The availability of both oral and written historical narratives provides the Readers Theater adapter with a rich opportunity to experiment with mixing oral and written narrative styles in documentary form. Those who plan to use such mixing must consider the differences between oral and written narratives. Writers and readers have almost unlimited…

A study was conducted to define the linguistic and discourse parameters of text difficulty from the point of view of both the reader and the text in order to redefine readability and to provide an operational way of explaining processing difficulties of the near-mature reader. Subjects were 14-year-old students in the United States and the United…

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

In the United States, where printed literature is the primary vehicle of myth, the journalist plays a critical role as creator and perpetuator of myth through the narrative form. Narratives of fiction or fact express the traditions and metaphors of a particular culture and transform archetypal myths into myths unique to that culture. A comparison…

The purpose of this study was to determine what effects the Christensen Rhetoric Program, a method of teaching sentence and paragraph development, had upon the attitudes of 43 black college freshmen just entering Tennessee State University and upon the persistence of these students in using free modifiers after a lapse of time and instruction.…

The coexistence of wildlife with American agriculture is explored in this pamphlet. Studied is the importance and value of good soil and water conservation to conserve wildlife, relating it to the feeding and living habits of wildlife, economic and aesthetic values of wildlife, the growing of specific plants and provision of watering places for…

Analyzes Walter Fisher's work on the "narrative paradigm." Considers Fisher's definition of narrative too broad and advocates a more limited definition. Rejects Fisher's view that there is an independent standard of narrative rationality distinguishable from the "rational world paradigm," and his idea that the role of the…

The article explores the development of children's understanding of causality, its effect on narrative development and organization; and the development of intentional, goal directed behavior. (Author/DB)

The literature on oral narrative comprehension, memory, and production abilities of language-learning-disabled students is reviewed. The relationship of these abilities to academic success is noted. (Author/DB)

Examined each book in 8 basal reading series (preprimers to sixth readers) to determine the variety of types of writing in these 1983 basals. Texts were examined for the number of selections representing narrative, poetry, plays, exposition, biography, hybrid writing types and for the number of pages devoted to each type of writing. (Author/NH)

In this article, an attempt is made to show how the language of motivation in infant classrooms might be researched. It investigates the relationship between the text that pupils and teachers produce as a story in their school life and the narrative voice of the researcher. (Author/CT)

Compositions of 10 high-knowledge and 10 low-knowledge fourth-grade students taught by either academically-oriented or cognitive developmentally-oriented teachers were analyzed in terms of four types of propositions they contained to assess the relative influence of writers' prior knowledge and teachers' classroom lesson structure on students'…

Describes a study of what makes a statement important in a text. Results indicate that judgments of importance are determined, in part, by local linking of one event to another by causal and/or logical inferences. The results of these individual links is a network of events and event relations. (SED)

The issue of teachers' interpretion of children's language and ideas is explored through observations of sharing time in a second-grade classroom. Problems associated with teacher evaluation of student competence in classrooms where children come from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds are discussed. (DF)

Argues that medieval drama in performance suggests a number of important issues about the nature of literature, particularly about the way narrative and dramatic art can express the life of a community. Presents a series of exercises that start with familiar, nonthreatening situations in order to approach the richness of medieval plays and the…