Decries the way in which British education has reduced or eliminated the animation or essence of narrative. Explores the features that give narrative importance broader and deeper than the purely literary values customarily given it, and provides a rationale for keeping storytelling in the curriculum to enhance students' writing. (HTH)

Explores children's interaction during talking, telling, and storymaking stages as they prepare a narrative. Discusses a method of stimulating children to create stories by encouraging them to talk about a book that has been read aloud to them. (HTH)

Describes a school-based storytelling project in which teacher trainees highlighted the values of storytelling and reading. Shows specifically what students were asked to do in planning the proceedings of the events. (HB)

Suggestions are given on how to write stories for students, taking into consideration plot, vocabulary development, and interest levels. (JH)

Intended to provide a full range of storytelling techniques, this workbook includes 54 stories and their activities. Some stories are introduced with a fanfare and warmup section based on theatre games; some stories are preceded by commentary and source notes; and some folktales are retold with no preliminaries at all. About half of the stories…

Investigated the effects of four writing experiences, grade, and reading level on elementary students' narrative writing. For 14 days, students wrote in response to 4 stimuli. Poststudy writing samples indicated students wrote in response to a common but different writing prompt. There were main effects for grade and reading level. (SM)

Argues the importance of dictated stories, with the teacher or other adult as scribe, in children's development as writers. Examines one child's literary influences and her literacy development. (MG)

Reflecting the concerns of researchers and practitioners about children's text comprehension, this book defines and provides examples of narrative and expository text and describes research-based strategies for helping children comprehend these two types of text. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Research on Stories: Implications…

This curriculum guide is designed to aid in the planning and execution of a writing course for verbally gifted elementary school students. The course is designed for students ranging in age from 8-11 years whose verbal reasoning skills are at least 3 years above grade level. The course instructs students in the fundamentals of communication…

In a study of differences and similarities between children's oral and written stories, 23 third grade pupils wrote stories about a given topic and then, two weeks later, told stories about the same topic. Analysis of the stories revealed five types of narrative structures, of which the most commonly used was a "situation-problem-solution"…

Analyzes four informal reading inventories to determine the text type of each passage, whether narrative passages are well formed, and whether expository passages are well organized. Finds almost half the narratives poorly formed. Concludes that the lack of continuity in text type and organization could result in children's comprehension scores…

Creative dramatics is an art form which enables children under the guidance of an imaginative and responsive adult, to reinforce academic subjects, establish a positive self-image and develop the processes of concentration, analysis, evaluation, inference, and creativity. Designed to assist elementary teachers and administrators, this book does…

Asserts the function of narrative as a method of thinking is important in the lives of children as well as adults. Maintains that, by examining a story or narrative in children's art, it is possible to account for its importance in their lives. Describes three aspects of narrative: (1) invention; (2) description; and (3) negotiation. (CFR)

Presents reading/writing units based on story grammar techniques and intended for students in grades one through six. (FL)

Discusses nine orthodoxies, including the idea that spelling, grammar, and punctuation are unimportant, that decrease teacher effectiveness. (DF)