Narrative Construction Vartan Tamizian v.tamizian@wlfs.org Narrative Construction Image taken from 2008 ed. of Gombrich ‘A Little History of the World’

Discussion Definitions Literature Teaching Next steps

Definitions Narrative can be: Just a story? An ‘under-rated skill’ (Lang, 2003) A form of text (Bruner, 1996) A form of thinking (Bruner, 1996)

Definitions Beginning End Middle SETTING: What is the background to the narrative? What is the place like that actions take place? CHARACTERS: Who is involved? What are they like? ACTIONS: What do the characters choose to do? What events do they cause? HAPPENINGS: What happens to the characters that is not their doing? How does it affect them? Drawn from Megill ‘Historical Knowledge, Historical Error’ (2007) Beginning End Middle

(Academic) Literature

(Popular) Literature

(Teacher Research) Literature

Teaching (KS3)

Teaching (KS3)

Teaching (KS4) TASK 1: In order to construct a good narrative, you need to be confident with what events happened in your time range, and what characters were significant. This lesson you will get the opportunity to build that chronology in a timeline, so that when you write your narrative it is detailed and accurate. Don’t be afraid to add interesting details as well so your narrative is more than just a written list of events! TASK 2: A good narrative also makes it clear which events are significant and how events cause one another. (a) Once you have your timeline complete, go through all the events and judge which are the most significant – that is, which had the greatest impact, are the most unique, and tell us the most about the period – as these should stand out in your written narrative. (b) Then, go through each event and try to link them together in a way that makes their causation clear – that is, which events help cause the next one – as you should try and explain this causation in your written narrative.

Teaching (KS5)

Teaching Uses for students Uses for teachers Consolidation: In order to construct their narrative students need to re-read material and take a holistic view Transformation: The process of selecting and arranging events, as well as writing, has a transformative effect on student knowledge Revision: Following the successful completion of a narrative, students can return to it during their revision Uses for teachers Engagement: Students enjoy the variety of writing, and the sense of completion from having everything in one place Access/Challenge: Narrative writing can be easily differentiated to provide a challenge at all levels Evaluation: Reading narratives can help you diagnose levels of historical understanding across the room, and form the basis for intervention

Teaching ITERATIVE READING Methods of Analysis Max Van Manen (1990) Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy ITERATIVE READING Methods of Analysis

Teaching Methods of Analysis Knowledge Language Depth: The amount of knowledge can often reveal how much knowledge has been retained Substantive concepts: Narratives are ideally suited for testing student understanding of substantive concepts due to their placement within the text Language Fluency: The challenge of writing a narrative can reveal issues with literacy and writing style Use of Key Words: Narratives can also test whether students can understand and use key words Analytic (Causal) Thinking Implicit vs. Explicit: Student narratives can reveal the depth of their causal understanding, as well as their view of change & continuity over time

Discussion Potential Use Potential Problem Potential Solution KS3: Conclusive task for a change & continuity or evidence enquiry KS3: Establishing an overview ‘First and fast’ Nuttal (2013) KS3/4/5: Consolidating a topic before a test KS4/5: As a revision task to create a resource KS4/5: Creating contradictory or challenging narratives Potential Problem Narrative writing may not stretch conceptual thinking Students may simply emulate teacher delivered narrative Waste of time, compared to explicit essay planning Done well by the strong, done badly by the weak Not related to exam specification Potential Solution Narrative writing CAN stretch conceptual thinking with explicit teaching Provide extra context to incorporate Set clear limits and expectations, explain the rationale, make it optional, offer plenty opportunities for students to stretch themselves Not everything has to directly relate!

Discussion Constructing narrative more effectively: Knowing enough: Students must know more than the core sequence of events to write a narrative that is more than just a list of facts Selective skills: Choosing what to leave out can be just as important as knowing what to leave in, as events must be causally linked in sequence Choosing the right beginning, middle, and end: Once it is acknowledged that any narrative is a subjective interpretation, then framing it to sell that interpretation becomes important Writing narrative more effectively: Fluency is crucial: Students must learn to write in a smooth, elegant fashion to weave together their narrative Making analysis explicit: Narrative moves beyond simple description due to its inclusion of causal analysis, something that must be made clearer in the text Powerful vocabulary: Increasing students vocabulary through exposure to language (in other narratives?) will allow the ‘linguistic to release the conceptual’ (Woodcock, 2005)

Discussion Increasing importance at GCSE?

Next steps For me: Incorporating ‘low stakes’ narrative into KS3 to establish normalcy, linked to knowledge retention Analysing narratives more effectively at KS4 to drive intervention, and using them for revision Looking for more challenging uses of narrative at KS5, such as ‘narrative battles’, linked to interpretations