Storytelling and story schema: A bridge to listening comprehension through retelling

The concept of story schema offers a framework for the mental organization of a story. Children use this framework, or story structure, to aid in listening comprehension and recall. Retelling a story is a constructive process and requires the use of story structure as a method for the organization of a story from beginning to end.;This research examined the elements of story structure used in written and oral retellings. Interview questions were used to explore comprehension and to probe metacognitive processes. The research considered the extent to which children at different grade levels use story schema as a scaffold for narrative construction.;The researcher conducted the study with twelve second-grade and twelve fourth-grade students. The subjects in this study were from two schools, one in a suburban and one in a rural area of a midwestern state.;Participants in the second- and fourth-grade classes responded to the telling of three folktales over a period of three weeks. The written and oral retellings of two of these folktales served as the primary source of data for the study. Oral interviews offered additional information.;Descriptive methodology was used to classify and analyze the collected data. The descriptive data provided invaluable sources of information concerning students' use of story schema for listening comprehension and recall.;The evaluation of the students' responses to the folktales indicated that children are aware of and use the elements of story structure as a framework for the reconstruction of stories. The investigation of the students' responses demonstrated that story schema expands with age and experience with stories. Consequently students in the fourth grade included more description in their retellings. The expanded description resulted in the fourth-grade students receiving credit for using more story structure elements in their retellings than the students in the second grade. The credit for the story structure elements used was recorded on Marshall's (1983) Checklist of Retelling Behaviors Chart.;The study concluded that monitoring students' use of story structure elements provides a holistic method for the assessment of comprehension. The use of written and oral retellings were found to be of significant value in this process.