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Improving Reading Comprehension Through Explicit Summarization Instruction

Elledge, Deborah

Abstract Details

2013, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Allied Health Sciences: Communication Sciences and Disorders.
ABSTRACT Research over the last several decades has revealed that adolescents in the United States are leaving school with insufficient literacy skills to compete in the global marketplace. A primary contributor to poor literacy rates is poor reading comprehension. The purpose of this research was to develop and test the efficacy of a protocol for teaching summarization, a frequently used reading comprehension strategy, to fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. Participating students wrote summaries of science textbook passages which were analyzed for the inclusion of main ideas and the deletion of extraneous details. One class at each grade level served as the experimental group and received 4 lessons of explicit summarization instruction, and one class at each grade level served as the control group (students did not receive summarization instruction). Results of repeated measures ANOVA of the within-subject factor of Time for experimental groups indicated that there was no significant difference between the percentage of main ideas included in the pre-assessment summaries and post-assessment summaries of students after summarization instruction. A significant difference was found among the percentage of main ideas included in the summaries of students in the three grades with sixth grade students including a higher percentage of main ideas than student in fourth or fifth grade. Results indicated a significant difference between the percentage of main ideas included in the summaries of students in the experimental group and students in the control group on the post assessment summaries with the experimental group including a significantly lower percentage of main ideas. Analysis of extraneous details revealed that the experimental group included significantly fewer details in their summaries after the summarization instruction. A significant difference was also found between conditions with students in the experimental group including significantly fewer extraneous details than students in the control group on post assessment summaries. These results suggest that the protocol was effective in teaching students to writer shorter summaries, but not in teaching them how to identify the main ideas of a textbook passage.
Nancy Creaghead, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Sandra Combs, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Renee Oliver Hawkins, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Jo-Anne Prendeville, Ed.D. (Committee Member)
Lesley Raisor, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
112 p.

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Citations

  • Elledge, D. (2013). Improving Reading Comprehension Through Explicit Summarization Instruction [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367928451

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Elledge, Deborah. Improving Reading Comprehension Through Explicit Summarization Instruction. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367928451.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Elledge, Deborah. "Improving Reading Comprehension Through Explicit Summarization Instruction." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367928451

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)