Twenty-three normal adults and four closed head-injured (CHI) adults with a high level of language recovery retold and generated stories. The two tasks differentially influenced the performance of both groups. The two groups differed in measures of cohesiveness and story grammar only in the story generation task. (Author/JDD)

Kindergartners and second graders listened to stories about problem solving that had similar or dissimilar protagonists, themes, and goal objects to those in target problems they were asked to solve. Kindergartners, but not second graders, were likely to transfer a solution associated with the same goal object from the story problem to the target…

Examines current educational thinking about the development of children's writing, story structure and its functional components, and economy in writing. Strategies that teachers and teacher librarians can use to improve students' work are suggested, and an annotated bibliography of seven childrens' stories is provided. (eight references) (EA)

Self-initiated repairs produced by 14 normal-language and 14 language-disordered children (ages 8-12) during a story retelling task are described. No group differences were found for grammatical repairs, text meaning repairs, or cohesive repairs relating to text meaning. Differences were significant for success of cohesive repair attempts and…

The article describes how to use a word processing program and add-on story starters for different genres to enhance elementary students' creative writing skills. Teachers input story starters, then students select a genre and add on a story version in that genre. Students can also develop their own story starters. (SM)

The ability of foreign language readers to comprehend 3 different story structures of a medieval French folk tale, "Le Bisclavret," was investigated among 120 university language students. Findings suggest that both story organization and amount of second-language study influence recall. Recommendations for classroom instruction are suggested.…

Presents a theoretical framework for analyzing educational media, discusses the role of narrative in comprehension, and describes MENO (Multimedia, Education and Narrative Organization), a project investigating how students engage in exploratory learning, and the design of multimedia material for a course on Homer. Argues that narrative structure…

Discusses the incorporation of content-based instruction in the English department of one school. As a result, verbal interaction was increased. With this success, the use of narratives was implemented in a whole-language project, with an emphasis on discourse analysis, specifically story grammar. (Author/VWL)

Applies the Canonical Story Grammar Model to a major beginning reader computer series. Analyzes the teaching manual and interviews the series' representative. Finds that the stories did not contain adequate story grammar. Notes weaknesses in the manual analysis and interviews. (RS)

Describes the sketch-to-stretch strategy, in which students show what a story means to them by sketching lines, colors, shapes, symbols, or pictures. Suggests the strategy is effective in encouraging a diversity of perspectives about a story, and in using it, many potential at-risk readers as well as stronger students become valued literary…

Considers how children's books change with the culture around them. Notes how students need concrete and specific information about the special features and organization of postmodern picture books to enhance appreciation and comprehension. Investigates these specific features and demonstrates ways to teach this new story grammar. (SG)

This article considers the role of the basic cognitive unit, called the "story engram," in young children's learning to read, including children ranging in ability from severe mental retardation to giftedness. It illustrates how the "Ball-Stick-Bird" method of beginning reading can facilitate this process because of the…

Mildly learning-handicapped elementary school students (N=5) with poor reading comprehension were trained to use story-mapping procedures to improve reading comprehension. Trained students demonstrated increased ability to answer comprehension questions, maintained performance after intervention, and increased the tendency to include story-mapping…

Presents an evaluation of the Houghton Mifflin and Scott Foresman Reading Programs which reveals that stories in both of these series satisfy the requirements of a conventional story grammar. Suggests that such stories help children comprehend and remember the stories they process and serve as excellent models of narrative. (ARH)

Twenty language-impaired and 20 unimpaired children, aged 9-11, generated and retold stories and answered comprehension questions. The stories produced by language-disordered children contained fewer complete story episodes, fewer main and subordinate clauses per complete episode, and a lower frequency of use of story grammar components than those…