Thirty hearing-impaired children at a residential school for the deaf, a day school for the deaf, and a day program for the deaf in a regular public elementary school were shown picture books, asked to tell the story, and asked to respond to specific questions. Results showed that the ability to process questions was related to the structure of…

Reading to young children offers them many benefits including a sense of security which comes from physical closeness to an adult. In addition, the child perceives the format of print, begins to assimilate the basics of story construction, develops a prior knowledge base which is an essential ingredient of comprehension, and receives the message…

Examines children's uses of nominal determiners ("local markings") and utterance structure ("global markings") to introduce new referents through the use of narratives elicited from preschoolers, elementary school students and adults in English, French, German and Mandarin Chinese. Findings reveal that local markings emerge first, and local and…

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)

Analyzes the structural and thematic elements of three stories written by a sixth-grade Navajo girl to challenge the notion that a linear pattern of growth is followed by all children as they learn to write stories. The results question the assumption that certain kinds of narratives and their American Indian authors are less able or less…

This manual is intended for teachers using the Project Success Enrichment (PSE) program to teach language arts to gifted and typical elementary school students. Following an introduction that outlines the purposes and objectives set forth in the Project Success Enrichment: Language Arts Introductory Unit, this component focuses on the short story…

In English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), there is renewed interest in use of literature in the communicative classroom. Literature may be part of a communicative pedagogy in three ways: (1) by providing a context in which to develop students' reading strategies and knowledge of non-fiction and literary texts; (2) by being the basis of an…

In modern societies, children are becoming more and more users of a child culture constructed by adults, rather than producers of their own culture. This paper describes a project, implemented in Nordic child care centers and early childhood classes, that provides children the opportunity to narrate and illustrate their own stories, written down…

A study determined whether instruction on story elements within rich contexts can increase students' understanding of the characters' traits and motives, their comprehension of stories, and their ability to write causally coherent stories. Instruction was organized around an "anchor" (a story rich with embedded information presented on…

To encourage children's creative writing in a classroom setting, student teachers used two types of children's books as models: (1) a traditionally structured picture book in which the story maintains strong development of plot, setting, and characters as in "Peter Rabbit"; and (2) a predictable pattern book that develops a repetitive pattern as…

Proceeding from a definition of "story schema" as an idealized internal representation of the parts of a typical story and the relationships among those parts, this paper explores the role of story schemata in reading comprehension. The paper also identifies variables that may affect the way in which schemata function and outlines the…

Defines story grammar, reviews pertinent research, and describes classroom activities based on research findings. (NKA)

Examines the stories that teachers tell each other in the staff room. Identifies and characterizes these stories according to what they reveal about teachers' concepts concerning power and the teachers' role. Explores how these concepts develop in the wider sociocultural climate of the school. (MJP)

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)

Based on the hypothesis that teachers' naturally occurring presentations of storyreading have an effect on children's literacy learning, a study examined whether teachers can be trained to provide a structure for listening to stories and whether this type of presentation would result in significant gains in children's story understanding. Five…