Beyond Story Grammar

Abstract

Literacy is a socially constructed ideology (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Street, 1995). Current representations reduce literacy to standards, skill testing, and the five components of reading (NICHD, 2000). This view of literacy discounts the knowledge and skills of many students. This article examines the oral story of Aisha, an African American first grader, through traditional and nontraditional measures. The findings highlight two contrasting perspectives of Aisha’s story: One that views the story as weak and below grade level and another that highlights her rich literacy abilities. This study argues that it is important to consider the social and historical features that may influence children’s stories. A definition of literacy that recognizes and values the continuum of literacy experiences is advocated in this article.

Different Tales: The Role of Gender in the Oral Narrative–Reading Link Among African American Children

“…The story grammar approach has been criticized as being inappropriate for assessing the narratives of children from non-European American backgrounds. Some scholars suggest that when children's narratives do not follow a linear, sequential format, the story grammar approach can underrate children's narrative skills, giving the appearance that children's skills are deficient while overlooking children's rich stylistic abilities (Urbach, 2012). One way of addressing this issue is to elicit children's narratives using a structured task that focuses on a protagonist involved in a series of goal-directed behaviors to resolve a problem as the story grammar approach is most closely aligned with this type of task.…”

Assessing Language for Literacy: A Microanalysis of Children’s Vocabulary, Syntax and Narrative Grammar

“…Many children as young as two to three years old develop a rich repertoire of knowledge about narrative, and become increasing skilled at understanding and producing narrative stories, matched to their home languages and cultural practices (Bliss & McCabe, 2008;Heath, 1983). These narratives are thought to be a form of literate language that serves as a bridge between oral and written language, with the knowledge of story schemas believed to be important for reading comprehension (Westby, 2005).…”