When it comes to reading books and essays for classes, Plato is certainly unique. Instead of paragraph after paragraph of non-fiction writing, Plato writes in dialogues with a cast of characters talking within a certain setting. He's able to use this back-and-forth style to help develop his own ideas, however, for new readers it might be difficult to navigate this new style of writing.
Although each of Plato's dialogues should be judged on it's own, there are some general similarities and patterns that might help new readers. For starters, Socrates appears in most of Plato's dialogues as the main character used as a mouthpiece for Plato's own ideas. So if you're trying to determine what Plato thinks, look to what Socrates says.
Furthermore, the socratic method is used in order to develop these ideas. This usually starts with an assertion made by the non-Socrates character which is questioned by Socrates until a revised assertion is made. This pattern repeats until the characters arrive at an answer they find satisfactory or if the discussion just fizzles out like in some dialogues like the Euthyphro.
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