Summarization and Main Idea Instruction

1. Summarization and Main Idea Instruction Ann Morrison, Ph.D.

2. What is Main Idea? • Main idea refers to the "big idea" or the most important idea found in expository text. Duffy, 2009 Morrison, 2012

3. Presenting Main Idea • That authors have a purpose for writing that reflects what they think is important. • The author's topic and the author's most important idea are not necessarily the same. • Not everything in a text is equally important. Morrison, 2012

4. Main Idea Instruction • Tell the child to put themselves in the place of the author. • Identify words and phrases (the details) that might be clues to what is important. • Use details to make a prediction about what is important by asking questions about what, in their experience, the clues seem to say about what the author thinks is most important. • Ultimately decide what the main idea is by saying, ”If I had written this and said things this way, what would that say about what I thought was important?" Morrison, 2012

5. What is Summarizing? • Summarizing is the creation of a brief retelling of a text. While it may include the main idea or theme, the focus is on describing in brief form the text's major points. Duffy, 2009 Morrison, 2012

6. Teaching Summarization • Delete unimportant words and information • Deleteredundant words and information • Substitute groups of words or ideas with a superordinate term • Write each word that is left on an index card • Organize the index cards to create one or more summary sentences. Morrison, 2012

7. Sensitivity to Importance • Some ideas are bigger than others • Some details are more important than others • What factors influence a child’s sense of what is important? • Context is everything Morrison, 2012

8. Teaching Sensitivity to Importance • Select a short piece of text at the student’s independent reading level and have them read the passage aloud • Give the student three index cards, each with one idea from the text on it • One card should have a primary idea, another should have a secondary idea, the third should have a tertiary idea. • Have the child order the ideas based on their understanding of the text. Morrison, 2012