Not all picture books are created equal when it comes to teaching story grammar. Some stories make the work easier by clearly showing the problem, plan, and resolution—while others leave too much to inference. In this episode, I share three of my favorite picture books that contain complete episodes and explain why they’re especially effective for narrative intervention. You’ll walk away with practical ideas for choosing texts that support comprehension, language, and written expression in an engaging, evidence-based way.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What makes a “complete episode” and why it matters for narrative goals
- Why some popular books fall short for teaching story grammar
- Three go-to picture books that naturally support problem–plan–solution
- How these texts support comprehension, vocabulary, and sentence formulation
Listen in to get clear, practical guidance you can use right away in your narrative sessions.
Choosing the right picture book can make or break a narrative intervention session. When stories clearly show a problem, plan, and resolution, they give students the structure they need to understand, retell, and create meaningful narratives. For speech-language pathologists, this structure isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.
In this post, we’ll look at why complete story episodes matter, what to look for in a book, and three picture books that consistently support story grammar instruction in an evidence-based way.
Why Complete Episodes Matter in Narrative Intervention
A complete story episode typically includes:
- Characters
- Setting
- Initiating event (problem)
- Internal response
- Plan
- Attempt
- Consequence or resolution
This framework aligns with widely accepted models of narrative structure used in both research and academic settings (Stein & Glenn, 1979; Westby, 2005). When students can identify and use these elements, we often see improvements in:
- Reading comprehension
- Vocabulary depth
- Sentence formulation
- Written expression
- Social communication skills
Research consistently shows that explicit narrative instruction using well-structured stories supports language development, particularly for students with language disorders (Gillam & Ukrainetz, 2006).
What to Look for in Picture Books for Teaching Story Grammar
Not all popular children’s books are ideal for story grammar goals. Many stories follow a loose sequence of events without a clear plan or resolution, requiring students to infer critical elements.
When selecting books for narrative intervention, look for stories that:
- Present a clear problem
- Show the character’s goal or plan explicitly
- Include attempts and consequences
- End with a satisfying resolution
These features reduce cognitive load and allow students to focus on learning the narrative structure itself.
3 Picture Books With Complete Episodes That Work in Therapy
1. A Camping Spree with Mr. McGee by Chris Van Dusen
This book combines rhythmic text, engaging illustrations, and a clear narrative arc. When Mr. McGee and his dog encounter an unexpected problem during a camping trip, the story naturally walks through a problem, plan, and resolution.
Why it Works:
- Clear initiating event and consequence
- Easy-to-identify story grammar elements
- Highly engaging for elementary students
This book is especially effective for introducing story grammar concepts or supporting retell tasks.
2. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
The Gruffalo offers a more complex narrative structure with repeated episodes and strong opportunities for perspective-taking. The main character’s plan is explicit and intentional, making it ideal for targeting higher-level narrative skills.
Why it Works:
- Repeated problem–plan–solution structure
- Supports discussion of character motivations
- Ideal for mapping multiple episodes
This text works well for students ready to move beyond basic story grammar identification.
3. Duncan, the Story Dragon by Amanda Driscoll
This story excels at illustrating internal responses and goal-directed behavior. Duncan’s emotional reaction to his problem drives multiple attempts, making it a powerful tool for teaching deeper narrative elements.
Why it Works:
- Strong internal response and goal structure
- Multiple attempts and outcomes
- Excellent for discussing perseverance and problem-solving
This book is particularly helpful for targeting internal states, which are often challenging for students.
How to Use These Books in Narrative Intervention
To maximize learning:
- Pair books with visual story grammar organizers
- Model identification of each element during shared reading
- Practice retelling using structured supports
- Gradually move toward independent narrative generation
Using consistent visuals and language across sessions helps students internalize story structure more effectively (Petersen, Gillam, & Gillam, 2008).
Supporting Your Narrative Instruction With Less Prep
If you want support identifying story grammar elements and implementing narrative intervention with confidence, the SLP Summit course on narratives includes:
- Step-by-step strategies for teaching story grammar
- Ready-to-use graphic organizers
- A story grammar organizer specifically mapped to Duncan, the Story Dragon
These tools are designed to save prep time while keeping therapy aligned with research and best practices.
Final Thoughts
Teaching story grammar doesn’t require more materials; it requires better texts. By choosing picture books with complete episodes, you give students the structure they need to build comprehension, language, and confidence as storytellers.
References
Gillam, R. B., & Ukrainetz, T. M. (2006). Language intervention through literature-based units. In T. M. Ukrainetz (Ed.), Literate language intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 literacy achievement (pp. 59–94). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Petersen, D. B., Gillam, S. L., & Gillam, R. B. (2008). Emerging procedures in narrative assessment: The Index of Narrative Complexity. Topics in Language Disorders, 28(2), 115–130.
Stein, N. L., & Glenn, C. G. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. New Directions in Discourse Processing, 2, 53–120.
Westby, C. (2005). Assessing and facilitating text comprehension problems. In H. Catts & A. Kamhi (Eds.), Language and reading disabilities (2nd ed., pp. 157–232). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Transcript
Today we are diving into one of my favorite topics, which is using picture books to teach story grammar elements. But I don't use just any picture book. I want to make sure that I am using a picture book that contains complete episodes because we need to have all of the story grammar elements available to us in the story to actually teach the story grammar elements.
I'll walk you through three of my go-to books and what makes them narrative intervention gold and give you some ideas on how you can use them to teach story grammar in a way that's engaging and evidence-based. So before we dive into the books, let's chat a little bit about why complete episodes matter.
A complete episode includes characters setting, initiating event, internal response, plan, attempt, and then a consequence or resolution. This structure reflects the way that stories often work in academic context. And they're really important for reading comprehension writing and social communication.
When students are able to identify, retell, and eventually generate their own complete episodes, we see improved comprehension, more vocabulary depth, stronger sentence formulation, improved written expression. All of this happens when the story naturally contains these elements.
And that's why I've intentionally curated today's list of books. They include a clear problem, plan, and solution. A lot of popular children's books, the plan has to be inferred. We want a text that has a clear plan. A lot of texts are a sequence of random events, like I'm going outside to play and then I saw this and this and this, and then I went home. But we want stories with a clear problem and solution. that brings us to my list of books with complete episodes that I'd love to use to teach story grammar.
So first up is A Camping Spree with Mr. McGee. This story is incredibly engaging. It has bright illustrations, rhythmic text, and a clear narrative arc. It's about Mr. McGee and his dog. They go on a camping trip and a bear bumps their camper and they roll downhill and, end up in A river. And so they have to come up with their plan and figure out how to get out of this situation. This is a fun one to use, because it includes different story grammar elements.
Then second up is The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This has really nice character traits. It has a repeated narrative structure. It's definitely a more complex episode. We get to do perspective taking and map multiple episodes.
It's about a mouse who meets some predators, and the predators try to invite him to dinner so they can eat him. But the mouse comes up with a great plan to outsmart his predators and avoid being eaten. This is a fun one for those more complex structures.
And next up is Duncan, the Story Dragon by Amanda Driscoll. This is a great way to illustrate internal responses and goal oriented behaviors. It's about a dragon who desperately wants to finish a book, but every time he reads, he gets excited and burns his book.
And so we get to see him navigate this problem, make multiple attempts. So again, this is also a more complex story, but it has a very satisfying resolution. These are some great stories to target story grammar.
If you want some help identifying the specific story grammar elements and giving your students some visuals, check out my course in the SLP Summit. I walk through strategies to help you implement narrative intervention with confidence.
I also share a set of freebies that include graphic organizers that you can use across narrative interventions. I also include a specific story grammar organizer with, the elements identified from Duncan, the Story Dragon.
It'll decrease your prep time, if you're looking to implement this and you just want a little bit of support, that is a perfect place to start. So just type slpsummit.com in your browser. It'll redirect you to the Be the Brightest site and the registration page for the Summit. Then just sign up there, access my course on narratives, as well as seven other incredible courses.
I hope that they are super helpful and I will see you in the next episode.
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