Supporting Main Idea Identification and Text Summarization in Middle School Co-Taught Classes. (March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shelton, Alexandra; Lemons, Christopher J.; Wexler, Jade
• Other Names: Wexler Jade guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Intervention in school and clinic. Volume 56:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 217
• Page End: 223
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Subjects: learning strategies -- academic -- adolescence -- age -- and co-teaching -- collaboration -- instruction -- content area -- comprehension -- reading; Learning disabled children -- Education -- Periodicals; Problem children -- Education -- Periodicals; Behavior disorders in children -- Periodicals; Special education -- Periodicals; 371.9
• DOI: 10.1177/1053451220944380
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1053-4512

Abstract

Being able to identify the main ideas within a complex multi-paragraph content-area text is an essential reading comprehension skill. It is especially important for content-area and special education co-teachers to provide explicit instruction in this skill to meet the needs of their students with learning disabilities who frequently struggle with understanding text they read. To help students with main idea identification, co-teachers can provide students with explicit instruction on how to generate a main idea statement for individual paragraphs or sections of a text. Co-teachers can extend this instruction by incorporating peer-mediated practice to help students strengthen their main idea statements. Finally, co-teachers can instruct students to use their statements to summarize the text. This article provides guidance for supporting the main idea identification and text summarization skills of middle school students in a co-taught classroom.