Cooperative Story Mapping

Cooperative Story Mapping

(Mathes, Fuchs, and Fuchs, 1997)

Background and Research Question

Patricia G. Mathes, Douglas Fuchs, and Lynn S. Fuchs evaluated the effectiveness of cooperative story mapping in conjunction with Peabody Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) in Grades 2 through 6. Although the researchers are unable to separate the impact of PALS activities from that of cooperative story mapping, they have reported encouraging findings for the entire package. On average, PALS students have made significantly greater fluency and comprehension gains from pre- to posttesting than students in comparison classrooms. Moreover, this finding was obtained for low achievers, average achievers, and high achievers as well as for students with disabilities.

Translating Research Into Practice

Cooperative story mapping consists of students reading a story, skimming it for story grammar elements, mapping it in a cooperative group, and discussing it with the whole class. Prior to these activities, the teacher assigns students to groups of four students with skill levels varying from low achieving to high achieving. Explain that the group’s job is to analyze the story. The entire class reads and then maps the same story. Students will need a story map similar to the one included with Idol and Croll’s (1987) story map strategy.

1. Read the story. The story can be assigned during sustained silent reading on days prior to cooperative story mapping. If the story is too long for all students to finish during class, teachers may read it aloud to the class or assign it as homework.

2. Skim the story. Devote the first two minutes to skimming the story silently on the day the story is to be mapped. Direct students to determine what they believe to be the best answers for all the story elements. They should also note where information supporting each answer is located in the story.

3. Complete the story map. Students identify, discuss, and reach consensus on the story grammar elements. Each student is a “leader” for one story element and one major element. Major event assignments are coupled with story elements as follows: main character and first major event, setting and second major event, story problem and third major event, and story outcome and fourth major event (see table on the following page). Students are taught a leadership routine. The routine has five steps: tell, ask, discuss, record, and report. Leadership roles are changed weekly. The table on the next page describes each step of the routine and what students say during each step.

4. Discuss the story. Lead a classwide discussion of the story elements. The developers believe this discussion is pivotal to the success of the activity. The discussion should increase student awareness of the following aspects: Are their answers correct? Can they substantiate their answers by referencing the text? Do other groups have different answers that also may be correct? How can this be?

Source

Mathes, P.G., Fuchs, D., and Fuchs, L.S. (1997). Cooperative story mapping. Remedial and Special Education, 18 (1), 20–27.