Social skill deficits and learning disabilities often coexist. Academic work is negatively impacted by students' lack of social skills. Remediation of these deficits in pull-out programs has not generally resulted in transfer to real-world settings. Embedding social skills instruction within literature during a read-aloud session taught in the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using a story-mapping procedure to improve and enhance the reading comprehension skills using expository text passages for 3 fourth-grade students with learning disabilities (LD). The study was conducted in the resource classroom in which the participants regularly received reading…

The effects of using the Embedded Story-Structure (ESS) Routine in a literature course were investigated. A heterogeneous group of 79 ninth graders, including 14 students with LD, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, with instruction occurring in groups of 12 to 14 students in general education literature classes over a nine-day…

Describes the use of the language experience approach (LEA) and semantic mapping strategies with three seven-year-old boys who were nonreaders. Finds the use of mapping strategies with LEA was successful when children had difficulty structuring and organizing their own stories. (MG)

The study compared the effectiveness of providing elementary students with learning disabilities with either (1) instruction in both story structure and self-questioning techniques or (2) just training in story structure identification. The combined self-questioning and story structure group demonstrated the greatest gains in reading…

This multiple baseline study investigated the effectiveness of direct instruction of an advanced story-map procedure on the reading comprehension performance of six middle school students with learning disabilities (LD). Results indicated an increase in story grammar and basal comprehension performance generalization to a novel passage, and…

An instructional strategy for teaching comprehension of literature was tested with seven high school students with learning disabilities. The strategy taught story grammar through use of short stories and the paradigm of modeling/guided practice/independent practice. Students showed improved story comprehension. (Author/JDD)

Reading is the foundation for literacy and comprehension is the foundation for education. Many learning disabled students struggle to understand what they have read and many instructional approaches in small group settings focus on decoding rather than on comprehension. Employing a dual strategic approach to facilitate comprehension enables…

Nine junior high school students with learning disabilities received instruction in story grammar elements and character development. Over a two-month period, students significantly increased the amount they wrote and mildly to moderately increased the quality of the stories produced and the number of internal responses and plans of characters.…

Reviews research on the effectiveness of story grammar in promoting the comprehension of narrative text in students with learning disabilities and at-risk students. Offers instructional recommendations for successful implementation of this strategy. (RS)