The effect of organizing strategies on finding the main and supporting idea

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of organizing strategies on finding the main and the supporting idea. In order to define the main idea, one has to be able to deduct a conclusion from the text, read carefully, and comprehend what had been read. Therefore, using organizing strategies might take an important role while defining the main idea. This research has been done on 4th grade students which are studying in an elementary school located in Malatya city center during 2015-216 Academic Year. In this research on defining the effect of organizing strategies on finding the main and the supporting idea, the researcher used the mixed pattern method, for she aimed to make an in-depth investigation with an integrated approach on the effect of organizing strategies on finding the main and the supporting idea in 4th grade, and how the students are effected regarding the relevant subject. In this research, the researcher preferred the mixed pattern in order to use both quantitative and qualitative data for she aims to define the problematic areas which might rise during the implementation, the factors which causes these problems, the intervention methods, and for it to be an approach which aims to improve the implementation. The data collection tools of the researcher are; the lesson plans which have been improved by the researcher, teaching materials for in-class activates, observations forms which are configured to define how accurate the organizing strategies of the students are used, and interview forms which are half-configured to define the effects of the activities fulfilled in the students' eyes. The homework, diaries and the research notes of the students have been analysed while carrying out the research. All the documents which belong to the students (video recordings of students, education reports) are gathered. After the completion of the evaluation regarding the work-group within the scope of the research, data analysis process started. Descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques have been used in analysing the gathered qualitative data. For analysing the gathered quantitative data, SPSS 15 software has been used. In consequence of the research, the effect of organizing strategies on finding the main and the supporting idea in Turkish lessons are determined. The results based on the findings which are gathered through the research are listed as follows: • There has been an improvement in finding the main and the supporting idea with implemented action plan levels of the 4th grade students. • It has been observed that the students' level of finding the main idea in narrative texts are higher. • It has been observed that the students both generated more supporting ideas, and their level of finding the main idea of text is higher regarding the informational texts. • It has been observed that the students mostly demanded to straighten the questions asking the main idea, the supporting ideas and the cause and the effect relationship, regarding both the informational texts and the narrative texts. • It has been observed that the students use the note-taking strategy more effectively regarding the informational texts. • It has been observed that the students use the defining the outlines of the text strategy more effectively regarding the narrative texts. • It has been observed that the students use the summarization strategy more effectively regarding the narrative texts. • It has been observed that the students use the concept map formation (concerning important ideas) strategy more effectively regarding the narrative texts. • It has been observed that the words which their meanings are unknown to students are much more in the narrative texts. • It has been observed that the students detect the text categories more accurately regarding the narrative texts. • A significant difference has been detected in the class which the implementation took place regarding the comparison of the pretesting and post-testing levels of academic achievement test which is prepared to find the main and the supporting idea • A significant difference has been detected between the points of pretesting and post-testing regarding the main idea points in the informative text which have questions with open-ended answers. • A significant difference has been detected between the points of pretesting and post-testing regarding the main idea points in the narrative text which have questions with open-ended answers. • The significance situation has been observed within the differences (gain scores) between the pretesting and post-testing of the narrative text which have questions with open-ended answers and the pretesting and post-testing of the informative text which have questions with open-ended answers, and no significant difference has been detected. • A significant difference has been detected between finding the main idea levels of the visual texts and non-visual texts regarding the analysis performed. It has been observed that the students' level finding the main idea in non-visual texts are higher • The students, regarding the process, elected the summarization strategy as both the most effective and the most difficult strategy, and the concept map formation strategy as the most fun strategy among the organizing strategies. Students found all strategies beneficial. • The students who expressed that they are having a difficulty in finding the main and the supporting idea in their interviews before the implementation, expressed they found themselves successful in finding the main and the supportive idea in their interviews in between and in the end of the implementation. With these results, some methods for easing the difficulties faced regarding finding the main idea issue in Turkish lesson is introduced. Key Words: Organizing Strategies, Main Idea, Supporting Idea,Informational Text, Narrative Text