Action! suspense! culture! insight! : reading stories in the classroom

Running title: Reading stories in the classroomAt head of title: Center for the Study of Reading.Bibliography: leaves 32-39Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. US-HEW-C-400-81-003

Supporting Primary Students’ Story Writing by Including Retellings, Talk, and Drama with Strategy Instruction

Story writing and story grammar have been studied extensively in an effort to improve students’ reading comprehension. Instruction on story structure and on elements of stories can improve the writing quality of students’ papers. This paper explains a process of supporting primary-grade students’ story writing. The approach is based on strategy instruction and incorporates talk and dramatic play as ways to support the development of characters, descriptions of characters and events, and dialogue between characters. Guidelines are provided and step-by-step directions for teachers to use this work with their students

Del estructuralismo al cognitivismo: hacia un enfoque cientifista de la narratología

Este artículo intenta realizar una reflexión metateórica sobre algunas relaciones que pueden establecerse entre la narratología estructuralista y la narratología cognitiva. Se ofrecen panorámicas sintéticas sobre cada uno de estos enfoques narratológicos, y se enfatiza particularmente el componente cientifista del estructuralismo.This paper aims to advance a metatheoretical reflection on some relations that can be established between structuralist narratology and cognitive narratology. It provides succinct and panoramic reviews of both narratological approaches, particularly highlighting the scientifist component of structuralism

Creating Characters in a Story-Telling Universe

Extended story generation, i.e., the creation of continuing serials, presents difficult and interesting problems for Artificial Intelligence. We present here the first phase or the development of a program, UNIVERSE, that will ultimately tell extended stories. In particular, alter describing our overall model of story telling, we present a method for creating universes of characters appropriate for extended story generation. This method concentrates on the need to keep story-telling universes consistent and coherent. We also describe the information that must be maintained for characters and interpersonal relationships, and the use of stereotypical information about people to help motivate trait values. The use of historical events for motivation is also described. Finally, we present an example of a character generated by UNIVERSE

The Spatial Nature of Thought: Understanding Systems Design Through Diagrams

Design entails the interaction of minds and the tools used to express the design, notably, diagrams. Systems designers use the affordances of the page when they generate structural diagrams of systems. Specifically, they use proximity to augment connectedness (path) information by grouping subsystems. They use horizontal position on the page to express sequence and vertical position to reflect actual spatial position. Finally, they use the permanence of diagrams to generate alternative designs. These conclusions were reached through the analysis of work by student designers, many of whom were practicing information technology professionals. The analysis of designs in topological and Euclidean space required the creation of computational tools that show promise as decision aids for designers, by separating the intertwined qualities of topological and Euclidean space, and by making visible the conceptual similarity of design alternatives

Elaboración de un instrumento para el diagnóstico de la comprensión de narraciones

Se elaboró un instrumento de diagnóstico de la comprensión de narraciones dentro del marco de dos modelos procesales de análisis textual: gramática de las narraciones y análisis en red causal. La aplicación de estos modelos a tres narraciones permitió determinar la importancia relativa de los enunciados de los textos. Se estableció un criterio de diagnóstico según el cual un sujeto ha comprendido el texto si recupera más del 50% de los enunciados identificados como importantes. El instrumento se aplicó a un grupo de 38 niños de nivel primario utilizando la técnica de evocación libre luego de la lectura. Los resultados muestran el uso del esquema narrativo en el caso de los sujetos que alcanzaron el criterio de comprensión. Por otra parte, el instrumento permite identificar el tipo de información que los sujetos omiten o distorsionan

Studio dell’interazione tra funzioni esecutive e percorsi di qualificazione dell’apprendimento attraverso dispositivi di narrazione multilineare in una prospettiva evolutiva dalla seconda infanzia alla preadolescenza

It is debatable whether or not storytelling and multilinearity could still be considered as two separate artefacts, result from the opposition between analogic-metaphorical and logical-discursive thought—as maintained by Bruner (1994). Therefore, the question is: are they still irreducible? This article’s hypothesis is that multi-linear storytelling apparatuses (Salmaso, 2011)—inclusive of the classical paradigms of storytelling—may make it clearer the possible link between narrative-sequential and logic-paradigmaticthought. This connection is made evident when storytelling apparatuses are compared with graphic and expressive representational models aimed at focusing and facilitating the accomplishment of procedures—which are regarded as potentially computable (Olimpo, 2011). Once this task of clarity is undertaken, possible outcomes may lead to an advantageous representation of problem setting, provided it serves the goal of didactic and pedagogical enhancement (Minello and Margiotta, 2011). Hence,the leading hypothesis of this paper is that Multi-linear Narrative processes (i.e. a plurality of voices, decision-making nodes, changes of structure, and enrichment of the narrative plot—as maintained by the Grammar of Stories) activate processes that are involved in the construction of the representation of a problem—according to the ecologic-sequential model of Executive Functions (Zelazo et al., 1997; 2003).Narrazione e multilinearità possono ancora essere considerati due costrutti separati, divisi tra il pensiero analogico-metaforico e il pensiero di tipo logico-discorsivo, rispecchiando così la classica definizione di Jerome Bruner (1994), che considerava questi due tipi di pensiero tra loro irriducibili?Noi ipotizziamo che mediante dispositivi di narrazione multilineare(Salmaso, 2011), includenti i paradigmi classici della narrazione, in sin-cronia a modelli rappresentazionali grafici ed espressivi, di focalizzazione e di facilitazione procedurale, potenzialmente computabili (Olimpo, 2011), sia possibile rendere trasparente la connettibilità tra pensiero narrativo-sequenziale e pensiero logico-paradigmatico e che ciò possa interagire con processi relativi alla rappresentazione di problem setting, qualora questi vengano elaborati con azioni di qualificazione pedagogica e didattica(Minello, Margiotta, 2011). La nostra principale ipotesi prevede che i processi di Narrazione Multilineare (pluralità di voci, nodi di scelta e configurazione/ riconfigurazione, arricchimento del plot narrativo previsto dalla Grammatica delle Storie), attivino processi coinvolti nella rappresentazione del problema, secondo un modello ecologico-sequenziale delle Funzioni Esecutive (Zelazo et al. 1997, 2003)

The missing link? Testing a schema account of unitization.

Unitization refers to the creation of a new unit from previously distinct items. The concept of unitization has been used to explain how novel pairings between items can be remembered without requiring recollection, by virtue of new, item-like representations that enable familiarity-based retrieval. We tested an alternative account of unitization - a schema account - which suggests that associations between items can be rapidly assimilated into a schema. We used a common operationalization of "unitization" as the difference between two unrelated words being linked by a definition, relative to two words being linked by a sentence, during an initial study phase. During the following relearning phase, a studied word was re-paired with a new word, either related or unrelated to the original associate from study. In a final test phase, memory for the relearned associations was tested. We hypothesized that, if unitized representations act like schemas, then we would observe some generalization to related words, such that memory would be better in the definition than sentence condition for related words, but not for unrelated words. Contrary to the schema hypothesis, evidence favored the null hypothesis of no difference between definition and sentence conditions for related words (Experiment 1), even when each cue was associated with multiple associates, indicating that the associations can be generalized (Experiment 2), or when the schematic information was explicitly re-activated during Relearning (Experiment 3). These results suggest that unitized associations do not generalize to accommodate new information, and therefore provide evidence against the schema account