The effects of story maps on the skills of summarizing and finding the main idea in narrative texts of primary education 5th grade students

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of story maps on the skills of summarizing and finding the main idea in narrative texts of primary education 5th students. The study was carried out in the first semester of 2011-2012 academic year, on two classes in Anadolu Kalkınma Vakfı Cumhuriyet Primary School and Aksaklar Primary School. The study was completed within a period of six weeks.Study group of consisted of a total of 55 students enrolled in class 5-A and 5-B in these two schools. Class 5-A was randomly selected as the control group and class 5-B was randomly selected as the experiment group.This is a semi experimental study which used pre-test and post-test control group models. In the study, lessons were conducted using story map method in experiment group and using traditional method in the control group by the classroom teachers based on the lesson plan prepared by the researcher.To test summarizing skills of 5th students, ?Summarizing Scale? developed by Bulut (2006); to test finding main idea skills of the students ?Reading Comprehension and Finding Main Idea Scale? developed by Pilten (2007) were used as pre-test and post-test data collection tools.One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine whether the academic achievement of the classes selected as experiment and control group were equal. The variables constituting the problem sentence and sub-problems of the study were analyzed by Independent Sample t-test for independent groups.As a result of research, the differences between the experiment group which used story map method and control group which used traditional method consisting of 5th students are presented below;1.There was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of the skills of finding the main idea in narrative texts.2.There was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of summarizing skills in narrative texts.3.There was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of the ability to identify the location of the story in narrative texts.4.There was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of the ability to identify the time of the story in narrative texts.5.There was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of the ability to identify the main character in the story in narrative texts.6.There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the ability to identify second most important characters in the story in narrative texts.7.There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the ability to identify the problem in the study in narrative texts.8.There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the ability to identify the solution suggestions the characters in the story produced in narrative texts.9.There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the ability to identify the reaction the characters in the story gave to the results in narrative texts.10.There was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of the ability to identify the reaction of the narrator to the resolution in narrative texts.11.There was a significant difference between the experimental group students? pre and post-test scores in terms of finding the main idea and summarizing in narrative texts.12.There was no significant difference between the control group students? pre and post-test scores in terms of finding the main idea and summarizing in narrative texts.Key Words: Story, Narrative Text, Story Map Method, Summarizing, Finding the Main Idea.