Using Story Innovation to Teach Fluency, Vocabulary, and Structure

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

This lesson gives students an opportunity to practice comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency and to explore story elements in a fun and unique way through a strategy called story innovation. Story innovation takes a text and allows the students to change characters, setting, and story elements to make a personalized version of the story. The story is then read aloud to reinforce the student’s fluency skills with a now-familiar text. The students then compare and contrast their story to the original. The story innovation strategy allows for many different adaptations for subject and grade. Pick your favorite story, and have your students adapt it in any way that you choose.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

• Story Map: This interactive story map teaches setting, characters, and story structure.
  
  
• Venn Diagram: This interactive Venn diagram teaches compare and contrast.
  
  
• Venn Diagram Rubric: Use this Venn diagram rubric to evaluate your student’s finished diagram.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Griffith, P.L., & Ruan, J. (2007). Story innovation: An instructional strategy for developing vocabulary and fluency. The Reading Teacher, 61(4), 334-338.

• Knowledge of story structure assists with a student’s reading comprehension and ability to make connections to the text.
  
  
• Story innovation supports student’s vocabulary and fluency development in the classroom.

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