ABSTRACT

Title of Dissertation:THE EFFECTS OF TWO SUMMARIZATION STRATEGIES USING EXPOSITORY TEXT ON THE READING COMPREHENSION AND SUMMARY WRITING OF FOURTH- AND FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS IN AN URBAN, TITLE 1 SCHOOL

Diane M. Braxton, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009

Directed By: Dr. Mariam Jean Dreher

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

University of Maryland, College Park

Using a quasi-experimental pretest/post test design, this study examined the effects of two summarization strategies on the reading comprehension and summary writing of fourth- and fifth- grade students in an urban, Title 1 school. The strategies, Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text (GIST) and Rule-based, were taught using authentic social studies materials that are part of the school system's curriculum.

Four intact classes participated in fifteen 40 - 60 minute lessons. One fourth-grade (17 students) and one fifth-grade (13 students) received GIST instruction, and one fourth-grade (20 students) and one fifth-grade (14 students) received Rule-based instruction.

The Qualitative Reading Inventory - 4 was used to determine the effects on the expository reading comprehension. For the fourth graders, there was no significant interaction between time and intervention. However, there was a significant main effect for time with a very large effect size. Additional analyses showed a significant time by intervention by gender interaction for implicit questions (but no effect for explicit questions). GIST group males outperformed the females, while Rule-based group females outperformed males.

For the fifth graders, there was no significant interaction between time and intervention. However, there was a significant main effect for time with a very large effect size.

For the quality of summaries, there was a significant interaction between time and intervention with a very large effect size for both grades, favoring the Rule-based group.

Questionnaire responses showed the greatest change for students in both grades and interventions on concepts of summary writing. Ratings indicated an increase in knowledge about summary writing, paralleling the gained knowledge that was evident in students' post test summaries.

These results suggest that both summarization methods can improve the expository reading comprehension and summary writing of urban, Title 1 students. These findings provide evidence to encourage the teaching of summarization strategies to promote reading achievement especially with students who are lagging behind their peers in the area of reading. 

This study extended summarization research by (a) using authentic expository text rather than research-generated material, and (b) instructing a student population that has had limited representation in past studies.