Narrative Story Structures

1. Narrative Story Structures Mona McWhorter & Mechelle Ivy

2. Story Grammar • Patterns of story retelling • Expression of conflict or problem • Description of attempts to solve the problem • Chain of events leading to resolution • How characters react to the events in the story • Mandler and Johnson (1977) found that children used their knowledge of story story structured to help remember important details • Story grammarians are the researchers who developed formal procedures to identify elements and rules of organization

3. Early Story Structures • Setting • Introduces the main character(s) • Describes the social, physical or temporal context of the story • Creates the necessary conditions for the story to occur • Episode System • Consists of an entire behavior sequence • External and internal events influencing the character(s) • Characters response and the consequences • A Causal chain of events (initiating to resolution)

4. Main Structures of the Narrative Story • Characters • Setting • Problem or Conflict • Plot • Solution • Point of View • Theme

5. Classical to Current Researchers

6. Schema Theory • Bartlett 1932 • “Coined the term” • Arrived at the concept from studies of memory conducted in which subjects recalled details of stories that were not actually there • Suggested that memory takes the form of schema which provides a mental framework for understanding and remembering information

7. Schema Theory • Rumelhart (1980) and Mandler (1984) • Further developed the schema concept • Empirical support from studies in psycholinguistics has sustained schema • The experiments of Bransford & Franks (1971) involved showing people pictures and asking them questions about what the story depicted; people would remember different details depending upon the nature of the picture • Schema are also considered to be important components of cultural differences in cognition (Quinn & Holland, 1987) • Research on novice versus expert performance (Chi, et al., 1988) suggests that the nature of expertise is largely due to the possession of schemas that guide perception and problem-solving

8. Interactive Model • David E. Rumelhart 1977 • A Variety of processors converge on visual information simultaneously • Syntactic information (word order) • Semantic information (message construction) • Orthographic information (visual input) • Lexical information (word knowledge) • Consistent with Cognitive Processing Theory • Hypothesizes about unobservable and underlying cognitive processes that take place during reading. • Consistent with Information Processing Theory • Uses stage-by-stage conceptualization of the reading process

9. David E. Rumelhart • Developed a schema or grammar in an attempt to represent how a reader processes the internal organization of story material • Analyzed folktales, fables, and myths • Oral transmission • High Frequency • Findings • Even with variations, the end result is a stable organization • Logical sequence upon recall determines the degree of causality • Consists of a setting category plus an episode system

10. David E. Rumelhart • 1970 – A system for perception and memory • 1975 – Notes of a schema for stories • 1977 – Understanding and summarizing brief stories • 1977 – Toward and interactivemodel inreading • 1981 – Schemata the building blocks of condition

11. Jean M. Mandler • All the units identified by a story grammar are reflected in story schemas • Reading is disrupted when story units are moved out of their expected positions • It should be fairly easy for readers or listeners to notice transitions in episodes • Relate problems and plans to solve them that are familiar to readers • Shifts in episodes involve major transitions between protagonists

12. Jean M. Mandler and Nancy S. Johnson Remembrance of Things Parsed: Story Structure and Recall, 1977 • Analyzed the underlying structure of simple stories to identify common elements and implications of such structure for recall • “Story schema” referred to reader expectations about internal structure to facilitate encoding/retrieval in recall • Developed series of guidelines to rewrite or diagram the story for study

13. Jean M. Mandler • 1977 – Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall (with Nancy S. Johnson) • 1978 – A code in the node: The use of story schema in retrieval • 1980 – A tale of two structures: Underlying and surface forms in stories • 1982 – On the Psychological Validity of Story Structure • 1983 – What is a story? • 1984 – Stories: The function of structure • 1987 – On the psychology reality of story structure

14. Applebee’s A Child’s Sense of Story • Studied stories children tell and responses to stories read • Examined children’s expectations of story, fantasy, and their understanding of narrative story complexity and organization • Described six stages of narrative form -- children’s event arrangement and development patterns built on centering (topic focus) and chaining (sequencing) : 1. Heap 2. Sequence 3. Primitive Narrative 4. Unfocused Chain 5. Focused Chain 6. True Narrative • Developmental Stages in the Formulation of Response

15. Arthur N. Applebee • 1977 – A sense of story • 1978 – A child’s concept of story: Ages two to seventeen • 1979 – Children and stories: Learning the rules of the game • 1984 – Writing and reasoning

16. Nancy L. Stein and Christine G. Glenn An Analysis of Story Comprehension in Elementary School Children: A Test of Schema, 1975 • “Storyness” – how good or interesting a passage is as a story • Stories missing one or more episode parts were ranked less acceptable • Simplified story elements: • Setting • Initiating Event • Internal Response • Attempts • Consequences • Reaction

17. Nancy L. Stein • 1975 – A developmental study in children’s recall of story detail • 1975 – Analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children: A test of schema (with Christine G. Glenn) • 1981 – Children’s knowledge of events: A causal analysis of story structure • 1982 – What is a story: Interpreting the interpretations of story grammars • 1984 – Learning and comprehension of text • 1997 – Narrating, representing, and remembering event sequences

18. A. D. Pellegrini and Lee Galda The Effects of Thematic-Fantasy Play Training on the Development of Children’s Story Comprehension, 1982 • Story reconstruction training to develop children’s story comprehension • Research design: CRT questions, recall tasks, and drawing • Fantasy Play • Improve story comprehension for kindergarten and 1st graders • Complete story recall by age eight • Higher level of story and sequence recall • Active engagement related to retelling • Stimulates verbal skills

19. Jill Fitzgerald Enhancing Children’s Reading Comprehension Through Instruction in Narrative Structure, 1983 • Fourth grade study with lower ranking readers • Investigated how direct instruction of story elements and its interrelationships can promote knowledge of story structure and reading comprehension • Study focus: “Cognitive blueprint” or structure of stories • Phase 1 - Story elements (6) -- setting, beginning, reaction, goal, attempts, and ending plus outcome embedded episodes • Used descriptions, examples/non-examples, group activities using prediction and macro-cloze strategies, • Phase 2 - Scrambled story, sorting, and retelling activities • Revealed direct instruction as a powerful form of classroom instruction in reading comprehension

20. Jill Fitzgerald • 1981 – Readers’ expectations for story structures • 1981– Story grammars and reading instruction • 1983 – Enhancing children’s reading comprehension through instruction in narrative structure (with Dixie Lee Spiegel) • 1984 – The relationship between reading ability and expectations for story structures • 1985 – Development of children’s knowledge of story structure and content • 1986 – Improving reading comprehension through instruction about story parts • 1986 – Effects of instruction in narrative structure on children’s writing

21. Lorna Idol Group Story Mapping: A Comprehension Strategy for Both Skilled and Unskilled Readers, 1987 • Story mappings bring reader’s focus to important and interrelated parts of narrative story – a type of story schemata for organizing and categorizing important story components

22. Joseph Dimino, Russell Gersten, Douglas Carnine, and Geneva Blake Story Grammar: An Approach for Promoting At-Risk Secondary Students’ Comprehension of Literature, 1990 • To develop comprehension of complex short stories • An interactive instruction method to explicitly teach story grammar • Over 19 days of guided strategy instruction • Significantly improved responses by low-performing students to basal, story grammar, and theme questions • “Explicit story grammar instruction clarifies, expands, and helps students organize ideas they intuitively have.” (p. 30)

23. James F. Baumann and Bette S. Bergeron Story Map Instruction Using Children’s Literature: Effects on First Grader’s Comprehension of Central Narrative Elements, 1993 • Instructional study in story mapping using children’s literature • First graders in four different instructional designs • Map stories to develop story schema and recall • Write stories from a story map as group activity • Directed-Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) intervention • Directed reading of same literature as a control group • Results: Story mapping instruction enables recognition and recall and is valuable with unfamiliar and popular children’s stories • Story Mapping: Useful, effective instruction strategy

24. Construction-Integration Model • Walter Kintsch – 1994 • Aims to articulate the ways in which text representations are constructed when readers read • Readers construct representations, or understandings, of what they have read in their heads • Consistent with a cognitive processing perspective • Heavy emphasis on articulating ways in which the brain functions during reading

25. Walter Kintsch • 1974 – The representation of meaning in memory • 1975 – Comprehension and recall of text as a function of content variables • 1977 – Summarizing stories after reading and listening • 2004 - The construction-integration model of text comprehension and its implications for instruction

26. Marie A. Stadler and Gay Cuming Ward Supporting the Narrative Development of Young Children, 2005 • Importance of storytelling for language development • Various strategies can scaffold sequencing, cohesion, vocabulary, and event/audience awareness Levels of Narrative Development and Strategies • Labeling - “Me Bag” • Listing - “Froggy Project” • Connecting- “Talktime”, Connect characters to events • Sequencing - Cause/effect, Cumulative books • Narrating - Pictorial story maps, Class stories, Puppets

27. Susan Dymock Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Teaching Narrative Text Structure Awareness, 2007 • Teach narrative text structure awareness to improve comprehension • What should students be taught? • Setting establishes where/when of the story • Characters as major and minor • Compare/contrast individual characters • Analyze overall plot – problem, response, action, and outcome • Analyze single episodes (subplot) • Identify theme – motives, relationships, author’s intent • Narrative comprehension strategies “bring narratives to life”

28. Beginning Reader Computer Stories The Development of the Canonical Story Grammar Model and Its Use in the Analysis of Beginning Reading Computer Stories, Kimberly Y. Anderson and Cay Evans, 1996 • ECE and kindergarten students’ first experience with reading independently is more likely to be with a computer reading program • Developed CSGM Model based on research linking story grammar to children’s comprehension • Model applied to a major beginning reader computer series • Study found only 20% of the beginning reader computer stories contain adequate story grammar

29. References Anderson, K. P. & Evans, C. (1996). The development of the Canonical Story Grammar Model and its use in the analysis of beginning reading computer stories. Reading Improvement, 33, 2-14. Applebee, A. (1978). The child’s concept of story: Ages two to seven. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Baumann, J. F. & Bergeron, B. S. (1993). Story map instruction using children’s literature: Effects on first graders’ comprehension of central narrative elements. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25(4), 407-437. Dimino, J., Gersten, R., Carnine, D., & Blake, G. (1990). Story grammar: An approach for promoting at-risk secondary students’ comprehension of literature. The Elementary School Journal, 91(1), 19-32. Dymock, S. (2007). Comprehension strategy instruction: Teaching narrative text structure awareness. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 161-167. Fitzgerald, J. (1981). Reader’s expectations for story structures. Reading Research Quarterly, 17(1), 90-114. Fitzgerald, J. & Spiegel, D. L. (1988). Enhancing children’s reading comprehension through instruction in narrative structure. Journal of Reading Behavior, 15(2), 1-17.

30. References Fitzgerald, J., Spiegel, D. L., & Webb, T. B. (1985). Development of children’s knowledge of story structure and content. Journal of Educational Research, 79, 101-108. Fitzgerald, J. & Teasley, A. B. (1986). Effects of instruction in narrative structure on children’s writing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(6), 424-432. Idol, L. (1987). Group story mapping: A comprehension strategy for both skilled and unskilled readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 20(4), 196-205. Kintsch, W. & Kozmimski, E. (1977). Summarizing stories after reading and listening. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69(5), 491-499. Kintsch, W. (2004). The construction-integration model of text comprehension and its implications for instruction. In R. B. Rudell & N. J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1270-1324). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Mandler, J. M. (1987). On the psychological reality of story structure. Discourse Processes, 10(1), 1-29 Mandler, J. M. & Goodman, M. S. (1982). On the psychological validity of story structure. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 21, 507-523.

31. References Mandler, J. M. & Johnson, N. S. (1977). Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 111-151. Pellegrini, A.D. & Galda, L. (1982). The effects of thematic-fantasy play training on the development of children’s story comprehension. AmericanEducational Research Journal, 19(3), 443-452. Spiegel, D. L. & Fitzgerald, J. (1986). Improving reading comprehension through instruction about story parts. The Reading Teacher, 39(7), 676-682. Stein, N. L. & Glen, C. G. (1978). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children: A test of a schema. In R.O. Freedie (ed.). Advances in discourse processes. (Vol. II). New Directions in Discourse Procession. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. Stradler, M. A. & Ward, G. C. (2005). Supporting the narrative development of young children. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(2), 73-80. doi: 10.1007/s10643-005-0024-4 Tracey, D. H. & Morrow, L. M. (2006). Lenses on Reading: An introduction to theories and models. New York: The Guildford Press. Whaley, J. F. (1981). Story grammars and reading instruction. The Reading Teacher, 34(7), 762-771.