Reader ability to predict text structure based on previous experiences with written language appears to be an important foundation for comprehension of reading materials. A pilot study was conducted to explore ways of comparing the story structure awareness of beginning readers. Story schema analyses of stories told by eight first-graders--four who had achieved high reading readiness scores and four with low scores--indicated that the only stories that did not at all fit the story schema requirements were two of the stories told by high-readiness children. An analysis of basal reader pre-primer stories showed that these stories also did not fit the story schema framework, indicating that the stories of the high-readiness children may reflect changing expectations for written language based on encounters with such material. Comparison of the children's stories through the use of propositional analysis indicated that stories by high-readiness children contained significantly more total propositions than those by low-readiness children, which may reflect distinctions between the two groups in both oral language fluency and expectancies for written language. (GW)