Story Grammars and Reading Instruction.

Abstract

Jill Fitzgerald Whaley Investigators have recently shown great interest in story schema, that is, an individual's mental representation of story components and the way these components fit together. A particularly important aspect of this research has been the development of story grammars to describe narrative parts and their interrelationships. At least two findings of story grammar research have important implications for classroom practice. First, an individual's knowledge of story components appears to facili t?te comprehension and memory of stories. Second, such knowledge be comes more fully developed over time: Older children and adults have a richer, more elaborated concept of what constitutes a story than do younger children. It is possible, then, that one way to advance children's reading comprehension is to enhance the development of their knowledge of story components. This article describes a story gram mar, summarizes some important results of story grammar investiga tions, and suggests instructional pro cedures for developing children's concept of story and story com ponents.