Writing is a critical literacy skill that emerges in kindergarten. The research literature has only addressed transcription skills of kindergarteners and has failed to address text generation. The purpose of this action-research study was to investigate the effect of oral language instruction that focused on narrative text structures on…

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…

This paper describes an exploratory trial conducted with 14-15 year-old students in English state schools who were studying business start-ups as part of a course in "Business Studies". The intervention uses a "Story Grammar" strategy to improve students' reasoning by increasing the frequency and complexity of their use of…

Composing text is an essential skill for students. Assignments, tests, and emailing are a few examples of the many tasks which require students to generate thoughts and put them into prose. For many students, choosing a topic, creating an outline, generating an initial draft, and making edits to produce a final copy is a fluid process which poses…

This action research study investigated the impacts of teaching strategies based on the balanced literacy approach on story grammar acquisition of three Turkish students with hearing loss. Data were collected from students' work, archival information, interviews and observations during lessons which were audio- and video-recorded. The pre- and…

Twenty learning-disabled students (grades 5 and 6) who received procedural facilitation for narrative composition, including story grammar cue cards and a metacognitive check-off procedure, produced better quality stories than a control group of 10 students. Including verbal reminders to develop characters did not affect story quality. (Author/JDD)

Discusses "story grammar" strategies, such as self-questioning, story maps, character and plot development, and comparison and contrast of similar stories, which can be used to help elementary students with learning disabilities or low-achieving students improve their reading and writing skills. Activities are described for each…

Two hearing-impaired students, aged 11 and 12, with differing American Sign Language and English-language skills, participated in a program which instructed them in summarization skills based on a knowledge of story structure. Subjects' knowledge of story structure rose dramatically, and the performance level was maintained in one subject.…

This article introduces a special section of four papers featuring strategies for improving the story writing skills of elementary and secondary students who have problems with written language. It outlines the elements of story grammar, describes characteristics of students with writing problems, and notes the strategies presented in the four…

This article provides specific recommendations for teaching students with learning disabilities how to use a story grammar cueing system for improving writing. The article emphasizes the importance of individualizing instruction and teaching for generalization, and discusses the purpose of the system and methods of assessment. (JDD)

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)

These eight booster units have been designed to provide extra, targeted support for pupils in Year 6. Each unit is based on teaching objectives from the National Literacy Strategy Framework but also focuses on Target Statements for Writing (spelling, sentence construction, language effects, punctuation, purpose and organization, and process). Each…

This article provides recommendations for teaching students how to use a story grammar cuing system to improve both the fluency and quality of their stories. The cuing system is a series of steps in the form of a checklist that serves as a self-regulatory mechanism for prompting attention, memory, and accuracy. (JDD)

Teaching techniques and the use of grammar checking programs are described. Assignments using these programs are suggested. Four specific packages are reviewed. The importance of the revision process in writing is stressed. (CW)

Reports on a study of the writing skills of 51 Italian fourth graders who used word processors for several months. Concludes that word processing can help motivate children and teachers to do more writing and that further improvement in writing skills would occur if the children received writing instruction. (CFR)