Early development of narrative macrostructure in kindergarten through second grade in Appalachian schools

Purpose Narrative discourse plays a critical role in early academic language development and later literacy outcomes, yet the developmental trajectory of narrative macrostructure remains undercharacterized during the earliest years of schooling, particularly in underrepresented populations such as the Appalachian region. This study examined early narrative macrostructure among kindergarten through second-grade students in West Virginia schools. The purpose of the current study was to identify cross-sectional grade differences at the beginning of the school year, to examine natural within-year growth among untreated students, and to compare developmental patterns of core narrative episode elements from Appalachian students with previously identified national benchmarks. Method Participants included 435 kindergarten through second-grade students recruited from eight public elementary schools in West Virginia as part of a larger classroom-based narrative intervention study. Narrative samples were elicited using the Aliens subtest of the Test of Narrative Language-Second Edition and scored for macrostructure using the Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language rubric. Cross-sectional analyses of baseline narrative macrostructure included the full sample, but to examine natural fall-to-winter growth, longitudinal analyses were conducted on a subset of students assigned to the untreated condition. Element-level model scores for Initiating Event, Action, and Consequence were also compared with previously published samples using the same elicitation task and scoring framework. Results Narrative macrostructure scores increased significantly across grades, with both the overall score trajectory and the nonlinear growth pattern showing their most pronounced gains between kindergarten and first grade. Longitudinal analyses of students that did not receive treatment indicated modest but significant growth in macrostructure across a single academic semester. Variability in macrostructure scores was driven primarily by child-level differences, with minimal variance attributable to classroom or school contexts. Examination of basic episode elements revealed that Actions emerged earliest, Initiating Events reached proficiency by second grade, and Consequences were rarely produced across grades. Comparisons with national benchmarks suggested that although students followed the expected developmental sequence of narrative elements, proficiency particularly for Initiating Events and Consequences was delayed relative to previously published samples. Conclusions Narrative macrostructure shows measurable growth during the early elementary years, although mastery of the core basic episode elements required for coherent storytelling develops more gradually. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing overall narrative growth from consolidation of individual story grammar elements and provide ecologically grounded developmental data from an underrepresented Appalachian population.