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…

Argues that it is possible for stories to both entertain the reader and teach reading techniques. Suggests that the apprentice approach to reading instruction, using good stories and with judicious intervention by teachers, can be rigorous. (MG)

Flannelboards have been a storytime staple for years in school and public libraries. The flannelboard, or feltboard as it often is called, is a great tool to help children build early literacy skills. Reading research tells us that reading aloud is most effective when it is an interactive experience between the reader and the child. Flannelboard…

This article tells the story of how the Ball-Stick-Bird reading system, intended for superior dyslexic students, was applied to the teaching of reading to individuals with severe to moderate mental retardation. The system incorporates developmental linguistics to make story reading easier for the beginning student. The first books of the series…

Describes a model procedure for integrating direct instruction in story structure with reader response to literature in two settings: traditional storybook read-aloud sessions and nontraditional HyperCard computer sessions. (SR)

Focuses on the storyline strategy which uses the components of a story (setting, characters, and plot) to organize concepts in a lesson. Provides a lesson on the Kiribati new year celebration using the storyline strategy. Offers alternative ideas for a storyline unit on Kiribati. (CMK)

The concept of Arithmetic Story Grammar is introduced. Arithmetic Story Grammar maintains that any equation containing a single operand tells, in and of itself, a complete story with a setting, plot, theme, and resolution. Multiple-operand equations differ from their single-operand siblings only in the number of actions undertaken and the number…

Analyzes the narrative, descriptive, and evaluative structures of one person's two stories, drawn from oral proficiency interviews, about the same event told at the intermediate high and advanced levels on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) scale. The discourse analysis revealed that the second story builds upon the…

POSSE, an instructional procedure for a reading comprehension curriculum, structures classroom dialogue about text meaning. Students with mild handicaps predict what the story will be about, organize their knowledge, search for the text structure, summarize, and evaluate. POSSE's successful application is dependent upon effective lesson dialogue…

Through story grammar instruction, low-achieving students are discovering that literature can be fun to read and perhaps have application to their own lives. (Author/TE)

Cognitive development research can be applied to the learning of a second language, resulting in a view of language learning as the acquisition and development of expertise. From this framework, two processes are viewed from within this framework for learners of English: learning vocabulary and learning discourse and story. (Contains 10…

A multicultural model for children in Grades K through 5 to foster skills needed for success is presented. The learning, living, and working (LLW) group work model focuses on three skill sets identified by multiple researchers over the past 30 years as necessary for success in school, relationships, and work. These three skill sets--learning…

Rita is a Pacific island grade 2 teacher in a local village school. She has established a 90-minute daily literacy block in which she focuses on literacy-related activities. As she sits with her students during the literacy block, she realizes some of them are having difficulty comprehending text, and many are unable to retell the stories…

Describes a cross-age reading program called Storymates, which connected school and home literacy experiences of 9-, 10-, and 11-year olds through storybook reading to younger siblings, relatives, and neighborhood friends. Discusses exploring story structure in the classroom; reading storybooks in school and at home; how retellings improved; and…

This response to Gersten and Dimino (EC 606 357) uses a case study to illustrate how a special education teacher integrated strategy instruction into a fifth-grade classroom where a whole-language approach to writing was already in place. Instruction in story grammar is presented as a seven-stage process. (DB)