A Review of Summarizing and Main Idea Interventions for Struggling Readers in Grades 3 Through 12: 1978–2016

Abstract

This systematic review examines the effects of summarizing and main idea interventions on the reading comprehension outcomes of struggling readers in Grades 3 through 12. A comprehensive search identified 30 studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 1978 and 2016. Studies included struggling reader participants in Grades 3 through 12; targeted summarizing or main idea instruction; used an experimental, quasi-experimental, or single-case design; and included a reading comprehension outcome. A meta-analysis of 23 group design studies resulted in a statistically significant mean effect of 0.97. Group size, number of sessions, grade level, and publication year did not moderate treatment effect. Visual analysis of six single-case designs yielded strong evidence for retell measures and a range of evidence for short-answer comprehension measures. Findings suggest that main idea and summarizing instruction may improve struggling readers’ main idea identification and reading comprehension. Limitations include the lack of standardized measures and the unreported, changing description of the counterfactual.

Improving Reading Comprehension of Informational Text: Text Structure Instruction for Students With or At Risk for Learning Disabilities

“…Before beginning the think-aloud, teachers read the text aloud once to students, discuss any unknown vocabulary words and textual features (e.g., charts, graphs, images), and have students state the main idea of the text (cf. Stevens, Park, & Vaughn, 2018). Then, teachers review two common types of purposes for informational texts (persuade, inform).…”

Is the Student-Centered Learning Style More Effective Than the Teacher-Student Double-Centered Learning Style in Improving Reading Performance?

“…Main idea abstraction refers to an ability to abstract the mental message from the given test, which is the ultimate goal of reading comprehension. The main idea has a close relationship with reading performance, which in turn determines the reading process (e.g., reading speed) and how the readers can abstract/select the proper reading strategies from their knowledge bases (Hebert et al, 2018; Stevens et al, 2019). Previous studies confirmed that main idea abstraction is a key factor of executive function in reading comprehension.…”

Self-Regulated Strategy Development in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics for Students With Specific Learning Disabilities

“…For example, if the focus of instruction is mathematics problem solving, a learning strategy specific to mathematics problem solving would be taught within the six stages of SRSD instruction along with self-regulation strategies of goal setting, self-monitoring, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement (see Table 1). The SRSD framework provides a structure for teaching learning and self-regulation strategies that may be applied across content areas, grade levels, and student abilities (Baker et al., 2009; Cuenca-Carlino et al., 2016; Stevens et al., 2019).…”

“…In addition to writing, SRSD is also effective for teaching reading skills to students with SLD. Specific reading strategies taught within the SRSD framework include identification of main idea and details, paraphrasing, and summarizing expository and narrative texts (Stevens et al., 2019). Teaching main idea identification and summarization is effective for students with reading difficulties in upper-elementary grades, middle school, and high school (Stevens et al., 2019) and helps students remember essential information from text they have read (Hagaman & Casey, 2016).…”

“…Specific reading strategies taught within the SRSD framework include identification of main idea and details, paraphrasing, and summarizing expository and narrative texts (Stevens et al., 2019). Teaching main idea identification and summarization is effective for students with reading difficulties in upper-elementary grades, middle school, and high school (Stevens et al., 2019) and helps students remember essential information from text they have read (Hagaman & Casey, 2016). Most studies document support for SRSD in main idea identification and summarization with expository text (Sanders et al., 2019; Stevens et al., 2019).…”