Resolution of the problem-situation and outcome in stories for children at 7 and 9 years

The aim of this study was to analyse the production of narrative texts drew up by children aged 7 to 9. Twenty three students from the first grade and fifty from the third grade participated in this study. After writing a free story, three individual sections on metatextual consciousness activities were performed: in the first section, short stories marked with different colours were presented; on the next section, a puzzle game was assembled in analogy to the parts of a story, finally, there was an assembly of a pack of cards of a story. Later, a free story was written. A comparison of the levels of narrative and characteristics was made, as well as of the resolution of the problem and of the outcome before and after the intervention. Between the pre and the post test, the results of the first grade indicated the appearance of more elaborated stories. On the third grade there was an increase on the number of elaborated stories and the characteristics of the problems were also more detailed. We can conclude that these metatextual sections increased the abilities in writing stories, especially in the third grade, being more appreciated by the characteristics than by the levels of narrative.

School age children; Elementary school students; Writing skills; Narratives; Metalinguistics