Parent Tips

1.  Provide children with puppets, stuffed animals, dolls, and other toys that help them play out scenarios.  This develops their concept of story, promotes an understanding of character development, strengthens language development, and sparks imagination.

2.  Encourage your child to read.  Provide him/her with opportunities to read quality children's literature.  Some titles are included in the KidBibs Virtual Bookstore at the beginning of this article. Other titles are included in the KidBibs Grow-A-Reader Feature.

3.  Give children an opportunity to tell you about books they've read.  Having them put the story in their own words (instead of answering specific questions) requires them to mentally organize the story and promotes language development.  Asking probe questions about their retelling of the story often engages children in higher level thinking.

4. While reading to children, stop at various points in the story and ask what will probably happen next; they should use what has already happened in the story to generate several possibilities. Then have them listen or read to confirm. This engages children in using their story grammar while focusing on the events of the specific story.

5.  Use words like "character," "plot," and "problem" to talk about stories while you're reading together.  Talk about what the "author" and "illustrator" have done to help us understand and enjoy their story.

Teacher Tips

1.  Encourage students to read.  Provide students with opportunities to read quality children's literature.  Maintain a classroom library and use literature-based approaches for delivering instruction. Some titles are included in the KidBibs Virtual Bookstore at the beginning of this article.

2.  Have students retell what they've read instead of having them answer specific questions about a story.  While answering questions usually requires the student to say only a few words, retelling the story requires students to generate more language and organize their ideas.  When conducting a retelling with a class, call on one student to start the retelling with a few sentences.  Then have another student add to what the first student said.  Then have another student add to what the first two students said, etc.  In this way, students need to listen to their classmates in order to add appropriate information.  Use the information that has been provided in the retelling to ask probe questions. After the retelling is completed, you may ask questions about important aspects of the story that haven't been included in the retelling.

2.  Implement a Scrambled Story strategy.  Select an unfamiliar story with a traditional beginning, middle, and ending.  Divide the story between paragraphs into four or five sections of similar length.  Remove all evidence of the title and page numbers.  Pictures may be included if desired.  Shuffle the order of the story pieces and place in a clasp envelope labeled with the story title and author's name.   Create identical envelopes for  your class (with one envelope per group of four or five students).  For example, a class of 30 students reading a story divided into five sections would require six story envelopes.  Form groups of four or five students (depending on how many pieces of story there are in the envelope).  Provide each group with an envelope and tell students that each group member should have one piece of the story (and each piece of the story in the envelope is different).  Read the title of the story (that is printed on their story envelope).  Tell students to read their section silently and decide if it sounds like the beginning of the story, the end of the story, or the middle of the story. 
     When everyone in the group has finished reading their section, have the student who thinks that she has the beginning of the story read their section to the group.  If the group agrees that this is the beginning of the story, then the person who thinks he has the next section reads it to the group.  This continues until the group has put the story together.  Then group members are expected to read the story all the way through to see if it fits together well.  They may rearrange story pieces as needed.  After all of the groups have finished, have the students share how they put the story together.  Probe to have them analyze how they made their decisions.   Highlight elements of story grammar in their explanations as appropriate.  
      Keep in mind that this differs significantly from the traditional sequencing events activity.   When sequencing events, students have previously read the entire story; they are simply using a literal/knowledge/textually explicit level of comprehension to put the events in order.  The Scrambled Story strategy provides students with only a small piece of an unfamiliar story and requires the students to use higher level thinking and story grammar to determine how the story fits together.

3.  Implement the Macro Cloze strategy. Select an unfamiliar story with a traditional beginning, middle, and ending.  In preparation for the strategy, read the story and select one or two paragraphs (in different places in the story) that are predictable considering the text that leads up to the paragraph and the text that follows the paragraph.  Prepare the story so that this/these paragraph(s) are omitted.  Leave plenty of space for the students to write what they believe happened in each spot.  Distribute a copy of the story to each student.  Have them read the story silently and write their own paragraph for each "spot."  After all of the students have finished writing their paragraphs, allow them to share what they've written.  If students wish, you may share the actual paragraphs that you had deleted from the story.  They often like to compare their paragraphs to the original paragraphs that the author wrote.  This strategy involves students in meaningful silent reading, strengthens story grammar, and provides students with an opportunity to write in relation to reading.

Homeschooling Tips

1.  Encourage your child to read.  Provide children with opportunities to read quality children's literature.  Some titles are included in the KidBibs Virtual Bookstore at the beginning of this article.

2.  Have your child retell what she's read instead of having her answer specific questions about a story.  Answering questions usually only requires the child to say a few words. Retelling the story requires the child to generate more language and organize their ideas.   Use information provided by the child in the retelling to construct probe questions. After the retelling is completed, you may ask questions about important aspects of the story that haven't been included in the retelling.

3.  Implement a variation of the Scrambled Story strategy. Select an unfamiliar story with a traditional beginning, middle, and ending.  Divide the story between paragraphs into four sections.  Remove all evidence of the title and page numbers.  Pictures may be included if desired.  Shuffle the order of the story pieces and place in a clasp envelope labeled with the story title and author's name. Have your child read the title of the story (that is printed on their story envelope). Tell him to read each section silently and try to find the beginning and ending sections of the story. Then have him read the other sections and put them in order.  When the child thinks that he has sequenced the sections appropriately, have him reread the story silently to check his work.  He may rearrange story pieces as needed. When he has checked his work have him share the story with you.   Probe to have your child analyze how he made his decisions.  Highlight elements of story grammar in his explanations as appropriate. 
     Keep in mind that this differs significantly from the traditional sequencing events activity.  When sequencing events, children have previously read the entire story; they are simply using a literal level of comprehension to put the events in order.  The Scrambled Story strategy provides a child with pieces of an unfamiliar story and requires him/her to use higher level thinking and story grammar to determine how the story fits together.

4.  Implement the Macro Cloze strategy. Select an unfamiliar story with a traditional beginning, middle, and ending.  Read the story and select one or two paragraphs (in different places in the story) that are predictable considering the text that leads up to the paragraph and the text that follows the paragraph.  Prepare the story so that this/these paragraph(s) are omitted.  Leave plenty of space for your child to write what they think happened in each spot. Implementation: Have her read the story silently and write her own paragraph for each "spot." Have her read the story to you inserting what she wrote in each "spot."  If your child  wishes, you may share the actual paragraphs that you had deleted from the story.  Children often like to compare their paragraphs to the original paragraphs that the author wrote.  This strategy involves children in meaningful silent reading, strengthens story grammars, and provides children with an opportunity to write in relation to reading.