. It worked, slowly — a fingertip cannot take in a whole letter shape at once — and nobody could write that way at all.
When Braille was twelve, a soldier visited the school with a code of raised dots that soldiers used to read messages in the dark. It was too complicated, but the idea of dots was right.
Braille spent three years simplifying it. He settled on a cell of six dots, small enough to sit under one fingertip.
He was fifteen when he finished. He was forty-three when he died, and the system was not widely accepted until after that.
1. What is the main idea of this text, and which details support it?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
Morse Code
Morse code turns every letter into a pattern of short and long signals: dots and dashes.
The commonest letters were given the shortest patterns. E is one dot. T is one dash. Q, which is rare, is dash-dash-dot-dash. Because of that choice, an average message is much shorter than it would be otherwise.
A message can be sent as sound, as light, or as taps on a pipe. That is why it survived so long: it needs almost no equipment.
Timing carries the meaning. A dash is three times as long as a dot. The gap between letters is three dots long, and between words, seven.
SOS was chosen because it is easy to recognise: three dots, three dashes, three dots.
1. What is the main idea of this text, and which details support it?
LessonPrint · RI.3.2 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Main Idea and Key Details
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. Braille invented a readable and writable system of six dots — supported by the failure of raised letters and the soldier's code.
2.1. Morse turns letters into timed dots and dashes — supported by the letter lengths, the timing rules and SOS.
Questions about Main Idea and Key Details
What does the Main Idea and Key Details worksheet cover?
It practises stating the main idea and the details that hold it up — 2 questions for Grade 3, all on Common Core RI.3.2: State the main idea and show which details hold it up. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Main Idea and Key Details practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2 — RI.3.2, in the Reading: Informational Text domain for Grade 3. The published standard reads: “Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Main Idea and Key Details is written for Grade 3, typically ages 8-9. It is one of the sheets on RI.3.2, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Main Idea and Key Details come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Main Idea and Key Details can I print?
25 versions, of which 20 ask genuinely different questions — this skill does not have 25 distinct questions to give, so the rest reorder them and no two pupils still share a paper. Set 1 downloads all 25 as one PDF.
Is Main Idea and Key Details free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Main Idea and Key Details, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
Is there a lesson plan to teach RI.3.2?
Yes — “Main Idea and Supporting Details” is a 40-minute Grade 3 plan for RI.3.2, timed section by section, with the misconceptions to expect and an exit ticket. Main Idea and Key Details is the practice that follows it.
More practice for RI.3.2
State the main idea and show which details hold it up.