ED 473/573Spring 2010

Molly Dubiel, Jessica Eaton, Julie Leeson, Katherine O`Sullivan, Jessica Riley

Theoretical Foundations- Narrative Text

"Children learn the structure of narrative text by being read to" (Caldwell, p.152).    A study was conducted in kindergarten, results showed that students who were read to, when asked to retell, were able to recall the main elements of a story including characters, problem, some events, and some sort of solution.    The results also showed that students who have not been exposed to stories may need more explicit instruction when learning about the elements of a story.

Theoretical Foundations- Narrative Text

What Is a Good Retelling?• A good retelling of a narrative text includes the

plot or the major elements of the story, the sequence of events, and draws connections between major events in the story. The retell should include how the characters actions impacts or relates to the problem being solved or the goal being reached.

What is a Poor Retelling? • A poor retelling of a narrative text doesn't contain

most of the elements of a story. Poor retells include little or no story structure where the student is unable to retell the order in which events took place.

Theoretical Foundations- Narrative Text

 General Principles for Developing Narrative Retelling1. Connect with Prior Knowledge- The most effective     instructional strategies begin by connecting a     child's past experience and knowledge with new     information being introduced. 2. Focus on Developing an Understanding of Event     Structures 3. Focus on Text Structure- Students knowledge of    daily events can be used to show them how stories are     structured.

Theoretical Foundations Narrative TextHow story structure or story grammar is taught:• Begin with simple story that has distinct main elements such as main

characters, a goal or problem and a solution.• Read the entire story to the children.• Explain the purpose for learning story structure. Emphasize that by

learning the different parts of the story students will learn in better.• Begin by teaching about main characters.  Next, teach:

o Setting: the time and place where story takes place.o Goal: what the character wantso Problem: what is standing in the way of the main

character reaching their goal?o Events: This is often very hard for children.o Solution: if and how the problem or goal is solve. 

4. Use Visual Aids to help students remember story elements.

Theoretical Foundations- Expository Text• McGee (1992) found that children in elementary grades are

aware of, and can comprehend the structure of, expository text.

• Students should be exposed to expository text early in informal manners so that they may begin to understand the underlying structure of expository text.

• In order for students to master retelling expository texts, they should have retellings modeled to them by their instructors (Duke & Bennett-Armistead, 2003). o Instructors should bring students' attention to the differences

between expository and narrative texts, in addition to highlighting the main aspects of expository text.

Theoretical Foundations- Expository Text When engaging students in interacting with expository text, they should be supported initially with activities that focus their attention on the main idea within the text, as well as the supporting details. This can be done many ways, including the observation of text features such as:

o the titleo visualso captionso subtitleso graphs, etc. 

Theoretical Foundations- Expository Text

Oral retellings of expository text demonstrate whether the student is comprehending the text. (Duke & Bennett-Armistead, 2003)

• According to Moss, B. (1997), retellings range in their acceptability:What Is a Good Retelling?•  The student is able to recall the main idea and supporting details of what

they have read. This can be done with the use of strategies, such as graphic organizers or verbal retellings.

 What is a Poor Retelling? • The student may recall portions of facts from the text, though they have not

grasped the main ideass or supported the main idea at all in their retelling. Irrevelant information is given.

List of Evidence Based Techniques

Narrative• Connect with Prior

Knowledge

• Developing an Understanding of Event Structures

• Many teaching situations have the following key elements: characters, goals, problems and solutions.  For effective instruction, teachers need to connect and relate these to the information the students already know.  This is especially important for ELL students.

 • Prompt students to recall things by

different types questioning; instead of a broad general question, ask about things happening "out of the ordinary" (p. 154).

List of Evidence Based Techniques

Narrative• Text Structure

• Visual Aids

• Using easily understood and often familiar stories, story structure elements are easily stated and uncomplicated.  Children can easily see that stores have parts: characters, setting, problem(s), goal, solution/resolution. 

 • Posters, articles, story illustrations,

etc. can help readers "remember the meaning of the story elements" (p. 155). This can help, as students "understand basic narrative structure but are unable to generalize it to more complex stories" (p. 155).

List of Evidence Based Techniques

Narrative• Mapping

• Modeling

• By using mapping illustrations of different characters and elements of a story, students may be able to see things from different perspectives.

  • Most techniques, mapping described

above especially, work best when the teacher can effectively model for students.

List of Evidence Based Techniques

Expository• Develop General

Topic Knowledge

• Text Structure

• Before students can understand the specifics on a topic, they need the general knowledge or 'big picture'.  This will aid comprehension and retelling

  

• Students need to understand the expository text structures: description, sequence, cause-effect, problem-solution and compare-contrast, and the key words often used to signal each structure.

List of Evidence Based Techniques

Expository• Modeling

• Written to Oral Focus

• All techniques should be teacher modeled to most effectively showcase: "doing, explaining and encouraging" (p. 169).

  • After using written and visual

organizers, shift the focus to oral retelling.  The "organizers provide a discussion framework that keeps the reader focused and, in time, become a mental model for understanding and remembering" (p. 169).

List of Evidence Based Techniques

Expository• Rereading• Expectation Grid

and/or Story Map

• Make clear to students that good readers reread materials and have struggles.  Encourage rereading "for the sheer enjoyment of saying the words, experiencing the language flow and visualizing what is going on" (p. 169).

 • The grid is "a graphic organizer that

serves a dual purpose": to activate prior knowledge and anticipate text content (p. 170). The story map can help students to retell the main idea and supporting details, sequence, describe, figure out cause-effect, problem-solution or compare-contrast in a visual manner.

Narrative Demonstration"KWLS"

• The purpose of the K-W-L-S strategy is intended to help guide student’s reading comprehension.

• The K-W-L-S gives students a purpose for reading by identifying what they know, what they want to know prior to reading and finally, what they learned and what they still want to know after reading.

• The K-W-L-S activates student’s prior knowledge which aids in comprehension by allowing students to relate and connect to the information.

• The K-W-L-S strategy provides students with a visual representation of the information that they have learned prior to, during and after reading.

"KWLS" Procedure/ Essentials• This strategy begins with a large K-W-L-S strategy chart at the front of

the group, on a large tablet.  The teacher must define and explain what each letter means.

• The procedure should use a combination of read aloud and group participation before students perform the technique on their own.

• The teacher would ask students what they already know about a topic or character and will list information in the “K” column of the chart.  The next step is to complete the “W” column, what do students want to know or need to know.

• The teacher will then read the book aloud and students will help to fill in the “L” column of the chart.

Procedure/ Essentials Continued

• After students have finished listing information in each of the three columns, they will list any questions that were not answered and any additional information that they still want or need to know.

• This will teach students that as you learn more information, that information may spawn new questions.

• This procedure should take approximately 30 minutes depending on the length of the book.  Students and the teacher will work together as one group to model the strategy.  In later classes, students may work in small groups or independently to complete their K-W-l-S charts.

• Materials needed for group modeling include: a large tablet, writing tools and a narrative text.

Expository Demonstration"Story Mapping"

  -       The purpose of the Story Map is to visually see the sequence of major events in a story or action of story characters.  -       The Story Map is used for storytelling, retelling, and outlines for story writing.  -       The Story Map lets students’ relate the story events and structure these events in their own way.  -       It enhances students’ ability to visualize the story characters, events and settings.-       The Story Map also increases students’ awareness to story characters and events that are interrelated. 

“Story Mapping” Procedure/ Essentials

-       The purpose of the Story Map is to visually see the sequence of major events in a story or action of story characters.  -       The Story Map is used for storytelling, retelling, and outlines for story writing.  -       The Story Map lets students’ relate the story events and structure these events in their own way.  -       It enhances students’ ability to visualize the story characters, events and settings.-       The Story Map also increases students’ awareness to story characters and events that are interrelated. 

ReferencesCaldwell, J. and Leslie, L. (2009) Intervention strategies to follow informal                  reading inventory assessment: So what do I do now? Boston, MA:                     Pearson. Duke, N.K., & Bennett-Armistead, S.(2003). Reading and writing informational         text in the primary grades: Research-based practices. New York: Scholastic.   

McGee, L.M. (1992). Awareness of text structure: Effects on children's recall of         expository text. Reading Research Quarterly, 17(4), 581-590.

Moss, B. (1997). A qualitative assessment of first graders’ retelling of expository text.                Reading Research and Instruction, 37(1), 1-13.