The Effects of Story Mapping Instruction on the Reading Comprehension of Students with Behavioral Disorders

A repeated measures multiple baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate the effects of story mapping instruction on the reading comprehension of four upper-elementary school students with behavioral disorders. Individually administered story mapping instruction focused on teaching students to identify the characters, setting, problems, events, and outcomes inherent in narrative text. Over all, story mapping instruction improved students' abilities to comprehend narrative text. Performance on comprehension questions related to story settings, problems, and major events showed the greatest improvement, although proficiency in identifying story settings for all students and problems for two of the four was not demonstrated. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.