Chapter 14Narrative 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 – Bloom’s taxonomy• Monitoring Comprehension – Think alouds• Connecting to World Knowledge – life experiences• Predicting – what’s 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 ResponsePersonal response based on experience

• Discussion-oriented InstructionTeacher- and student-directed discussionsOpen-ended questioning

• Writing in Response to LiteraturePersonal, 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– Doesn’t 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 student’s first contact with text through high school

• Comprehension skills should be taught in a variety of ways