Narrative Reading

ByLorie Sadler

Narrative Reading

What

Why

When

How

What is Narrative Reading

Tells a story expressing event-based experiences

“children develop sensitivity to narrative structure early and use it to comprehend simple stories before they enter school.” (Williams, 2005)

Comprehension instruction typically begins with narrative text.

Story Structure

Pertains to how stories and their plots are systematically organized into a predictable format

Provides a framework that helps students to discover what is most relevant for understanding a story

Includes setting characters plot theme

Strategy ApplicationRecognizing Story Structure

Being aware of story structure is an aid in summarizing text; it helps students identify which parts of the stories to attend to the most.

Use of story maps are an effective tool in helping students to organize a story into its story elements.

Asking and Answering Question

Serves as an organizational guide, promotes active reading, helps students identify important information.

Students need initial instruction in how to pose effective questions.

Questions should spark a full range of thinking skills to encourage a deeper level of comprehension. (Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Strategy Application (Cont)Monitoring Comprehension

Noting how well one’s understanding of a story is progressing Think – Alouds

Saying what you are thinking while you read Allows student to better self-monitor their own comprehension

Connecting to World Knowledge Integrating story information with previous life experiences

Broadens and deepens literary understanding Enables students to understand, feel, value, and retain the depth of

an authors meaning

Predicting Making informed predictions or previewing before and during reading Helps students to focus their attention while reading

Strategy Application (Cont)Constructing Mental Images

Making pictures in your mind Through mental imaging students can learn to picture authors’

descriptions as a way to build and monitor their comprehension

Summarizing Focuses on story elements

Used to assess comprehension and to guide students toward a deeper understanding of a story Emergent Early Fluent Fluent

Multiple – Strategy Instruction Program Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI)

Developed by Michael Pressley, et. Al.

Multiple strategy instructions Understanding the text shares equal weight with learning the

coordinated use of comprehension strategies

• Collaborative discussion with metacognition, motivation and reader response

• Embodies the full range of transactions-between reader and text, between readers, and between readers and teachers

Reader Response Reader Response

How readers interact with stories and form personal responses that influence their interpretation (Rosenblatt 1978)

Two ways to enhance reader interactions

Discussion-Oriented Instruction• Supports students in the process of developing meaning

Writing in response to Literature• Enhances students’ interactions with narrative texts before,

during, and after reading

Why Narrative Reading

Teaching students to identify and represent story structure improves their comprehension of narrative text (RRSG, 2002)

Enhances students’ memory and recall of text and helps them organize and write stories

“Story structure instruction shows positive effects for a wide range of students, from kindergarten to the intermediate grades to high school to special populations, and to students identified as struggling readers.” (Duke and Pearson, 2002)

When to Teach Narrative Reading

When to teach As soon as students start to interact with text and should continue

through high schoolEffective teaching balances explicit comprehension strategies

instruction with the literary experience of a story

When to Assess and Intervene Comprehension instruction should be accompanied by reliable

assessment aligned with instruction Retellings, student think-alouds, and other process-focused

measures may serve as useful tools for diagnosing and remediating comprehension problems

How to Teach Narrative Reading

Lesson Models Dialogic reading: Picture book read-aloud

methodStudents become the tellerTeacher become the listener and questionerCommonly used with Pre-Kindergartners using picture books(CROWD) Prompt Questions—Completion, Recall, Open-

Ended, Wh-,DistancingPEER-Teacher helps students become tellers of a story

through the sequence of: Prompt, Evaluate, Expand, Repeat

How to Teach Narrative Reading

Lesson Models (Cont)Story Structure

Teaches students to ask and answer questions about story structure elements with an emphasis on theme

Incorporates instruction in story mapsDirect explanation – explain use of story mapTeach/Model – teacher models use of story mapGuided Practice: Theme Transfer – students transfer and

apply the generalized theme

How to Teach Narrative Reading

Lesson Models (Cont)Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI)

Through teacher student dialog reading TSI emphasizes coordinated use of strategies to help students to build and monitor comprehension

Strategies are first introduced individuallyModel for explicit instruction followsOver time, responsibility for strategy choices shifts from

teacher to student

How to Teach Narrative Reading

Lesson Models (Cont)Book Club: Writing in response to literature

Provides instructions in three categories Personal (emotion) – Share personal stories through journal

entry or personal essay Creative (imagination) – Engage with text and author through

poems or dialogues Critical (evaluation) – analyzing text through paragraph

critiquing literary element or essay about author’s message

Narrative Reading

Provides an early structure in which to teach key reading strategies Monitoring ComprehensionConnecting to World KnowledgePredicting Recognizing Text StructureAsking QuestionsAnswering QuestionsConstructing Mental ImagesSummarizing