HELPING PARENTS TO READ EXPOSITORY LITERATURE TO THEIR CHILDREN - PROMOTING MAIN-IDEA AND DETAIL UNDERSTANDING

Two studies were done to explore whether either of two sorts of indivi dual work with parents in reading expository texts to their third-grad e children would help their children's understanding of new texts. In Study 1, parents were specifically shown how to pinpoint main ideas an d details. In Study 2, parents were shown a simple ''read and recall'' approach in which main ideas and details were not specifically pinpoi nted. A single-case multiple-probe design was used for each of the two studies. On the whole, the work with parents which specified how to h ighlight main ideas and details had moderately positive effects on chi ldren's main-idea and detail understanding of previously unread texts. The nonspecific work with parents had no similar effects.