The Effects of Story Mapping on Students With Learning Disabilities
Molly O’Brien
May 2003
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of story mapping on students’
reading comprehension. The study was conducted in the spring of 2003 in a fifth grade,
self-contained special education class at a suburban public elementary school. Three
students diagnosed with learning disabilities and disorders on the Autism spectrum were
involved in this study. Two of the three students were able to decode on grade level but
were unable to understand printed material on grade level, and the third student had
difficulty with both. The group was given instruction on completing a story map and
then asked to answer five questions for each story. Students were given a pre test to
determine baseline data and at the end were given a post test to determine growth.
Looking at the data, one student made a significant 15-point gain, one student remained
the same in scores, and the final student lost five points. This exploratory study suggests
that a reading intervention can improve reading comprehension for students with learning
disabilities. Further research must be completed in order to determine if story mapping
truly affects the comprehension of learning disabled students.