A study investigated children's comprehension of stories read to a small group, and to a whole class. Ten storybooks were read to two classes of first grade children from the same school in suburban New Jersey. Five children randomly selected from one class listened to the stories as part of a whole class. From the other first grade class, five children were randomly selected, and listened to stories in a group of five. After a story was read, each child was asked to tell about the story individually. Comprehension was based on the number of responses that answered the questions who, what, where, when, and why. Children who listened to stories in the small group performed slightly better than children who heard stories as a whole class. Findings suggest that reading to children in small groups (taking advantage of the dynamics of small groups) leads to greater comprehension than whole class reading. (Contains 17 references and two tables of data.) (Author/RS)