The aim of this research was to explore the progression of narrative macro-structure in Chinese children between the ages of 3 and 6 in preschool. To investigate the narratives of young children in a Chinese prefecture-level city kindergarten, the study selected the wordless picture book "Frog, Where Are You?" as their material. They…

In this study particular practices in story retelling ware examined, these improved children's comprehension of story structure and enabled them to made comments within and beyond the story. One hundred fifteen (115) kindergarten children composed the treatment and alternative condition. For 8 weeks and for one time per week, 8 well-structured as…

The authors compared the discourse of 100 Israeli preschool teachers with a group of children during three book-sharing contexts: reading, reconstruction, and telling. During telling and reconstruction, the teachers used more utterances and questions and referred more to concept of book and to the illustrations. During reading, they referred more…

Reveals that story grammar research has provided educators with new insights into how children comprehend simple stories. Describes evidence for the existence of story schema, presents results of developmental story grammar research, and recommends teaching strategies based on the research. (RWB)

Shares the experiences of telling stories to three-year-old Tim, who began to take over parts of the stories to tell himself. Suggests that, by making storytelling an interactive event, adults can help children feel comfortable enough in storytelling to be confident of their own emergent narrative ability. (MG)

Examined the contribution of play, metaplay, and productive language competence in the thematic-fantasy play context to kindergartners' comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar stories. Results indicated that metaplay and productive language competence are independent constructs and both contribute to comprehension, whereas play does not. (GLR)

A study examined whether text structures were included in the "oral" videotaped retellings of a second grader with deafness across 28 texts. Improvements in the child's ability to include specific elements of text structures were documented over nine months. A 12-month increase in reading ability and narrative ability was also documented.…

Encourages the use of storytelling in the classroom as a method for developing verbal, written, and reading skills, as well as non-verbal communication skills. Offers guidelines and specific activities for involving students in storytelling. (RAE)

Surveys forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies. Outlines certain criteria, methods, and writing forms. Describes them in terms of beginning the story, living the story, and selecting stories to construct and reconstruct narrative plots. Describes two-part research agenda for curriculum and studies flowing from stories of experience and…

This study was conducted to investigate how literature and literacy could merge, what effect immersion in a particular type of literature had on the writing and oral stories the children were producing, and what effect spontaneous talk and storymaking had on the classroom literacy process. Each day for 8 weeks, 10 fifth-grade students met…

The nature of children's communication processes of listening, speaking, reading, and drawing/writing that occur during story time is explored in this paper, which describes story time as a literacy event. The framework that children develop during story-time can serve as a vehicle for language arts instruction. In helping children cultivate…

Discusses the use of story frames as a strategy for teaching reading comprehension to first grade students, and includes examples of student responses. (JC)