Smart Speech Therapy LLC 2025
Evidence-Based Intervention Plan: Main Idea and Summarization Training (Westby, 2010)
Overview: Main Idea and Summarization Training (Westby, 2010) is an evidence-based approach aimed at
teaching students how to identify central ideas, extract key details, and summarize narrative and expository
texts.
This intervention strengthens both reading comprehension and narrative coherence, particularly for students who
struggle to:
• Distinguish relevant from irrelevant information,
• Retain the gist of a passage,
• Organize information in a logical, concise way,
• Express themselves clearly in spoken and written summaries.
This approach is particularly effective for students with:
• Developmental Language Disorder (DLD),
• Learning Disabilities,
• Executive function weaknesses,
Key Objectives
• Teach students to differentiate between main ideas and supporting details.
• Improve the ability to summarize texts concisely in oral and written formats.
• Strengthen comprehension of narrative and expository structures.
• Develop sequencing, inferencing, and cohesion in storytelling and written response.
Intervention Framework
The intervention is implemented through five sequential phases:
1. Concept Introduction and Vocabulary Building
2. Identification of Main Idea and Supporting Details
3. Summarization Skill Development Using Scaffolds
4. Application Across Narrative and Expository Texts
5. Progress Monitoring and Independent Application
Phase 1: Concept Introduction and Vocabulary Building
Goals
• Help students understand the concepts of main idea, detail, and summary.
• Build meta-awareness of what makes information “central” or “supporting.”
Strategies
1. Define and Discuss Terms
o Main idea = what the whole passage or story is mostly about.
o Details = the information that supports the main idea.
o Summary = a short version of the story that includes only the important parts.
2. Use Metaphors for Conceptual Clarity
o Main idea as a "tabletop," details as "legs" that support it.
o Main idea as a "picture on a puzzle box," details as the puzzle pieces.
3. Word Sorting Activities
o Provide mixed-up sentences from a short story.
o Ask students to sort into “Main Idea” vs. “Supporting Detail.”
4. Graphic Anchor Charts
o Post visual reminders of What makes something a main idea?
▪ Appears in beginning or ending of text.
Tatyana Elleseff MA CCC-SLP, Consulting in Speech Language Pathology Page 1
Smart Speech Therapy LLC 2025
▪ Repeated across the text.
▪ Captures the author’s purpose.
Phase 2: Identification of Main Idea and Supporting Details
Goals
• Teach students how to locate central themes and relevant details in both narrative and informational texts.
• Reinforce understanding of story grammar and expository structure.
Strategies
1. Use “Main Idea Maps” and Graphic Organizers
o Central circle for the main idea, surrounding branches for supporting details.
o Color-code: Green = main idea, Yellow = detail.
2. Who + What = Main Idea Formula (for narratives)
o Who is the story about?
o What did they do or what happened?
o Combine into one sentence.
o Example: “The boy + found a dog = A boy finds a lost dog and tries to help it.”
3. Signal Word Instruction
o Teach students to look for signal words like most important, in summary, the main point is, overall,
etc.
4. Interactive Highlighting in Passages
o Students highlight what they think is the main idea, then compare with peers.
o Discuss why one idea is more central than another.
Phase 3: Summarization Skill Development Using Scaffolds
Goals
• Teach students how to construct summaries that are concise, accurate, and organized.
• Reduce tendencies to over-retell or include irrelevant information.
Strategies
1. Teach the GIST Strategy (Cunningham, 1982)
o Students answer: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
o Then write a 15-20 word summary of the paragraph or passage.
2. Use the SWBST Method for Narrative Summarizing
o Somebody
o Wanted
o But
o So
o Then
o Example: “Froggy wanted to go to the beach, but it rained, so he stayed inside and played board
games.”
3. Progressive Summarizing
o After reading each paragraph or story event, stop and summarize aloud in one sentence.
o After the full passage, use those sentences to build a final written summary.
4. Use Visual Summary Frames
o Templates with sentence stems like:
▪ “The main idea is…”
▪ “One important detail is…”
▪ “This shows that…”
Tatyana Elleseff MA CCC-SLP, Consulting in Speech Language Pathology Page 2
Smart Speech Therapy LLC 2025
Phase 4: Application Across Narrative and Expository Texts
Goals
• Help students transfer skills to new genres, text types, and real-life situations.
• Strengthen generalization across academic subjects.
Strategies
1. Switch Between Narrative and Expository Texts
o Begin with familiar stories → move to articles, biographies, science texts.
o For nonfiction: teach main idea of a section, then summarize the entire article.
2. Compare Author’s Main Idea vs. Student’s Interpretation
o Use two texts on the same topic (e.g., “Why We Need Bees” vs. “How Bees Make Honey”).
o Ask: “What’s the main idea of each? How are they different?”
3. Group Summarizing Activities
o Students read or listen to a passage, then work in pairs to create a joint summary.
o Rotate partners for repeated practice.
4. Written Summary Journals
o After each text, have students write a summary paragraph.
o Prompt them to underline the main idea sentence and highlight supporting details.
Phase 5: Progress Monitoring and Independent Application
Goals
• Measure student progress in main idea identification and summarization accuracy.
• Support independent use of strategies across contexts.
Strategies
1. Main Idea and Summary Rubrics
o Rate based on:
▪ Accurate identification of main idea
▪ Inclusion of key details
▪ Clarity and conciseness
▪ Logical sequence
2. Pre/Post Informal Assessments
o Provide age-level passages before and after the intervention.
o Compare baseline and post-intervention summaries using rubrics.
3. Cloze Activities and Sentence Completion
o Provide partially completed summaries and ask students to finish using main ideas.
4. Self-Assessment Tools
o Use a student checklist:
Did I find the main idea?
Did I leave out extra information?
Did I write a summary that someone else could understand?
Conclusion: This evidence-based, scaffolded intervention strengthens reading comprehension and expression by
teaching students how to identify the main idea and summarize effectively. By embedding visual organizers,
discussion, writing, and structured models, students learn to filter key information, enhance coherence, and
become more effective communicators across academic tasks.
Reference: Westby, C., Culatta, B., Lawrence, B., & Hall-Kenyon, K. (2010). Summarizing expository texts. Topics
in Language Disorders, 30(4), 275–287
Tatyana Elleseff MA CCC-SLP, Consulting in Speech Language Pathology Page 3
