Summarization

A summary is "a brief statement that contains the essential ideas of a longer passage or selection" (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 247). According to the National Reading Panel report, the aim of summarization instruction is "to teach the reader to identify the main or central ideas of a paragraph or a series of paragraphs" (NICHD, 2000, p. 4-93). Readers first learn how to summarize a single paragraph; then when working with longer passages, they create a summary of the paragraph summaries.

Summarizing is difficult, but research suggests that teaching learners this strategy is worth the effort. Summarization training has been shown to be effective in improving learners' ability to compose summaries and also has important transfer effects. Studies on children indicate that learners have better recall of the summarized information and are more successful in answering questions about the text than those who were not taught to summarize (NICHD, 2000. p. 4-46). Summarization improves comprehension, perhaps, because readers who are asked to summarize spend more time reading and must pay close attention to the text (NICHD, p. 4-92).

Summarization is often applied to expository (nonfiction) texts. It is a valuable study skill because readers cannot remember everything they read, so they need to be sure they focus on the most important facts and ideas. Because most adult learners want to improve their reading for important reasonsÑoften to pass the GED tests or to understand and use work-related materialsÑexplaining this rationale may be a good way to introduce instruction in the summarization strategy.

Almost all of the summarization research reviewed by the National Reading Panel was done with children in grade five and above (NICHD, 2000, p. 4-92). Researchers may have focused on older children because summarization is a difficult skill in itself, and to teach it as a tool for improving reading skills assumes a significant level of existing reading and writing competence. In addition, readers must be able to distinguish important from less important ideas and make general statements that apply to a set of similar/related facts or examples. These are advanced thinking skills.

You may find some of the activities on the next few pages most appropriate for the better readers and critical thinkers in your class. Suggestions for first steps (introducing the underlying thinking skills to beginners) are also included.

Identifying main ideas. A key feature of the summarization process (and the first step in learning to summarize lengthy texts) is identifying main ideas in paragraphs. A main idea statement may be understood as a one-sentence summary of a paragraph (Carnine, Silbert, & Kameenui, 1997). To introduce the concept, begin by defining terms:

The topic of a paragraph is its subject, "the general category or class of ideas . . . to which the ideas of a passage as a whole belong" (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 258).

It usually can be stated in a word or phrase: tornadoes, mammals, local preschools, a healthful diet, the Vietnam War, or job hunting.

The main idea of a paragraph is a statement of what the paragraph is about - "the gist of a passage; central thought" (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 148).

In other words, the main idea is what the writer has to say about the topic.

Example

The topic of the paragraph is local unemployment.

The main idea is that the local unemployment rate has recently increased.

Sometimes the main idea is directly stated in a topic sentence. Recognizing a topic sentence is simpler than inferring an unstated main idea, but learners still may need practice. You will need multiple examples of well written paragraphs that have topic sentences. A good source for these is a comprehension skills workbook. Show several examples of paragraphs with topic sentences at different locations in paragraphs. Explain that readers should not assume the first sentence is the topic sentence.

Of course, most of the time there is no topic sentence, and the reader must infer the main idea. Here are some ideas for teaching learners how to identify an implied (unstated) main idea.

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