Improving Young Children's Writing: The Influence of Story Structure on Kindergartners' Writing Complexity

This study examined the change in complexity of kindergarteners' writing after implementing writing instruction based on story elements. Writing samples from six students of three ability levels were collected over a 6-week period. Writing samples included students' oral language, pictures, and written text and were analyzed using two rubrics specifically created for this study, one for writing development and the other for the inclusion of story elements. Findings from this study suggest that students from all ability levels understood the story elements, included them in varying degrees within their texts, and used them as cues to create more complex representations of their thinking. Additionally, acknowledging oral language and pictures provided a more accurate representation of the student author's thinking than the written text alone.