Suggests that the ability to process narrative information is fundamental to understanding human psychological development. Notes that a culture's system of understanding and interpreting the world is carried mostly by stories and texts. Explores how narrative understanding can be modeled in Fuzzy Trace Theory by using the principles of this…

Third graders produced narrative or descriptive passages in response to prompt words. Results supported the domain-specific view of production, in which content elaboration occurs across repeated productions when there is a connection between the earlier and the later production and that connection is based on semantic similarity. (ME)

Describes the effective use of a videotape to demonstrate needed funding for a children's library in the Blackstone Memorial Library (Branford, CT). Topics addressed include the production plan, planning documents, presentation treatment and storyboards, support narration, and production and editing activities. (eight references) (LRW)

Disputes the claim that narrative writing is of lesser value than expository forms, and argues that narrative holds great potential for use in writing curricula. Describes a summer science institute for minority students in which narrative was utilized. (HB)

Examined children's monitoring of TV programs for visual content and processing of program content through language. Narration enhanced visual attention and comprehension. Auditory comprehension did not depend on looking. Auditory attention did not differ with the presence or absence of narration. (BC)

Forty-six Spanish-speaking children ages four, six, or eight years viewed a short silent film and told what happened in the film. The stories of older children included more narrative actions, more mental state/goal causes, more three-clause causal sequences, and a lower proportion of unrelated statements than those of younger children.…

Describes a research project that focused on the work of a teacher and students in an afterschool drama class during two academic years. Explores the development of the researchers' and the teacher's increased understandings about effective processes for story development in dramatic contexts. (SR)

This study found that narratives of 41 parents of 29 autistic children were similar in length to controls' narratives but were less complex and less coherent. A subgroup of the parents produced either skeletal or rambling narratives, consistent with the hypothesis of a genetic liability for mild forms of autism that include impaired language…

Inspired by Brendan's fantastic sea adventures, this article describes a cooperative university-faculty project to redesign the elementary social studies curriculum in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The new plan employs literature (biography, historical novels, travel accounts, myths and legends, religious stories, poetry, and drama) to enliven study…

Describes how one English teacher developed an approach to teaching personal writing which juxtaposed the refined power of literary stories against the raw power of students' personal and sometimes tragic stories. Encourages English teachers to relate literary works to real, everyday life. (HB)

Examines the rhetoric used in "Chuang Tzu" to disclose the sage's theory of rhetoric. Shows that revealing the mind of the sage is the main task of "Chuang Tzu." Discusses why neither direct description nor firsthand encounters with sages are well suited to disclosing the sage's mind. Examines how "Chuang Tzu" uses invented narratives to achieve…

Developed taxonomy of eight types of negation found in children's narratives, and examined children's personal narratives and narratives elicited by picture books. Found most frequent negation to be reference to actions that did not happen. Younger children used negation more than older children, and negation occurred more frequently in personal…

Examined whether the predominance of particular themes in maltreated preschoolers' stories about relationships is related to type of maltreatment they experienced. Found significant differences among the physically abused, sexually abused, neglected, and comparison subgroups with respect to the predominance of specific relationship themes in their…

Argues that the historical development of written narrative during the past century confounds traditional distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. Argues that students need to develop cognitive complexity. Outlines a sequence of assignments intended to destabilize students' assumptions about the difference between reality and fantasy, fiction…

It has been claimed that speakers of Spanish and English have different patterns of thinking for speaking about motion both linguistically and gesturally (Stam 1998; McNeill and Duncan 2000; McNeill 2000; Kellerman and van Hoof 2003; Neguerela et al. 2004). For example, Spanish speakers' path gestures tend to occur with path verbs, while English…