Beyond the Story Structure: Qualitative Aspects of Retelling

Abstract

In this study particular practices in story retelling ware examined, these improved children’s comprehension of story structure and enabled them to made comments within and beyond the story. One hundred fifteen (115) kindergarten children composed the treatment and alternative condition. For 8 weeks and for one time per week, 8 well-structured as following: Before reading a brief discussion was carried out, while after reading children were trained in story retelling. The intervention program in retelling consisted of five levels, which began from total teacher’s assistance to the point where children were able to retell the story freely and completely. The same 8 books were simply read to the control group and after the readings children made drawings from the story.. Children’s retellings were taped and analyzed according to a series of quantitative and qualitative measures. Results indicated that guided practice in retelling enhance children’s ability for deeper comprehension and thus resulted in further comments about and beyond the text.