The development of a unit of pre-writing activities aimed at developing and enhancing story schema awareness as an aid to writing stories at the elementary level in Newfoundland

Ramjattan, Molly (1991) The development of a unit of pre-writing activities aimed at developing and enhancing story schema awareness as an aid to writing stories at the elementary level in Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to prepare an activity unit aimed at developing story schema awareness in students in the elementary grades in Newfoundland. -- The conception of the unit arose out of a need for placing greater emphasis on the pre-writing phase as it relates to narrative writing in the elementary grades. An examination of the Networks program currently in use in the teaching of Language Arts at the elementary level revealed that there was a lack of pre-writing activities aimed specifically at developing story schema awareness as a preparation for narrative writing. -- A review of the literature was then undertaken in Part I of this study. Such a review was aimed at an examination of the following topics relevant to the development of the unit in Part II: a general discussion of literary models, a definition of story grammar, the use of story grammar in the classroom as a basis for developing story schema awareness, knowledge of the elementary child's development, and of the teaching-learning environment conducive to the elementary child's performance. -- An examination of the folk and fairy tales as a resource for developing story schema awareness was then conducted. A rationale for using the folk and fairy tales as resource materials for elementary students was presented. Elements of the folk and fairy tales to be highlighted in the unit in Part II were discussed. -- Taba's model was chosen as the model for the development of the unit of pre-writing activities in Part II. Taba's eight steps outlined in this model were briefly noted and applied to the unit, one step at a time. A bibliography related to Part I is provided at the end of Part I. -- Part II of the study consists of the actual instructional unit comprising individual and group activities, each with specific objectives and procedures for the teacher to follow. A bibliography of resources specifically related to the instructional unit is presented at the end of Part II.

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