Reading Comprehension (Narrative Texts)
Many students experience comprehension problems. Teachers play a critical role in helping pupils develop comprehension strategies. “Good instruction is the most powerful means of promoting the development of proficient comprehenders and preventing reading comprehension problems”.
Research indicates that comprehension strategies should be explicitly taught and modelled long term at all grade levels. When teaching students comprehension it is important to teach them to use a number of strategies, including activating prior knowledge, monitoring comprehension, generating questions, answering questions, drawing inferences, creating mental imagery, identifying the text structure the writer has used, and creating summaries.
Narrative Text. Broadly defined, narrative text tells a story. It is found in the form of short stories, folktales, tall tales, myths, fables, legends, fantasies, science fiction — even in the reporting of news stories or in biographies and autobiographies. The narrative structure most often features a beginning, middle, and an ending. It most often also features clear story elements, or story grammar, including:
http://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/305_PDF/305_FinalProj/TeachingNarrativeStructureAwareness_RT_Oct2007.pdf - this website shares what students need to be taught in regards to comprehension.
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/early_middle/engl_teach_read_view_comprehension.pdf - this site contains a list and elaboration of many comprehension strategies providing practical examples of ways each strategy can be implemented within the classroom.
In my classroom
When teaching students comprehension skills in relation to narrative texts I will:
Research indicates that comprehension strategies should be explicitly taught and modelled long term at all grade levels. When teaching students comprehension it is important to teach them to use a number of strategies, including activating prior knowledge, monitoring comprehension, generating questions, answering questions, drawing inferences, creating mental imagery, identifying the text structure the writer has used, and creating summaries.
Narrative Text. Broadly defined, narrative text tells a story. It is found in the form of short stories, folktales, tall tales, myths, fables, legends, fantasies, science fiction — even in the reporting of news stories or in biographies and autobiographies. The narrative structure most often features a beginning, middle, and an ending. It most often also features clear story elements, or story grammar, including:
- characters
- settings
- themes
- a central problem, or conflict
- a sequence of events that form a story line, or plot
- a resolution to the conflict
http://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/305_PDF/305_FinalProj/TeachingNarrativeStructureAwareness_RT_Oct2007.pdf - this website shares what students need to be taught in regards to comprehension.
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/early_middle/engl_teach_read_view_comprehension.pdf - this site contains a list and elaboration of many comprehension strategies providing practical examples of ways each strategy can be implemented within the classroom.
In my classroom
When teaching students comprehension skills in relation to narrative texts I will:
- Focus discussions on story elements and encourage students to relate story events and characters to their own experiences
- Encourage students to compare the structure of one story to that of other stories they have read
- Prepare visual guides, such as story maps of the structure of a story, to help them recall specific story elements.