Home Linguistics & Semiotics Chapter 11. Investigating the effectiveness of the Our Story App to increase children’s narrative skills
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Chapter 11. Investigating the effectiveness of the Our Story App to increase children’s narrative skills

Lessons learnt from one English preschool classroom
  • Natalia Kucirkova , David J. Messer and Kieron Sheehy
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Narrative, Literacy and Other Skills
This chapter is in the book Narrative, Literacy and Other Skills

Abstract

This chapter outlines a classroom-based intervention which consisted of using the Our Story iPad app to improve children’s narrative skills with a group of 30 English preschoolers for a period of six months. Children’s narrative skills were measured using a story retelling task with the wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1992) and a personal story generation task. Children’s narrations were analyzed with a simplified version of the High Point Analysis framework that focused on the pragmatic features of children’s narratives, including orientation, evaluation and appendages. Results indicated that children’s narrative skills showed an increase in the number of words and an increase in the use of orienting and supplementary information. A range of qualitative observations showed changes in teachers’ plans and attitude towards the use of new technologies in the classroom setting. In addition, several issues were noted which were related to the challenges resulting from the practical implementation of a new technology in a busy classroom.

Abstract

This chapter outlines a classroom-based intervention which consisted of using the Our Story iPad app to improve children’s narrative skills with a group of 30 English preschoolers for a period of six months. Children’s narrative skills were measured using a story retelling task with the wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1992) and a personal story generation task. Children’s narrations were analyzed with a simplified version of the High Point Analysis framework that focused on the pragmatic features of children’s narratives, including orientation, evaluation and appendages. Results indicated that children’s narrative skills showed an increase in the number of words and an increase in the use of orienting and supplementary information. A range of qualitative observations showed changes in teachers’ plans and attitude towards the use of new technologies in the classroom setting. In addition, several issues were noted which were related to the challenges resulting from the practical implementation of a new technology in a busy classroom.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. About the authors xv
  6. Introduction to narrative, literacy and other skills 1
  7. Part I. The importance of oral narratives for literacy, language and socio-cognitive skills
  8. Chapter 1. The developing language foundation for reading comprehension 21
  9. Chapter 2. Storybooks to promote emergent literacy in kindergarten classrooms 43
  10. Chapter 3. Do children’s oral retellings of narrative and informational texts predict scores on a standardized reading comprehension test? 69
  11. Chapter 4. Does emotional narrative context influence retention of newly learned words? 91
  12. Chapter 5. Enhancing mental state language and emotion understanding of toddlers’ social cognition 109
  13. Chapter 6. The effects of bookreading with and without mental state themes on preschoolers’ theory of mind 129
  14. Chapter 7. Using narrative thinking in argumentative writing 151
  15. Part II. Promoting narrative skills
  16. Chapter 8. New frontiers in facilitating narrative skills in children and adolescents 173
  17. Chapter 9. Precursors of narrative abilities 201
  18. Chapter 10. Enriching parent-child discourse during book sharing 223
  19. Chapter 11. Investigating the effectiveness of the Our Story App to increase children’s narrative skills 245
  20. Chapter 12. Using a storytelling/story-acting practice to promote narrative and other decontextualized language skills in disadvantaged children 263
  21. Chapter 13. Promoting narratives through a short conversational intervention in typically-developing and high-functioning children with ASD 285
  22. Subject index 313
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.25.12kuc

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. About the authors xv
  6. Introduction to narrative, literacy and other skills 1
  7. Part I. The importance of oral narratives for literacy, language and socio-cognitive skills
  8. Chapter 1. The developing language foundation for reading comprehension 21
  9. Chapter 2. Storybooks to promote emergent literacy in kindergarten classrooms 43
  10. Chapter 3. Do children’s oral retellings of narrative and informational texts predict scores on a standardized reading comprehension test? 69
  11. Chapter 4. Does emotional narrative context influence retention of newly learned words? 91
  12. Chapter 5. Enhancing mental state language and emotion understanding of toddlers’ social cognition 109
  13. Chapter 6. The effects of bookreading with and without mental state themes on preschoolers’ theory of mind 129
  14. Chapter 7. Using narrative thinking in argumentative writing 151
  15. Part II. Promoting narrative skills
  16. Chapter 8. New frontiers in facilitating narrative skills in children and adolescents 173
  17. Chapter 9. Precursors of narrative abilities 201
  18. Chapter 10. Enriching parent-child discourse during book sharing 223
  19. Chapter 11. Investigating the effectiveness of the Our Story App to increase children’s narrative skills 245
  20. Chapter 12. Using a storytelling/story-acting practice to promote narrative and other decontextualized language skills in disadvantaged children 263
  21. Chapter 13. Promoting narratives through a short conversational intervention in typically-developing and high-functioning children with ASD 285
  22. Subject index 313
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