The Paraphrasing Strategy

Resources:

• Research on the Paraphrasing Strategy (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 3, No. 1: Teaching the Paraphrasing Strategy to Younger Students (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 8, No. 4: Using Persuasion to Present the Paraphrasing Strategy - and A Sentence to help remember the Paraphrasing Mnemonic, Emmett Murray (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 8, No. 5: Strategy Sticker Reminder for the Generalization Stage of Paraphrasing and Sentence Writing (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 10, No. 1: Study shows benefits of Paraphrasing Strategy in general ed middle school classrooms (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 12, No. 5, May, 2000: Tips for teaching paraphrasing, Gwen Berry (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 13, No.1: An Activity to introduce Main Idea and Details, Margaret Carmean (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 14, No. 3: Recommended reading: Passages for Paraphrasing and Word ID (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 17, No. 5: Active Reading to support Paraphrasing Strategy instruction (.pdf)

RESEARCH ARTICLES

• Schumaker, J.B., Deshler, D.D., Woodruff, S.K., Hock, M.F., Bulgren, J.A., & Lenz, B.K. (2006). Reading strategy interventions: Can literacy outcomes be enhanced for at-risk adolescents? Teaching Exceptional Children, 38(3), 64-68. In two studies, students who learned reading strategies outperformed students who did not.
• Oas, B.K., Schumaker, J.B., & Deshler, D.D. (1995). Learning strategies: Tools for learning to learn in middle and high schools. Secondary education and beyond: Providing opportunities for students with learning disabilities. Pittsburgh, PA: Learning Disabilities Association of America. This article uses student case descriptions to illustrate how a variety of learning strategies--including the Self-Advocacy Strategy, Sentence Writing Strategy, and Paraphrasing Strategy--might be implemented with students who experience an array of learning disabilities characteristics.

The Story Behind the Paraphrasing Strategy from author Jean Schumaker:
At the beginning of our work at the Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities in the 1970s, we did a descriptive study where we tested the academic skills of two groups of students at the junior high and high school levels: students who had been diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD), and students who were receiving failing or barely passing grades on their report cards in subject-area classes (low-achievers). We learned that both groups of students had severe reading deficits. The students with LD were reading on average at the fourth-grade level in seventh grade. The low achievers were reading on average at the fifth-grade level in seventh grade. What was even more distressing is that these groups of students did not make progress in reading skills across the remaining grade levels. As twelfth graders, the students with LD were still reading at the fourth-grade level, and the low achievers were still reading at the fifth-grade level on average.

Our research team was charged with developing instructional materials that could be used to improve dramatically the reading skills of these students within a relatively short period of time. As a result, we designed and empirically tested the effects of a number of instructional packages for teaching students cognitive reading comprehension strategies. The Paraphrasing Strategy was specifically designed with the goal of improving student comprehension of expository text. The strategy is comprised of a number of cognitive steps that students can use to find the main ideas and details in text and translate that information into their own words. Research has shown that as students become more proficient at paraphrasing the information, their comprehension and retention of information improves commensurately.

Author's Thoughts about Strategic Reading Instruction:
Strategic instruction is one of the few instructional methods that have been shown to be effective through empirical research to produce improvement in the learning and academic performance of at-risk students. The study conducted on the Paraphrasing Strategy showed that students can gain several grade levels in reading comprehension within a few weeks of instruction when the strategy is taught with fidelity. Thus, instruction in this strategy can be used to “close the gap” between students’ skills and what they are required to do in their required secondary courses. This is an instructional package that can be used in triage situations where secondary students need to learn reading skills quickly so that they can succeed in required high school courses. An important caution is that Paraphrasing Strategy instruction produces the best results when the strategy is taught to small groups of students and when students are required to meet mastery within materials written at the students’ grade level. If students need to learn prerequisite skills for the Paraphrasing Strategy, the Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing program is recommended.

Teacher and Student Feedback on the Paraphrasing Strategy Program:
This program and the other reading strategy programs have been very popular with both teachers and students. Literally tens of thousands of teachers have learned to teach the Paraphrasing Strategy across the nation, and they have reported that students’ reading skills have improved dramatically. Teachers have used the program successfully in a variety of settings including resource rooms, reading classes, tutoring settings, summer school programs, and after-school programs.