The Effect of a Direct Instruction Paradigm on Beginning Readers' Main Idea Comprehension: A Replication

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Reading Research and Instruction

Volume

27

Publication Date

1988

First Page

25

Last Page

56

Abstract

Teaching main idea comprehension is receiving renewed attention among instructional designers and reading researchers (Baumann, 1984, 1986; Hare and Chelsa, 1986; Hare and Milligan, 1984; Taylor, 1986; Winograd and Brennen, 1983). Determining the main idea of a text is assumed to be a process which involves the tacit assignment of importance levels to the elements within a text. During this process, the reader mentally parses a text into idea units and then selects a single idea unit that represents the most important idea or an idea that brings cohesion to the remaining less important ideas in the text. Part of the comprehension process also involves the process of composition (Tierney and Pearson, 1983). Consequently, each reader composes his own version of the text by using prior knowledge to guide the selection of important information. When the main idea of a text is determined, a mental hook is provided upon which other relevant ideas can be organized, understood, related, and eventually recalled (Kintsch and van Dijk, 1978; Williams; 1986).

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