Distribute the comics and have each student read a comic, record its number, and write in one sentence the main idea of that comic. Then have students trade comics in an orderly way, read the next comic, record its number and main idea etc. Comics are passed around in the established order until each student has read and written about each comic. Then students all read aloud their main idea sentence for a particular comic strip and note similarities and differences. This is an easy, interesting way to reinforce finding the main idea of a passage.
Students also learn that everything they read has a main idea.
Barbara Blumenfeld, teacher of seventh-grade English, Vernon L. Davey Junior High, East Orange, New Jersey. I give students examples of numbers from the newspaper so they can practice recognizing and distinguishing between exact and estimated numbers. First I ask students to think about in which sections of the newspaper numbers can be found. Typically, their answers include sports, weather, business, obituaries and ads. Then I introduce the concept of exact and estimated numbers and have students brainstorm reasons for estimations.