The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gender and three modes of story reconstruction training on second-grade students' story comprehension. Thirty-six children were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: drawing, discussion, and thematic-fantasy play. On three separate occasions, students were read books and participated in one of the training conditions. After the third session, students' story retellings were collected as a measure of their story comprehension. These retellings were coded according to the Stein and Glenn story schema analysis. Two-way analyses of variance revealed that second graders who participated in thematic-fantasy play training included a significantly greater number of propositions, attempt statements, and end states in their retellings than did children who participated in the drawing condition. Males in the thematic-fantasy play training condition included significantly more direct consequence statements in their retellings than did males in the discussion condition. No main effects were found for gender or for any of the dependent variables. Results suggested that teachers aiming to increase comprehension and understanding of story structure might consider thematic-fantasy play activities, which involve students in discussions of appropriate roles and actions and in accommodating other students' points of view. (Author/RH)