Fiction Summary, Main Idea, and Theme IEP Goals & Templates
Updated: March 15, 2026. Reviewer: Dr. Rose Sebastian, Ed.D.
Browse CCS-aligned reading comprehension IEP goals for summarizing and finding the main idea or theme of a fiction text
These goals are split. The same Common Core standard has a part that works for higher level text comprehension related to themes and central ideas in fiction texts. These standards are similar to the non-fiction standard we use for our goals on main ideas and supporting details. That same fiction standard also has a part that talks about summarizing a text. While standards about retelling a story and answering basic questions about it end at the elementary school level, the summary part of this standard is flexible enough to allow you to craft a goal that targets the exact parts of fiction comprehension that your student is struggling with, whether it is putting events in order, understanding character motivations, or pulling all of that in with the theme into a high level summary. And we have summary, theme, and central idea goals for students in elementary, middle, and high schools.
The Common Core has standards for theme starting in third grade. Check out these upper elementary theme and central idea, CCS-aligned IEP goals.
In grades 6, 7, and 8 figuring out the theme of a text, supporting it with details, summarizing it-- and figuring out the central idea are all essential skills so check out these goals!
High school IEP goals can be tricky to figure out-- and find-- so check out these 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade CCS aligned reading comprehension goals.
