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Main Idea Passage
D
For each of the following passages, try to find the main idea. Read the
topic sentences of each paragraph and paraphrase them. Then, try to state
the main idea. Be on the lookout for direction markers!
1.
One of the most commonplace instructional strategies in elementary and
middle schools is that of oral reading. Virtually all teachers, at some
point in the school day, engage in this activity, whether by reading aloud
to the class or by having the students read to one another. Although some
recent educational theorists have challenged the efficacy of oral reading,
its popularity in schools and classrooms is unchallenged.
2. The history of oral reading in the classroom is inextricably
linked with the history of the culture that engendered it. Prior to the
development of computers, television, and radio, reading was the predominant
form of family entertainment. However, printed books were often scarce , and
literacy rates were often low. Thus, families would gather around and listen
to a book being read to them. Early classrooms were modeled after this
phenomenon, and oral reading was such a part of academic life that schools
were sometimes called blab schools. In these schools, students often read
their lessons aloud simultaneously, even when the students had different
lessons. At other times, all students read the same text aloud. |
3. With the increasing
availability
of books, schools began using textbooks to teach reading in the classroom. By
the nineteenth century, the focus had moved to teaching students "
eloquent
reading." Students were expected
to
recite

stories, poems, and prayers for the class, and the teacher graded them
on their articulation and pronunciation, as well as their abilities to recall
what they had just read. This method
persisted into the twentieth century and
became known as the story method of instruction. Oral reading was such a
focal
point of instruction that philosopher William James stated "
...the teacher's
success or failure in teaching reading is based...upon the oral reading method."
4. However, as the twentieth century progressed, the effectiveness of
oral reading was called into question. Educational
scholars in both Europe and
the United States wondered exactly what oral reading was teaching students. With
oral reading focusing excessively on pronunciation and dynamics,
educators
doubted that students were even able to
comprehend 
what they were saying. One
scholar quoted a study that claimed that eleven-twelfths of students did not
understand what they were reciting when they read orally. Friedrich Froebel, a
German education specialist, argued that oral reading
inappropriately placed
emphasis on expression, when the emphasis should be placed on process.
5. Also at this time, science was gaining increasing
prominence,

and
across all fields researchers were placing a premium on
empirical 
studies. Many
long-standing beliefs and views were challenged, and educational theories were
no exception. Behavioral scientists studied reading practices and determined
that oral reading was no longer in fashion. In fact, they concluded that the
only time students read orally was in school. Most individuals read silently,
and this finding led many schools to change their methods to reflect this
change.
6. The new
preponderance
of
written texts also played a role in the history of oral reading. With the amount
of printed material rapidly expanding, silent reading, which was more efficient,
became the reading model of choice. For a number of years, oral reading was
absent from many a classroom. But in time, new research and studies brought oral
reading back to the forefront of education. Pressley's and Afflerbach's
influential book Verbal Protocols of Reading emphasizes the importance of oral
reading, tracing its history back to the methods of Aristotle and Plato. In many
ways, however, the new research
reiterates
what most teachers already know. For
them, the necessity and effectiveness of oral reading was never in doubt.
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Last sentence -
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Main idea (provide the missing words) - Despite challenges to its
,
reading remains an
educational
.