Teaching · Speech & Language

See which parts of the story the student tells, and which go missing.

Mark each part of the story as clear, partly there or missing, and write down the student’s words for it. The summary draws the story as a row of parts with quotes, and names what to teach next.

Map a storyWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Speech & Language toolkit, $79 for 72 items.

The story map

One record per student and story. Use initials or a code, never a name. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Speech & Language$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
For each story, a map of eight parts with the student’s words, a count of what was included, and the parts to teach next.
Who it is for
Speech-language pathologists, special education teachers and reading specialists working on narrative language from kindergarten up.
Format
Browser form used while listening or from a recording. Several saved stories per student to compare over time; printed with the map or as a blank organizer; CSV; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Speech & Language toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Speech & Language space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
every story has parts
Drawn for this page. Each stepping stone is a part of the story; the gray ones are the parts still to teach.

How to use it

  1. Start a record with the student’s initials or a code and the date.
  2. Note the kind of story, the source and the prompting needed.
  3. Mark each part as clear, partly there or missing.
  4. Write the student’s words for the parts they told.
  5. Teach the missing parts with a picture map, starting with the backbone.

Map a story

What the map is for

What story grammar is

Stories across cultures tend to share a structure: a setting and characters, an event that starts things, a character’s feelings and plan, attempts, outcomes and an ending. Students who include more of these parts tell stories that listeners can follow, and understand stories they read better.

Teaching the missing parts

Visual maps with a picture or symbol for each part help students plan and retell. Most teaching starts with the backbone, the problem, the attempt and the outcome, then adds feelings and plans, which turn a list of events into a story.

What this map is not

It is not a scored narrative measure with norms. It describes one story so you can plan teaching and compare later stories by the same student.

Sources

  1. Stein, N. L., and Glenn, C. G. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In R. O. Freedle (Ed.), New Directions in Discourse Processing (pp. 53 to 120). Ablex.
  2. Petersen, D. B. (2011). A systematic review of narrative-based language intervention with children who have language impairment. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 32(4), 207 to 220.
  3. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal: Spoken Language Disorders (narrative assessment and intervention).
  4. Hughes, D., McGillivray, L., and Schmidek, M. (1997). Guide to Narrative Language: Procedures for Assessment. Thinking Publications.

The example student is made up. The map describes one story; it gives no scores or ages. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.