Assessing Narratives of Children From Diverse Cultural/Linguistic Groups

This article examines issues in the assessment of oral narratives of children from diverse cultural/ethnic backgrounds. First, we argue that narrative contextualization processes are culture-specific and must be considered in assessment. Second, we present an approach to the evaluation of narratives that takes into account differences in narrative experience, exposure to narrative tasks, and assumptions about audience involvement. Finally, we propose dynamic assessment as a method for teaching children from diverse cultural/linguistic groups the context-specific narrative rules that are valued in American schools.