Young Children Learning Story Discourse: Three Case Studies

Abstract

How young children learn story discourse is discussed. First, global structure elements of the story genre are reviewed. Then, examples of 3 young children's repeated "pretend readings" are examined to determine how the prereading children are developing understandings about story discourse. Analyses showed that the children varied in their understanding of two global story elements (placement and initiating event) and that their understanding generally improved with each successive "reading" of the story. Based on the children's readings, implications for language arts instruction are considered.