Differences in the Effects of Summarizing Skills Training by 4th Grade Students

Abstract

The study presents the effects of a 6-month intervention program for training students in using summarizing skills by informational texts. A total of 114 4th grade students and 5 of their teachers, who implemented the program, participated in the experimental group (EG), 76 students were in the control group (CG). We examined the students’ skill of summarizing with a pre-, post- and a follow-up test. All students were divided into four groups according to their general reading competency (GRC) at pre-test: struggling, at-risk, average and good readers. We found: 1) important progress in summarizing by all groups of readers (EG and CG), with a more extensive progress made by readers in the EG; 2) stable proficiency differences between students in summarizing in general and in the elements of the summary (main ideas and coherence of text). The implications for further research and practice are discussed.

Keywords

• summarizing
• differences between students
• informational texts