12/09/2025
📢 Publication alert!
Our new paper, " Summarizing expository text and the relationship to verbal ability and reading skills", is out now in the Journal of Educational Research!
🧠 We asked: How do children summarize what they read?
🔍 What we found: We found that English-speaking students in Grade 5 wrote three kinds of summaries. Two of these focused on higher-level information—one on the topic of the text and another on the main idea, and both included important details. A third kind of summary included fewer of all these elements. The children who wrote summaries with more references to either the topic or the main idea tended to have stronger higher verbal and reading abilities.
📚 Why it matters: We know little about how children summarize what they read, and yet this is essential to reading comprehension. It seems that there are real differences in the quality of summaries that children write, and summarization does not come easily to most Grade 5 students. Children could benefit from instruction on the purpose of summarizing—especially how to identify the main ideas and the most important details.
📝 Find the full article here:
Chan, J., Li, M., Deacon, S. H, & Kirby, J. R. (2025). Summarizing expository text and the relationsFhip to verbal ability and reading skills. Journal of Educational Research, Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2025.2523038
