Reading is the foundation for literacy and comprehension is the foundation for education. Many learning disabled students struggle to understand what they have read and many instructional approaches in small group settings focus on decoding rather than on comprehension. Employing a dual strategic approach to facilitate comprehension enables students to become more effective readers. Direct instruction of story grammar incorporated with retelling techniques allows students to identify major story elements while strengthening oral language skills. This strategy was reinforced through story framing which was modeled and practiced with 10 learning disabled students (ranging in age from 6 to 7 and ranging in ability from beginning first grade to beginning second grade reading levels) to improve their written language ability and ultimately increase their comprehension. By empowering students through instruction that is strategic in nature, learning disabled students will likely meet with greater reading success. (Contains 25 references and 2 tables of data; an appendix contains 4 tables of data.) (Author/RS)