Teaching Children to Identify the Main Idea of Expository Texts

Abstract

Finding the main idea, a basic reading comprehension skill, often causes great difficulties for children. There is little consensus as to the definition of main idea, even in the research literature, and this has led to ineffective instructional design. This article describes the findings of a series of studies based on the Kintsch and van Dijk text-processing model. It defines main idea in terms of van Dijk's general topic and specific topic of discourse. The studies focus on the effects of text factors that can serve as cues to what is important in the text. These studies were the basis for the development of an instructional program on finding the main idea that was targeted for learning disabled students. The program is described. A small-scale evaluation of the program was conducted, in which eleven-year-old learning disabled children who worked through the program showed significant improvement in their ability to write sentences containing the main idea of short paragraphs. The program could serve as a beginning step in the development of instructional materials in reading comprehension for learning disabled and other mildly handicapped children.