The event arrangement strategy is designed to prepare students for reading narrative text by getting them to focus their thinking on the events in the story. The teacher selects the main events that occur in the story. The number of main events will depend on the ages and abilities of the students. For example, if the students are 7 years old and the story is Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the events selected by the teacher might be the following:
 The three bears go for a walk in the woods.
Goldilocks goes into the three bears' house.
She eats Baby Bear's soup.
She sits in Baby Bear's chair.
The chair breaks.
Goldilocks falls asleep on Baby Bear's bed.
The three bears find Goldilocks asleep on the bed.
Goldilocks is afraid and runs out of the house.
The steps in this strategy are:
1. Write each main event on a card.
2. Present the cards to the students in mixed order.
3. Teacher and students read and discuss the sentences on the cards.
4. The students arrange the cards in the order in which they predict the events will occur in the story. They must agree on the order of events.
5. After reading the story, the children compare their prediction of the order of events with the actual sequence in the story. This strategy can easily be adapted for older students.
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