Analyzes samples of American Indian oral narrative forms to demonstrate that patterning in the narrative structure (such as systematic recurrence of lines) may embody an explicit logic of experience and rhetoric of action. Suggests that patterning occurs in the language of any community, a fact that has implications for teaching language to…

Studies the myth as history through the texts collected from Jim Stacey, a Yavapai narrator, in 1930. Demonstrates how Stacey adjusted myths to a system of cycles and shows how Stacey's versions of those myths differ from the versions of other Yavapai narrators. (CM)

Describes an approach to teaching narrative poetry writing to tenth-grade students. (RL)

Compares the effects of sex stereotyping and non-sex stereotyping in the use of narrators for instructional videotape materials designed for nursing students. All variables but gender of narrator were controlled, and no effects on learning were found using male and female voices. (Author/BK)

Focusing on the natural world, the use of myth and ritual in the novel, and the formal design of the work, symposium papers present and analyze crucial themes and forms in Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony," a novel distinctively Indian in narrative technique, thematic content, and structure. (CM)

Notes developments in sociolinguistic theory with implications for the teaching of writing. (RL)

Examines a number of specific paradoxical situations found in participative organizations; compares them to the paradoxes found in select Zen stories or koans--each set of stories or examples focuses on one or more aspects of empowerment. Reveals, through narrative analysis, counterintuitive ideas on how to understand and cope with organizational…

Examines the genre of Australian children's picture books. Highlights include picture books, picture story books, and illustrated books; historical treatment; reviewing picture books; age range; complementarity of text and pictures; narrative element; communication; audience; and the integrated whole. (LRW)

States that as electronic media increasingly begins to dominate narratives for children, the very nature of narrative is changing. Explains that the future of children's literature depends upon the application of understanding intellectual changes, at least through a revision of the meanings of literate and good reader. (CMK)

Explains the creation and validation of the Narrative Comprehension of Picture Books task (NC task), an assessment of young children's comprehension of wordless picture books. Creates and tests assessment materials and procedures that can be used with young children, whether or not they can decode print. Discusses how narrative comprehension is…

Defines validation as a process by which researchers evaluate the trustworthiness of a study through a tacit understanding of actual practices. Proposes an approach to validation based on the concept of exemplars--concrete models of research practice. Uses three studies of narrative--life history, oral narrative, and narrative strategy--as…