A Lesson Cycle for Teaching Expository Reading and Writing

656

José Montelongo | Roberta J. Herter | Robert Ansaldo | Naomi HatterThis lesson cycle for

expository texts uses direct

instruction for teaching

students to recognize cue

words for text structures.

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 53(8) May 2010doi:10.1598/JA AL.53.8.4 © 2010 International Reading Association (pp. 656–666)

A Lesson Cycle for Teaching Expository Reading and Writing

In the Indus Valley, the underground water had become unusually mixed with salt. It made growing crops very difficult for farmers. With very little food, the inhabatants of the Indus Valley faced famine and extreme starvation. They f led the valley to escape the fate of no food.

How can middle school teachers get students to summarize their reading of expository texts, as this student has? Beginning with that end in mind, we thought about the tenuous transition students are required to make into ever more challenging textbooks. In response, we devised a lesson cycle of exposi-tion that provides students with strategic practice reading and writing exposi-tory texts. Teaching middle school students to develop reading and writing strategies for expository texts is difficult, even for experienced teachers. How do we teach students to find main ideas or note important supporting details? How do we teach students to organize expository paragraphs logically?

In this article, we present a lesson cycle of activities that teaches students reading and writing skills for expository texts. The lesson cycle for expository texts uses direct instruction for teaching students to recognize cue words for text structures. The action research study reports with quantitative data that students improved expository text comprehension after five weeks of practice with the lessons. The lesson cycle promotes teaching reading and writing of expository texts as complementary processes that are manageable and repli-cable in middle school content area classrooms.

Action research responds to the plaintive voices of students singing their familiar anthem: “Righting a paragraph for me is hard couse I don’t know what to right. Also I dont know what you have to talk about.” A sixth grad-er further informed our thinking when she wrote, “Writing paragraphs is a problem for me because after a few sentences I can’t write in a paragraph.” “I have a problem reading textbooks,” another student told us. “They tend to get boring and I get lost in the text. I also drift off in though and get in trouble for daydreaming.” These students recognized the challenges posed by reading and writing expository text. The lesson cycle presented here is one response to their calls for help.

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ContextThis action research project brought together two newly credentialed English teachers and two teacher educators to develop and pilot expository text lesson cycles. Following the completion of their credential-ing program, the new teachers eased into their careers by taking a five-week summer school teaching posi-tions working with students required to attend half-day sessions. The challenge for the new teachers was to develop a responsive curriculum in language arts and study skills. We came together and planned the lesson cycle lessons using state-adopted middle school textbooks from science and social studies. For the first two weeks, we met nightly to plan and assess the next day’s lessons. Then we met weekly to review student work and assess student progress and overall program effectiveness.

The district offering summer school required its middle school students to attend if they had failed three or more courses during the school year. The courses taught by the new teachers included a study skills course and an English class. We report here the results of the action research study along with the content of the lesson cycles that we designed and that was taught by the teachers.

Recognizing Main IdeasMany content area teachers rely solely on their text-books to provide students with practice in locating main ideas, an over-reliance that has inherent prob-lems. First, textbooks are often sporadic in provid-ing opportunities for students to practice finding the main idea, resulting in only a few exercises through-out an entire school year. Second, textbooks present exercises on main ideas, text structures, and signal words as isolated skills. Given the inadequacy of text-book activities, teachers often resort in desperation to advising students to “always choose the first sentence of a paragraph as the main idea.” This advice is given without the instruction needed to understand what main ideas are and how they are related to reading comprehension skills, text structures, and writing.

Students must conceptualize the relationships be-tween main ideas and the various types of supporting details, such as examples, facts, and opinions. To help

students do this, teachers can use authentic activities that treat topics, main ideas, and supporting details as components of paragraphs and that require students to work with paragraphs in their entirety, not with in-dividual sentences only. However, this is typically not the case with current textbooks, which use exercises that focus on locating the main idea with individual sentences rather than considering the logical relation-ships among the supporting details and the main idea.

Textbooks often ignore the relationship between main ideas and their supporting details. In a fact-or-opinion exercise, for example, students may be pre-sented with sentences such as, “Baseball is an exciting sport.” From sentences such as this, the student must decide whether the sentence states a fact or an opin-ion. Since they are only asked to consider an indi-vidual sentence in these exercises, students are not learning to make the connection between facts and opinions and the main idea when reading an exposi-tory paragraph.

More important, the use of isolated sentences fails to promote the understanding that facts and opinions or causes and effects are intended to prove or explain the main ideas. In summary, the use of individual sentences to teach main ideas and supporting details decontextualizes important skills and fails to teach students the relationships among topics, main ideas, and supporting details.

Text Structures and LearningThere is structure to the information that is contained within the paragraphs that compose the textbooks in content area classrooms. There are different types of expository structures or patterns of organization, which ref lect the relationship between the main idea of the paragraph and the supporting details used to prove or explain it. Among the different types of paragraph structures are generalization, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution (Piccolo, 1987). Examples of these text structures are included in Table 1.

Text structures provide students with frame-works for understanding the content area texts. The recognition of an organizational pattern facilitates the learning of textbook information because it enables the reader to see the logical relationships advanced

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when they recognize compare-and-contrast para-graphs. For students to develop this ability, however, they need repeated practice with the various types of expository text structures.

One way to teach students to recognize the dif-ferent text structures is to provide them with prac-tice deconstructing and reconstructing paragraphs with graphic organizers, which are visual representa-tions of text structures that capture the relationships between main ideas and supporting details. Graphic organizers can also help teach students to conceptual-ize the relationships among the supporting details and the paragraph’s overarching main idea. Once students have learned the expository text structures, they can use them to generate their own paragraphs. Early on, students require an outline of the structure to gener-ate a paragraph. The graphic organizers can be used to scaffold their writing as well.

In summary, students must know the interre-lationships among the topics, main ideas, and sup-porting details of paragraphs if they are going to comprehend and remember the important points the author is making. Students must be aware of the

by the author (Ogle & Blachowicz, 2002). Like chess masters who use structures to remember the positions of each piece on the chessboard, readers employ text structures to help them learn and recall what they read (Taylor & Samuels, 1983).

Text structures have signal words that are asso-ciated with them (Neufeld, 2005), which helps stu-dents to identify the various structures. Sequence paragraphs often contain the signal words first, next, and finally to indicate the order of events. The words because, since, consequently, and the phrase as a result, sig-nal cause-and-effect paragraphs. A set of signal words and their associated expository structures is presented in Table 2.

Successful readers are aware of the different types of paragraph structures and their correspond-ing signal words. They learn to use their recognition of text structures to find the main ideas and guide their understanding of the text. At the more abstract level, successful readers use the text structures to or-ganize and construct a mental representation of what they read (Spivey & King, 1989). Students learn and remember how two subjects are alike and different

Table 1 Types of Text Structures and Corresponding Examples

Type Example

Generalization Franklin Roosevelt’s early life was a privileged one. His father, James Roosevelt, was a wealthy of-ficial of a railway. His mother, Sara, came from a rich family and was younger than her husband. He accompanied his parents on their yearly trips to Europe. He was educated by private tutors until the age of 14. He learned to speak and write both German and French fluently as a youngster.

Sequence A pea plant goes through several stages in its life cycle. It starts out as a tiny plant, called an embryo, inside a seed. When the seed sprouts, the embryo grows into a seedling that does not look like a ma-ture plant. The seedling grows into a mature plant with flowers. Each flower produces seeds inside a pod.

Compare and contrast

Crocodiles and alligators are similar in many ways, but different in others. Both have tough hides, which are wanted by manufacturers of leather. They both prey upon fish and small mammals that they swallow whole. The crocodile seems the more menacing of the two since it shows more teeth when its mouth is closed. Still, nobody would want to encounter either one of these creatures alone.

Cause and effect The North’s victory over the South in the U.S. Civil War resulted in many hardships for the losers. Industry and the Southern way of life were casualties of the war. The fierce hatred between the North and South peoples continued for generations after the war. The South lost its voice in the so-cial, political, and cultural affairs of the country. Not all of the results of the war were negative since slavery was abolished.

Problem and solution

The underground water that sustained the Indus Valley had become salty. This made it difficult for the farmers to grow essential crops. Without food, the inhabitants of the valley faced certain starva-tion. In order to escape this fate, they deserted their city and moved elsewhere. In time, they may have been assimilated or accepted into the population of other cultures.

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sentence completion activity, and (4) rewriting text. The four-part cycle is presented in Figure 1.

Vocabulary WordsThe first part of the cycle introduces the vocabulary words essential for the understanding and comple-tion of the other activities. In contrast with the typi-cal language arts lesson where students are given a list of words to look up, in this lesson cycle, we use words-in-context exercises. Research shows that stu-dents can develop the important ability of guessing at the meanings of unknown words through context clues exercises (Fukkink & de Glopper, 1998). Next, students use their dictionaries to check their guesses and verify meanings of the vocabulary words. To as-sess learning of the words, students generate their own sentences using their new vocabulary.

Text StructuresThe second part of the cycle is devoted to the intro-duction of the five different types of paragraph text

different types of text structures and signal words to guide their comprehension. Furthermore, students must be able to generate mental representations of the different structures to learn, remember, and write about the information from text. Students require extensive practice with paragraph exercises, not indi-vidual sentences, as the unit of analysis.

Next, we present a lesson cycle that teaches stu-dents the interrelationships among topics, main ideas, and supporting details. The lesson cycle familiarizes students with the different types of expository struc-tures, their graphic representations, and the signal words correlated with those structures. It is intended to teach students to read and summarize expository text.

The Lesson CycleThe lesson cycle begins by introducing essential vo-cabulary and ends with students composing exposi-tory paragraphs. The lesson cycle consists of four parts: (1) vocabulary words, (2) text structures, (3) modified

Table 2 Signal Words and Phrases Correlated With the Different Expository Structures

Generalization Sequence Compare and contrast Cause and effect Problem and solution

for example first like because problem

to illustrate then similarly since answer

for instance next on the other hand consequently solution

to begin with after however thus trouble

Figure 1 The Four-Part Lesson Cycle

Vocabulary Words

Using-the-context exercises

Dictionary usage

Generate sentences

Text Structures

Generalization

Sequence

Compare and contrast

Cause and effect

Problem and solution

Modified Sentence Completion Activity

Find embedded paragraph

Locate main idea

Arrange sentences in order on graphic organizers

Rewriting Text

Rewrite embedded paragraph in the student’s own words

Write original compositions

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hidden paragraphs or about the number of sentences that must be found. Providing students with hints can diminish the challenges inherent in the activities. Teachers can scaffold the task with varying degrees of support after the first few exposures to the modi-fied sentence completion task, thus leading students to success in independent work.

In the modified sentence completion task, stu-dents develop their skills for locating the main ideas in text. The related sentences that complete the embed-ded paragraph contain one main idea and several sup-porting details, often cued by signal words. Students must review all of the sentences before they can deter-mine which one is the main idea. In contrast with the “always choose the first sentence” advice that teachers give their students before a high-stakes test, students must know what a main idea is and how to identify it to recognize main ideas from details.

Rewriting TextThe final step in the lesson cycle is generative. Students take the paragraph and summarize its content in their own words, as was shown in the paragraph on the Indus Valley at the beginning of the article and in the examples in this section. Students may simply replace some of the author’s words with synonyms and ant-onyms of their own, or they may add their own sup-porting details to expand on the original text.

In the following rewrite, the student has made the paragraph more colloquial:

In the Indus Valley there was an underground water system that went salty. This made it close to impossible for farmers to grow necessary crops. With no crops the people of Indus Valley face death. So they left. Over time they may have joined other cultures.

The word “difficult” became “close to impossible.” The entire sentence, “In order to escape this fate, they deserted their city and moved elsewhere,” became, “So they left.” The word “essential” became “nec-essary.” In this paragraph, the writer clearly demon-strates an understanding of the text.

In another example, the writer takes liberties with the abstracted paragraph by adding some of her own details while maintaining an understanding of the paragraph:

structures—generalization, sequences, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution— one structure at a time. A teacher presents students with a paragraph corresponding to one of the text structures and models methods for separating the main ideas of paragraphs from the supporting details. Along with the paragraphs, the teacher presents sig-nal words that correspond to each text structure. For example, because signals a detail in a cause-and-effect paragraph; next signals a detail in a sequence para-graph; similarly indicates a detail in a compare-and-contrast paragraph. Students are taught to recognize that the signal words point to details rather than the main idea.

Modified Sentence Completion ActivityOnce the students are introduced to the vocabulary words and to a particular text structure and its signal words, the next stage in the lesson cycle combines the learning of vocabulary with the introduction of the text structure through a sentence completion exercise (fill-in-the-blanks activity). Unlike the sentence com-pletion tasks found in textbooks and workbooks that are written at the sentence level of analysis, a quali-tatively different sentence completion activity is pre-sented. This modified sentence completion task gives students practice with vocabulary words, locating main ideas, and using graphic organizers associated with the various expository structures (Montelongo & Hernández, 2007).

In this sentence completion task, students are presented with a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet that includes 10–12 sentences. Half of the sentences are related to each other and form an expository para-graph. The remaining sentences serve as foils. To do the activity successfully, students complete the sen-tences with a correct vocabulary word and find the related sentences that create the embedded paragraph. First, the students find the related sentences, then they identify the main idea sentence from among them. Next, students arrange the related sentences in a logi-cal order and write (or paste) them onto a graphic or-ganizer. An example of a sentence completion task is presented in Figure 2.

Teachers can help their students find the related sentences by giving them hints about the topics of the

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Figure 2 An Example Sentence Completion Activity

Part 1Directions: Complete the sentences with a vocabulary word.

ally aristocrats assimilated dictator essential

famines fate inhabitants plagues sustained

1. Without food, the _______________ of the valley faced certain starvation.

2. Italy was an _______________ of Japan and Germany during World War ll.

3. This made it difficult for the farmers to grow _______________ crops.

4. Epidemics of _______________ in humans are usually caused by fleas and rats.

5. In time, they may have been _______________ or accepted into the population of other cultures.

6. In order to escape this _______________, they deserted their city and moved elsewhere.

7. The _______________ lived a life of leisure while the poor people suffered.

8. _______________ are usually brought on by crop failures and pestilence.

9. The underground water that _______________ the Indus Valley had become salty.

10. Porfirio Díaz was a _______________ of Mexico who ruled for over thirty years.

Part 2Directions: Find the related sentences and paste them onto the graphic organizer.

Part 3Directions: Write a paragraph in your own words using the graphic organizer to help you. Add synonyms, antonyms, and experiences to make this paragraph your own.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Main Idea Sentence

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

Detail 4

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MethodologyThe action research was coordinated between the teacher educators and the classroom teachers. As shown in Table 3, which summarizes the sequence of teaching events, the study skills teacher introduced new vocabulary on the first day of the lesson cycle. During this class time, students completed the context- clues exercises, getting more precise definitions of the vocabulary words from a dictionary and creat-ing sentences using these words. On the second day, the study skills teacher introduced a particular type of text structure and the signal words that correlated with that structure. As part of this lesson, the study skills teacher presented students with paragraphs that exemplified a particular structure and its signal words. The task for the students was to find the main ideas of the paragraphs and to note the usage of the signal words. On the third day, the study skills teacher be-gan a new cycle by introducing new vocabulary.

The students were introduced to the differ-ent types of expository structures one structure at a time. The instructor modeled the deconstruction of a paragraph into its component parts: main idea, sup-porting details, and signal words. The five exposi-tory structures were taught in the following order: generalization, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. There were two complete cycles for each of these structures during the five-week summer schedule.

The English teacher who followed the study skills teacher on the daily schedule worked with the stu-dents on completing the modified sentence comple-tion task on the first day of each cycle. The English instructor reviewed vocabulary, assisted the students in completing the modified sentence completion task, and taught the students to locate main ideas and logi-cally order sentences. Finally, the English teacher in-troduced graphic organizers and supervised students rewriting their paragraphs. On the second day, the English teacher directed students to write original compositions that corresponded to the expository structure. For instance, after having learned about the compare-and-contrast structure, students wrote about the differences between summer school and regular school. On the third day, the English teacher began

Indus Valley underground water became salty. The scary farmers with face paint got irritated because their crops couldn’t grow right. Maybe 2 out of 10 crops would give them their essential needs. Many people died a horrible death. Thanks to them the in-habitants figured that they needed to live somewhere else. Maybe they could of been accepted by different cultures. We will never know.

In the next example, the writer also takes owner-

ship of the paragraph by adding his own words while

also preserving the meaning of the text. In addition,

note the use of the signal word “problem”:

Indus Valley’s water has become very polluted with salty like substances. This problem made it hard for farmers to grow there crops needed for survival. With no food, the valley livers would have nothing to eat. This is usually how disasters start. To keep away from this problem, they left the valley.

In their summary writing samples, students dem-

onstrate their comprehension of the text by sum-

marizing the content in their own words. Some add

details from their own experiences or background

knowledge while others delete certain supporting de-

tails. These examples of summary writing provide the

teachers with evidence that students comprehended

the text, thus validating their learning of content.

By adding their own words and supporting details,

the students not only demonstrated an understanding

of the content material, through their writing they

ref lect a level of engagement not accessible through

typical main idea exercises.

A Study of the Lesson Cycle on the Learning of Main IdeasWe took this opportunity to work with a team on

investigating the effectiveness of the lesson cycle in

a classroom setting. The study followed the prog-

ress of sixth- and seventh-grade students during the

five weeks of summer school in a California middle

school. The junior authors of this manuscript served

as the English and study skills teachers for the pro-

gram. The participants were required to attend classes

to be promoted.

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Table 3 Weekly Experimental Schedule

Week Teacher Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

1 Study skills teacher

Test 1 Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—generalization

Signal words

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—sequence

Signal words

English teacher

Definition of main idea, topic, sup-porting details

Nonexperimental activities

Sentence comple-tion activity

Order the ab-stracted general-ization paragraph

Rewrite paragraph in own words

Write generaliza-tion paragraph


Order the ab-stracted sequence paragraph



Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—compare and contrast

Signal words

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—cause and effect

Signal words

Using Context Clues; Dictionary; Matching;

English teacher

Write sequence paragraph


Order the ab-stracted compare-and-contrast paragraph


Write compare-and-contrast paragraph


Order the abstracted cause-and-effect paragraph


Write cause-and-effect paragraph


Text structures—problem and solution

Signal words

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Review signal words

Review defini-tions of main idea, topic, and sup-porting details

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text Structures— generalization

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

English teacher


Order the ab-stracted problem-and-solution paragraph


Write problem-and-solution paragraph

Test 2 Sentence comple-tion activity

Order the ab-stracted general-ization paragraph


Write generaliza-tion paragraph


Text structures—sequence

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—compare and contrast

Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—cause and effect

English teacher


Order the ab-stracted sequence paragraph


Write sequence paragraph


Order the ab-stracted compare-and-contrast paragraph


Write compare-and-contrast paragraph


Order the abstracted cause-and-effect paragraph


(continued)

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student participant was tested on each test only once for the three different test sessions. The order of pre-sentation of the tests was randomized over subjects. The student participants were given 30 minutes to complete a test.

ResultsThe students improved in their ability to identify the main ideas of paragraphs. The mean percentage of main ideas selected correctly on the first test was 59.32% and 77.86% on the final test. This represented an increase of over 30% after the five-week lesson cy-cle intervention. Excluding the four participants who did equally well on both the first and last test, 47 of the 57 participants (p < .0001, sign test) showed improve-ment on the final test relative to their performance on the initial test. The results were generalizable to both the sixth- and seventh-grade students. For the sixth-grade students, 25 of the 29 (p < .001, sign test) performed better on the final test than on the ini-tial test. The seventh-grade students also improved in their ability to identify main ideas despite starting at a fairly high level. Excluding the 3 participants who did equally well on both the first and last test 22 of the 28 students (p < .005, sign test) performed better on the final test than on the initial test. The results are presented in Tables 4–6.

There were statistically significant increases in performance regardless of the location of the main

the cycle with new vocabulary using the sentence completion task.

ParticipantsSixty-one students participated in the study, 30 sixth graders and 31 seventh graders. With respect to gen-der, there were 20 male sixth graders and 10 females. Similarly, there were 20 male seventh graders and 11 females. Twenty-one of the sixth-grade partici-pants were of Latino descent and 9 were white, non- Latinos. Similarly, there were 19 Latino students and 12 white non-Latinos in the seventh-grade class.

Main Idea Pretest and PosttestsThe students were tested three times for the skill of locating the main idea at the beginning, middle, and the end of the five-week period. The tests consisted of booklets each containing 12 paragraphs taken from commercially prepared reading and language arts workbooks for grade levels five through eight (e.g., Flash Kids Editors, 2004a, 2004b) and included the different types of expository text structures. Half of the main ideas were used as the first sentence in the paragraph, and half of the main ideas were located in the last sentence of the paragraph. Students were re-quired to read the paragraph, abstract the main idea, and write it out in the space provided.

Three different tests were created. These tests were used on the three different test dates. Every

Table 3 Weekly Experimental Schedule (Continued)

Week Teacher Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday


Using context clues

Dictionary

Matching

Text structures—problem and solution

Review signal words

Review defini-tions of main idea, topic, supporting details

Test 3

English teacher

Write cause-and-effect paragraph


Order the ab-stracted problem-and-solution paragraph


Write problem-and-solution paragraph

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In many schools, students are taught to look for main ideas in the initial sentences of paragraphs. Therefore, a more stringent assessment occurs when main ideas are located in other than the first sentence. The main idea tests in this study included main idea sentences occurring as either the first or final sen-tences. The percentage of main ideas identified when they occurred as the last sentences in the paragraph increased from 43.12% to 62% from the pretest to the final test. The ability to locate the main idea when it occurred in the final sentence improved by 43.9%.

The sixth graders exhibited a 52% increase from the pretest to their final test in locating the main idea when it was the last sentence of the paragraph. Twenty-three out of 27 sixth graders (p < .001, sign test) improved from the pretest to the final test. Nineteen out of 25 seventh graders (p < .001, sign test) demonstrated better performance on the final test when the main idea occurred as the last sentence.

idea in a paragraph. Students correctly identified the main idea 74.64% of the times on the pretest and 89.67% of the time on the posttest. This is a 20.1% increase in the ability to find main idea when it oc-curred in the first sentence of a paragraph.

The sixth graders exhibited a 33.3% increase from the pretest to their final test in being able to find the main idea when it was the first sentence of the paragraph. Seventeen out of the 19 sixth-grade students (p < .001, sign test) showed superior perfor-mance on the final test than on the pretest. Eleven students performed equally well on the pre- and post-tests. Although their performance levels were ini-tially high, 12 out of the 18 seventh-grade students (p > .05, sign test) showed improvement in locating the main idea when it occurred as the first sentence in the paragraph. This represents a 10% increase from the pretest to their final test. Thirteen students per-formed equally well on the pre- and posttests.

Table 4 Mean Percentage of Main Ideas Identified

Grade level Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 F p

Overall 59.32% 67.29% 77.86% 18.92 p < .0001

Sixth graders 51.13% 65.21% 74.58% 13.61 p < .0001

Seventh graders 67.24% 69.32% 81.04% 7.12 p < .005

Table 6 Mean Percentage of Main Ideas Identified When Occurring in Last Sentence


Overall 43.12% 52.03% 62.00% 11.58 p < .0001

Sixth graders 37.41% 47.47% 56.88% 3.79 p < .05


Table 5 Mean Percentage of Main Ideas Identified When Occurring in First Sentence


Overall 74.64% 82.56 89.67% 12.48 p < .0001

Sixth graders 64.94% 79.33% 86.56% 10.88 p < .0005


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More investigations with different student sam-ples, materials, and greater long-term studies into the efficacy of the lesson cycle are needed. The results of this action research are limited to placements of main ideas as first or last sentences in paragraphs. Future studies could generalize the present findings to other placements of main ideas. Although the present study has focused on students’ abilities to locate main ideas, further studies may delve into the effectiveness of the lesson cycle on the quality of expository writing or its effects on content area comprehension.

ReferencesFlash Kids Editors. (2004a). Reading skills: Grade 5. New York:

Spark.Flash Kids Editors. (2004b). Reading skills: Grade 6. New York:

Spark.Fukkink, R.G., & de Glopper, K. (1998). Effects of instruction

in deriving word meaning from context: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 68(4), 450–469.

Montelongo, J.A., & Hernández, A.C. (2007). Reinforcing expository reading and writing skills: A more versatile sen-tence completion task. The Reading Teacher, 60(6), 538–546. doi:10.1598/RT.60.6.4

Neufeld, P. (2005). Comprehension instruction in content area classes. The Reading Teacher, 59(4), 302–312. doi:10.1598/RT.59.4.1

Ogle, D., & Blachowicz, C.L.Z. (2002). Beyond literature circles: Helping students comprehend informational texts. In C.C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 259–274). New York: Guilford.

Piccolo, J.A. (1987). Expository text structure: Teaching and learning strategies. The Reading Teacher, 40(9), 838–847.

Spivey, N.N., & King, J.R. (1989). Readers as writers compos-ing from sources. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(1), 7–26. doi:10.1598/RRQ.24.1.1

Taylor, B.M., & Samuels, S.J. (1983). Children’s use of text struc-ture in the recall of expository material. American Educational Research Journal, 20(4), 517–528.

Montelongo teaches at California Polytechnic State

University, San Luis Obispo, USA; e-mail jmontelo@

calpoly.edu. Herter also teaches at California Polytechnic

State University; e-mail [email protected]. Ansaldo is

a graduate of the Master’s degree program at California

Polytechnic State University. Hatter also is a graduate of

the Master’s degree program in Education at California

Polytechnic State University.

This represents a 37.5% increase in performance. Five students showed no improvement.

Although there was substantial improvement in the identification of main ideas occurring as the last sentences in paragraphs, most students correctly iden-tified more main ideas when they were located in the first sentence of the paragraph. Twenty-four out of 27 sixth-grade participants (p < .0001) correctly identi-fied more first sentence main ideas than last sentence main ideas. Three students showed no improvement. Similarly, 22 out of 23 (p < .0001) seventh-grade par-ticipants correctly identified more first sentence main ideas than last sentence main ideas. There were 8 stu-dents who performed equally well on both.

Participants reduced the tendency to incorrectly choose the first sentence as the main idea in a para-graph. On the pretest, sixth-grade students incor-rectly selected the first sentence as the main idea 93 times. On the final test, the same students incor-rectly selected the first sentence as the main idea only 62 times. This represents a 33.3% improvement of performance. The seventh-grade participants also exhibited similar improvement: On their pretest, seventh graders incorrectly chose the first sentence 80 times. On the final test, errors were reduced to 46. This represents a 42.5% improvement of perfor-mance. In summary, students reduced their tendency to automatically select the first sentence as the main idea.

Lesson Cycle Effective for Locating Main IdeasThese results suggest that the lesson cycle introduced here was effective. Middle school summer school stu-dents significantly improved their abilities to locate main ideas when challenged with exercises and ac-tivities that use paragraphs as basic units of analyses. The lesson cycle was effective because it gave the stu-dents practice with text structures, signal words, and graphic organizers. The lesson cycle also permitted students to demonstrate their understanding of con-tent through their rewriting of the text material.

Documents

A Lesson Cycle for Teaching Expository Reading and Writing