Two studies carried out by James Squire and Jesse Stuart explored processes used in reading the short story, ways of exploring student's processes, possibilities within the short story as a literary genre, and methods teachers can use. Squire's study showed that introspection and retrospection are useful in studying students' reading processes. In…

Reading aloud is an essential part of the classroom instructional program, along with direct instruction and sustained silent reading or book contact, and should not be slighted despite the numerous time demands from other sources. Reading aloud to children provides opportunities for introducing children to good literature and encourages language…

The differences between story grammar and story schema are outlined and discussed based on research on story understanding by children and adults. The contention of all story grammars is that stories have a relatively invariant structure despite great differences in story content. The importance of structure within folk tales, and the ways in…

This handbook for beginning and advanced storytellers, parents, and professionals introduces techniques and resources to develop and extend storytelling skills. It is divided into four parts. Part 1 outlines program planning, promotion, and storytelling techniques. Part 2 covers the sources for storytelling of narrative tables, fables and myths,…

THE QUALITIES WHICH MAKE STORYBOOKS AND PICTURE BOOKS APPEALING TO PRESCHOOL CHILDREN AND THOSE WHICH HELP THEM UNDERSTAND AND MASTER THE USES OF LANGUAGE ARE DISCUSSED BRIEFLY. DIFFERENT TYPES OF BOOKS THAT APPEAL TO PRESCHOOL CHILDREN ARE PRESENTED--BOOKS THAT ENCOURAGE THE HEALTHY EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS, BOOKS THAT ENABLE THEM TO PARTICIPATE,…

This literature curriculum for second graders introduces nine story types in 33 lessons, covering more than 40 separate concepts about literature. Designed to be used with telelessons, each of the nine units, corresponding to a specific story type, presents a lesson for each story of that type. Lessons provide lesson objectives and a program…

Children learning to read are often exposed to "stories" which are really little more than lists of sentences. A good story has at least continuity and conflict which may be analyzed in two ways: story grammar (analysis of setting and plot) and plans and beliefs (analysis of the plans and beliefs of the characters, including the reader's…

In this article thirty second graders joyously celebrated George Washington's birthday with a musical, one-act play. Also, an amusing poem was presented, a story about Groundhog Day was told, and a game activity for a valentine's party was described. (RK)

In order to determine if identification and affinity for a storybook hero are functions of physical status, 127 children (ages 4 to 7 years) in two groups (one disabled) were randomly assigned to one of two storybook treatments telling of two boys' friendship. (Author/PHR)

Presents the value of stories, especially fairy tales, as ways of both tutoring and expressing the imaginative and intuitive side of the personality. (DD)

A story is told of a town that loses all of its linear measuring devices, only to devise a new method of measuring, the metric system! (JT)

Two experiments investigated some of the cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking. Results did not support the hypothesis that degree of surprise per se causes interest. The hypothesis that interest and liking arise from different causes was supported. (Author/LMO)

Notes that instruction in the dramatic arts can encourage lasting aesthetic awareness and improved communicative abilities, and presents descriptions of four articles about youth drama from the ERIC database. (JC)

Repetitive shared book experiences used with a rural, racially mixed 1983-84 kindergarten population (N=228) were found to enhance literacy awareness and competence, improve preparation for formal first grade, and broaden children's literacy interests when compared to a control group of the 1982-83 kindergarten population (N=269). (DR)

Makes the observation that the attempt of the child to make sense of the world is not necessarily guided by traditional literary structures but by expressive tactics influenced, in large part, by what the child is thinking and struggling with at the moment. (HOD)