Evaluation

The NRP found eighteen studies that experimentally examined summarization instruction.

Grade Level

Summarization instruction studies are rare in the grades before 5 and 6.  Of those reporting information on grades studied, we found one level 3 and one level 4.  There were 4 and 9 studies on grades 5 and 6 respectively. There was one study on high school grades.  Summarization often presupposes writing as well as reading skill. This may be one reason for it being used for upper elementary school grades.

Experimenter Tests

The majority of the studies report increased improvement of the quality of summaries (n = 11). Other studies report improved recall of what was summarized (n = 7) and improved question answering (n =4). No negative findings were reported.

Standardized Tests

Standardized tests were rarely used.  Only two studies report using them on 6th graders, of which one succeeded and the other failed in increasing comprehension.

Summary Evaluation of Summarization

The direct instruction of summarization succeeds in that readers improve on the quality of their summaries of text, mainly identifying the main idea but also in leaving out detail, including ideas related to the main idea, generalizing, and removing redundancy.  This indicates that summarizing is a good method of integrating ideas and generalizing from the text information.  Further, the direct instruction of summarization improves memory for what is read, both in terms of free recall and answering questions.  This strategy instruction is used as a part of reciprocal teaching and other treatments that teach multiple strategies.  It is an important component.