Retelling Stories: A Strategy for Improving Young Children's Comprehension, Concept of Story Structure, and Oral Language Complexity

The Elementary School Journal Volume 85, Number 5 ? 1985 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0013-5984/85/8505-0006$01.00 Educators recognize that young children who have stories read to them develop more sophisticated language structures, accumulate more background information, and have more interest in learning to read (Bower 1976; Chomsky 1972; Cohen 1968; Durkin 1966). In addition, active participation in literary experiences enhances the development of comprehension, oral language, and a sense of story structure (Blank & Sheldon 1971; Bower 1976). For example, Brown's research (1975) suggests that children's story comprehension is facilitated when they are involved actively in the reconstruction of a story. She defines reconstruction as children's thinking about the individual story events and arranging pictures of the story in sequential order. By mentally reconstructing the events themselves and arranging pictures, children build an internal representation of the story. In another study, Pellegrini and Galda tested the effects of varying modes of active involvement in story reconstruction on comprehension. Role playing significantly improved comprehension of story and story retelling ability. According to Pellegrini and Galda, when role playing stories, active involvement and peer interaction contributed to the children's increased performance.

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