ABSTRACT
One of the enduring problems in American education is fostering the development of children’s literacy skills. Many children of otherwise normal intelligence and academic ability come to the formal schooling environment with weak and underdeveloped skills in comprehending discourse (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1995). This often places these children at risk for subsequent school failure (Juel, 1992; Slavin, 1994). Thus, a significant challenge for educators is how to design learning environments that support the development of literacy skills for all students, especially those whose initial skills place them at risk. Responding to such a challenge requires detailed knowledge of the development of children’s capabilities for representing simple and complex forms of discourse, coupled with ways to adequately assess those capabilities. The work we report in this chapter attempts to address some of these key concerns by focusing on the representation and assessment of children’s understanding of complex stories.
