The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate an instructional approach that combined strategy instruction with principles of dialogic pedagogy to improve the story writing of students in grades K-2 (n = 219). Specifically, drama, dialogic interactions, and oral retellings assisted learners with ideation, while strategies guided their…

Describes a study of the effect of direct story grammar instruction for first graders. Finds that (1) young children benefit from simple story structures that focus on beginning, middle and end; and (2) this structure may provide young children with a foundation for developing an understanding of the elements of story grammar. (NH)

Comparison of 14 verbally gifted 6-year olds with equal numbers of chronological-age and mental-age controls using a structural-developmental analysis found that the gifted children organized story plots in ways typical of children 2 years older, elaborated on basic plot structures more than control groups, and demonstrated advanced language…

Forty-six Spanish-speaking children ages four, six, or eight years viewed a short silent film and told what happened in the film. The stories of older children included more narrative actions, more mental state/goal causes, more three-clause causal sequences, and a lower proportion of unrelated statements than those of younger children.…

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.…

A study examined the process of change in story development (in contrast to documenting common structures) found in the stories generated by cross-cultural/cross-linguistic students. Subjects, 12 first-grade native English-speaking students in either of two separate school districts and 23 cross-cultural/cross-linguistic students representing the…

A study of kindergarten children used three language-eliciting situations to obtain stories. The stories were compared for fluency, vocabulary, descriptive nature, and story structure. Results indicated that stories elicited without the use of a prop were more fluent and reflected a more sophisticated story structure than those elicited by a…

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

Describes the Graphic Story Writer system, which was written to explore ways in which a computer can simulate the presence of an active listener for early readers and preliterate children as they explore story construction. An authoring tool that allows adults or more advanced students to create or edit new scenarios is also described. (Contains…