Competency 14: Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment- Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts

RICA Reflection

Competency 14: Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment- Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts

Introduction

RICA Competency number fourteen address how to have instructional strategies and assessments that are appropriate to use with narrative or literary texts.

Personal Connection/Evidence

There are a many ways that I have engaged with this competency.

A variety of genres of books is what I shared with my tutees. I wanted to share them a variety of types of books that they can enjoy and see that they are multiple types of books to read. I introduced them to narratives, fiction, nonfiction, informational, and a folktale.

Knowing the difference between fiction and nonfiction books is an important concept to understand. In the first grade classroom, we worked hard at understanding and noting the difference between text types. As I shared my guided and shared reading books with the students that was one question I knew I had to ask. I observed my master teacher ask this question no matter what book we were reading.

Understanding the elements of story grammar is another important concept to make sure the young scholars are aware of. Being able to identify main characters in the story is critical. Once students understand these elements you are able to move on to harder concepts that help a person connect to the story.

“For story maps and story grammar outlines, teachers first provide models to use as a framework to discuss the story. Then, the teacher provides “skeletal” maps and grammar outlines. Students complete these during and after they read, with help from the teacher. Next, students are challenged to complete maps and grammar outlines on their own.” (RICA, p. 107) I used this technique as an assessment with my shared lesson. In the big book,  Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore we used sequencing as a strategy to sort the story into first, next, then, and last and the students drew a picture to help retell the important details.  

Meeting the Needs of All Learners

Struggling readers and students with reading disabilities will need access to grade-level texts throughout oral presentation, be focusing on key elements of story grammar, use story maps, and if needed reteaching of skills and strategies using concrete examples

English Language Learners or speakers of nonstandard English will need to learn clarifications of cultural context of the text and preteaching of key vocabulary.

Advanced learners will need to have the pace or complexity increased and extending the depth and breadth of instruction.

Assessment

Student read and teacher read aloud is key when helping with assessing literary understanding. focusing on oral and written skills is important to check for understanding.

Free and focused response questioning is key to comprehension for students. By giving the ability to respond how they seem fit to a free response question and answering specifically to questions on a focused question will truly check for understanding. For the teacher, here is a link to some types of questions you could ask.

There are also entry-level, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments. Entry-level, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments are assessments that the teacher will administer when needed to check progress along the way. If the student is below grade level the teacher will need to figure out why. The teacher may have to go back to kindergarten levels to recheck the students skill level and move on from there to see where the problem is.

Text-to-Text Connections

“The big book allows all the children in the class or in a small group to participate actively in reading of the story. Because the print and illustrations are large enough for all children to see, the teacher captures their attention the immediately and focuses instruction around key goals.” (RLTR, p. 104)

“In shared reading, the teacher and class of beginners partake in the reading and rereading of favorite stories, songs, poems, and rhymes. Shared reading is a way of creating opportunities for children to learn what a book is, what an “expert” reader does with a book as it is red, and what makes a story a story.” (RLTR, p. 105)

“In narrative informational text the author typically tells a fictional story that conveys factual information. … This type of text often works well as a read-aloud and can be motivating lead-in to a topic of study.” (RLTR, p. 407-408)

TPE Connections

TPE 2: Monitoring Student Learning During Instruction

TPE 3: Interpretation and Use of Assessments

TPE 4: Making Content Accessible

TPE 5: Student Engagement