A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to determine if paraprofessionals could be effectively taught to write and implement "Social Stories"TM] that shared accurate social information and had a positive impact on the targeted behaviors of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Three paraprofessional-student pairs participated…

Metacognitive strategy instruction was used to teach two deaf children (ages 11 and 12) with differing American Sign Language and English language skills to summarize stories in writing. The instructional program used a knowledge of text structure--specifically story structure--to improve literacy skills by enhancing the children's ability to…

Written summarization skills were successfully taught to deaf elementary students via an instructional method which emphasized six elements of story structure (setting, initiating event, internal response, action, consequence, and reaction). (JC)

Presents an activity designed to help students begin to see connections between traditional print and electronic communication environments. Aims also to introduce students to collaborative writing and sharpen narrative writing skills. Gives a step-by-step progression of the activity which begins with groups creating a character sketch. (PA)

This study of the story composition abilities of 46 students (aged 11-14) with learning disabilities found that subjects had a rudimentary knowledge of story form, but this knowledge was less developed than that of their nondisabled peers. Subjects also had greater coherence problems in their writing and were less fluent writers. (Author/JDD)

Discusses extending the "Witch's Hat" technique with the Problem-Solution pattern and the dialog projection technique to help learners comprehend and produce basic narrative discourse in English by developing awareness of the rhetorical structure of stories. Discusses benefits of the combined strategy. (RS)

This study investigated written language production in 10-year-old children with impaired reading comprehension. Despite fluent and accurate reading, these children are poor at understanding what they read. Participants completed a spelling test, and were asked to write an extended narrative, prompted by a series of pictures. Poor comprehenders…

This book is based on the premise that a writer is much like an artist who paints images, only using grammatical structures as tools. In conjunction with this approach, each chapter is divided into concepts and strategies: concepts illustrate how professional writers have applied image grammar to develop their art, and strategies provide…

In this replication study, supplemental writing instruction in strategic planning was used to improve the story writing ability of young writers with learning disabilities (LD) and poor writing skills. Six 2nd-grade students with learning disabilities who experienced difficulty with story writing were taught a strategy for planning and writing…

Elementary teachers can use folktales to teach story structure. After students read a folktale, they can brainstorm for story ideas, create and revise outlines and drafts, edit their stories in pairs, complete a final version, then construct and illustrate a book. A student page teaches how to plan a folktale. (SM)

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.…

One of the greatest myths or fictions of nonfiction is that it contains no fiction. Ben Franklin's flight from Boston to Philadelphia illustrates how changes occur in the retelling of the "facts" of a life. In his "Autobiography," Franklin writes that his friend, Collins, arranged for a ship's passage for Franklin by telling…

This introduction to Section 1, Part 2 of the theme issue discusses a study that investigated the story-grammar propositions of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Results found that over 50% of the students could not produce the minimal components of a good story. The processes of story production are explained, including schemata…

A study investigated the effects of explicit versus implicit instruction in story grammar on the narrative writing skills of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students at the university level. Subjects were 83 freshmen enrolled in English at the Faculty of Education at Suez Canal University (Egypt). The subjects were randomly assigned to…

A series of studies on 474 Colorado students (ages 7-18) with hearing impairments investigated the use of inference and elaboration, sequencing, and story-grammar strategies. The use of eight types of sequence/connection/cohesion strategies was examined. Results found that different strategies predominate depending on participants' age and degree…