The Effects of a Paraphrasing and Text Structure Intervention on the Main Idea Generation and Reading Comprehension of Students with Reading Disabilities in Grades 4 and 5

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effects of a small group intervention targeting paraphrasing and text structure instruction on the main idea generation and reading comprehension of students with reading disabilities in Grades 4 and 5. Students (N = 62) were randomly assigned to receive the Tier 2-type intervention or business-as-usual instruction. Students in the intervention received 25, 40-minute lessons focused on paraphrasing sections of text by identifying the main topic and the most important idea about that topic. Students utilized the text structure organization to inform their main idea generation. Results yielded statistically significant, positive effects in favor of the intervention group on near-transfer and mid-transfer measures of text structure identification (g = 0.75) and main idea generation (g = 0.70), but no statistically significant effect on a far-transfer measure of reading comprehension. These findings provide initial support for utilizing this instruction to improve students’ main idea generation on taught and untaught structures.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grants R305F100013 and R305A150407 and by the Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through grant 2P50 HD052117-11 to The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, or the Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.