Chapter 14 Narrative Reading Joe Steele Helping students to recognize the structure inherent in text – and match it to their own cognitive structures – will help them understand and produce not only text, but also spoken discourse. Williams, 2005

What? A narrative is a story Story Elements: Setting – when and where a story takes place; sometimes includes flashbacks, flash-forwards Characters – people, animals, creatures in the story; includes protagonist, antagonist Plot – sequence of events, including conflict and attempts to solve conflict Theme – big idea the author leaves reader with

Comprehensive Strategies Recognizing Story Structure – story maps Asking Questions –student driven questions Answering Questions – Blooms taxonomy Monitoring Comprehension – Think alouds Connecting to World Knowledge – life experiences Predicting – whats going to happen Constructing Mental Images – picturing descriptions Summarizing/Retelling – emergent/early fluent/fluent These strategies can be taught and used before, during and after reading.

Multiple-Strategy Instruction Program Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI) –Transactions (discussions) between: reader and text, readers, reader and teacher

TSI strategies Reader Response Personal response based on experience Discussion-oriented Instruction Teacher- and student-directed discussions Open-ended questioning Writing in Response to Literature Personal, creative, critical

Why? Understanding story structure helps students to: Remember the story Recognize sameness across texts Develop frame of reference for processing information Organize and write stories

Assessment Traditional assessments are often inadequate –Confuses comprehension with vocabulary, background knowledge, word reading ability –Fails to represent the complexity of comprehension –Doesnt distinguish specific comprehension problems

Traditional assessments should be combined with teachers ongoing informal assessment of comprehension Retellings and think alouds are useful tools for diagnosing problems and as assessments

When? Comprehension instruction should begin when students start interacting with text and continue through high school Comprehension strategies are applied to increasingly complex texts

How? CROWD – teacher prompted questions (Completion, Recall, Open-ended, WH-, Distancing) PEER – teacher helps students to retell story (Prompt, Evaluate, Expand, Repeat) *Scaffolding – teacher does less reading each time story is read

Comprehension Instruction Tools Story Maps Theme Identification Questioning Prediction Charts/Worksheets Think-Pair-Share Read Alouds Book Club Tripod Response Sheets Writing Prompts

Conclusion Story elements provide the framework for applying comprehension strategies to narrative text Understanding story structure can enhance comprehension Traditional assessments need to be used in conjunction with ongoing teacher assessments for comprehension Comprehension should be taught from a students first contact with text through high school Comprehension skills should be taught in a variety of ways