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between. The story ends with a comment about the character and his/her value. The most important part of the story is the characterization.

    CINDERELLA
    To understand this story structure better, the story of Cinderella will be told both ways.
    Formal-Register Version
    (The story is abbreviated because of familiarity.)
    Once upon a time, there was a girl named Cinderella. She was very happy, and she lived with her father. Her father remarried a woman who had three daughters. When Cinderella's father died, her stepmother treated Cinderella very badly and, in fact, made her the maid for herself and her three daughters. At the same time in this land, the King decided that it was time for the Prince to get married. So, he sent a summons to all the people in the kingdom to come to a ball. Cinderella was not allowed to go, but was forced to help her stepsisters and stepmother get ready for the ball. After they left for the ball, and as Cinderella was crying on the hearth, her fairy godmother came and, with her magic wand, gave Cinderella a beautiful dress, glass slippers, and a stagecoach made from pumpkins and mice. She then sent Cinderella to the ball in style. There was one stipulation: She had to be back home by midnight.
    At the ball the Prince was completely taken with Cinderella and danced with her all evening. As the clock began striking midnight, Cinderella remembered what the fairy godmother had said and fled from the dance. All she left was one of her glass slippers.
    The Prince held a big search, using the glass slipper as a way to identify the missing woman. He finally found Cinderella; she could wear the glass slipper. He married her, and they lived happily ever after.
    Casual-Register Version
    (Italicized type indicates the narrator; plain type indicates audience participation.) Well, you know Cinderella married the Prince, in spite of that old nasty stepmother.
    Pointy eyes, that one. Old hag!

    Good thing she had a fairy godmother or she never would've made it to the ball.
    Lucky thing! God bless her ragged tail! Wish I had me a fairy godmother.
    And to think she nearly messed up big time by staying 'til the clock was striking 12. After all the fairy godmother had done for her.
    Urn, um. She shoulda known better. Eyes too full of the Prince, they were. They didn't call him the Prince for no reason.
    When she got to the ball, her stepsisters and stepmother didn't even recognize her she was so beautiful without those rags.
    Served 'em right, no-good jealous hags.
    The Prince just couldn't quit dancing with her, just couldn't take his eyes off her. He had finally found his woman.
    Lucky her! Lucky him! Sure wish life was a fairy tale. Kinda like the way I met Charlie. Ha ha.
    The way she arrived was something else-a coach and horseman-really fancy. Too bad that when she ran out of there as the clock struck 12 all that was left was a pumpkin rolling away and four mice!
    What a surprise for the mice!
    Well, he has to find her because his heart is broken. So he takes the glass slipper and hunts for her-and her old wicked stepmother, of course, is hiding her.
    What a prize! Aren't they all?
    But he finds her and marries her. Somebody as good as Cinderella deserved that.
    Sure hope she never invited that stepmother to her castle. Should make her the maid!!

    As is readily apparent, the second story structure is far more entertaining, more participatory and exhibits a richness of character, humor, and feeling absent from the first version. The first version has sequence, order, cause and effect, and a conclusion: all skills necessary for problem-solving, inference, etc.
    Cognitive studies indicate that story structure is a way that the brain stores memories. Given the first story structure, memories would be stored more sequentially, and thinking patterns would follow story structure. Feuerstein (1980) describes the episodic, nearly random memory and its adverse effects on thinking.

    WHAT CAN SCHOOLS DO TO ADDRESS CASUAL