Noting that comprehension studies have stressed the importance of determining the main idea of reading instruction, this paper offers a teaching strategy--the Modified Language Experience Method--that has proven successful in teaching main ideas to secondary school students. The paper first compares the strategy, which begins with the general comprehension of a paragraph and moves to the specific understanding of the main idea, to the more commonly used subskill method of instruction, which begins with the specific understanding of the main idea and moves to the general comprehension of the paragraph. The major portion of the paper contains a 12-week schedule for using the strategy that outlines preimplementation, implementation, and postimplementation activities. The paper concludes with complete descriptions of four activities illustrating the use of the strategy. (FL)