A genre is a particular type of literary work. Novels, short stories, plays, poetry, myths, newspapers, reference books, and essays are some genres.


A main idea is a statement of what a passage is mostly about. Often, an author states the m i in the firsr or last sentences of the passage. However, an author may state the main idea anywhere in the passage. an author also may choose not to state the m i directly, in which case the reader has to infer the m i of the passage.

The difference between summary and main idea
       A summary is a shortened version of a text. It gives the gist of the text. It might be a few sentences and the key details, and it sometimes contains the main idea.
       A m i, however, is the main point that the author wants to get across. It is best conveyed in one sentence.


A theme is a big idea expressed by a story or poem.(It might not be stated within the story, which can make it harder to pin down. However, when kids step back from a text and say what they learned from it in their own words, this is usually pretty close to the theme.)