One Step at a Time: Presentation 7

NARRATIVE SKILLS

Introduction

Initial Screen

Skills Checklist

Classroom Intervention

Lesson Planning

Teaching Method

Vocabulary Work

Monitoring Progress

Moving On

Links to Literacy

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Narrative Skills

INTRODUCTION

Narrative Skills

is a programme for developing children’s ability to talk and think about the present, past and future in preparation for writing and other demands of the early school curriculum

it is intended for children aged 5 to 7 who have already done Listening Skills, and in particular the second checklist which develops crucial early phonics skills

if a significant number of children have not done Listening Skills, the class should do the second Listening Skills checklist first, before beginning Narrative Skills

Narrative Skills is expected to extend across two years but will still benefit all children if used for a single year

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Narrative Skills

INTRODUCTION

Narrative is independent, extended talk, including:

describing things and events, present, past or futurereporting activities, recounting experiences, retelling storiesproviding explanations, predictions, possibilities

Narrative skills are important for:

coherent thought and expressionliteracy, and especially writing

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Narrative Skills

INITIAL SCREEN

The Initial Screen helps staff to

‘tune-in’ to the relevant skills at this level of the programme

identify children’s current development of these skills

determine the amount of support they are likely to need

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Narrative Skills

INITIAL SCREEN

The Initial Screen identifies children as:

Competent: they seem to be acquiring these skills without too much difficulty and are not expected to need special attention

Developing: they seem to be slower in acquiring these skills and are likely to need some assistance and monitoring

Delayed: they seem to be having difficulty in acquiring these skills and are likely to need more intensive support and monitoring

These groupings are intended to be flexible and are likely to change in the course of a term or year.

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Narrative Skills

INITIAL SCREEN

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Narrative Skills

INITIAL SCREEN

While children are settling into their new class, teachers can be observing them informally in a variety of situations, focusing on the behaviours to be assessed

Working with a colleague if possible, the class teacher completes the initial screen for each child separately

A behaviour should only be credited if a child is using it confidently, competently and consistently. If there is any doubt or disagreement, the behaviour should not be credited

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Narrative Skills

INITIAL SCREEN

The screen has two bands, and children are assessed band by band. If they do not have all the behaviours in Band 1, they do not need to be assessed on Band 2

Children who lack any of the behaviours in Band 1 are identified as Delayed, even if they have some of the behaviours in Band 2

Children who have all the behaviours in Band 1 but lack any of the behaviours in Band 2 are identified as Developing

Children who have all the behaviours in both bands are identified as Competent

The Delayed group may include some children with special needs, but should not be thought of as a special needs group.

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Narrative Skills

SKILLS CHECKLISTS

Narrative Skills has three checklists:

Talking about the Present

Talking about the Past

Talking about the Future

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Narrative Skills

SKILLS CHECKLISTS

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Narrative Skills

SKILLS CHECKLISTS

Each checklist includes Question Forms, Describing, and Sequencing, divided into separate questions or behaviours

Skills and behaviours are listed in rough developmental order as a guide to intervention.

Children normally work through each checklist in sequence. Question Forms are introduced first. Describing can then be introduced in parallel, followed by Sequencing, but not all three at the same time

Teaching of different behaviours and question forms will usually overlap

Every child and every item needs to be assessed and monitored separately

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Narrative Skills

CLASSROOM INTERVENTION

Narrative skills are taught through a combination of whole-class, small-group and partner work, supported by informal interaction with individual children

The checklists set teaching objectives for all children on a rolling basis, while the initial screens determine the amount of support needed for each child

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Narrative Skills

CLASSROOM INTERVENTION: Whole-Class Work

Whole-class work is used to teach question forms, explain small-group and partner-work, and reinforce and consolidate learning across the curriculum

There should be some work on the question of the week every day if possible

There should be at least one other activity every day focusing on any other skills or behaviours currently being worked on

These need not be separate ‘language lessons’; they can be incorporated into any familiar classroom activity

Other whole-class activities can be used to support current learning at any time, several times a day

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Narrative Skills

CLASSROOM INTERVENTION: Small-Group Work

Small-group work is used to teach describing and sequencing skills, and to reinforce and consolidate learning, especially with younger children (ages 5 to 6) who may not be not ready for partner work

Children are assigned to teaching groups of six to eight children on the basis of the initial screen. Children identified as Delayed should receive two or three small-group sessions a week if possible

Each teaching session should be 15 to 20 minutes long

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Narrative Skills

CLASSROOM INTERVENTION: Partner Work

Partner Work

is recommended for older children (ages 6 to 7) who are experienced in working in small groups

is a valuable teaching tool in its own right and can be used to deliver any part of the curriculum

takes pressure off staff by allowing children to work independently

enables children to learn from and support each other

boosts the confidence and language skills of less able children

need not be noisy or disruptive

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Narrative Skills

CLASSROOM INTERVENTION: Partner Work

Children need to be thoroughly used to partner work in general before it is used to teach narrative skills. The teacher should first:

explain what partner work is, why it is useful, how it works, and what the rules are

demonstrate it to the class, using different children as partners

get children to practise it themselves with simple, familiar tasks

Using partner work, it should be possible for all children to practise narrative skills almost every day.

The teacher should introduce, explain and demonstrate each exercise, and the specific behaviours she is targeting, so children know what is expected of them

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Narrative Skills

CLASSROOM INTERVENTION: Individual Interaction

A list of the skills, behaviours and question forms currently being worked on should be displayed prominently, so everyone can use it to guide their interaction with individual children

All staff and other adults should be encouraged to use every available opportunity to practise these skills with children individually

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Narrative Skills

LESSON PLANNING

The skills checklists provide learning and teaching objectives for all children

Suggestions for appropriate activities and materials are given in the Notes to the checklists. Materials will need to include a variety of picture scenes and sets of sequencing cards or photos

As well as allocating times for small-group or other language work, staff should also identify some activities every day where current learning can be consolidated

Longer-term planning needs to be flexible, allowing time for groups to go back and repeat any work they have found difficult

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Narrative Skills

TEACHING METHOD

Parents normally teach their children spoken language (usually without realising they are doing it) by:

Highlighting: drawing attention to a word or behaviour by indicating or emphasising it

Modelling: providing an example for the child to copy

Prompting: encouraging him to respond, directing him towards an appropriate response

Rewarding: rewarding any appropriate response with praise and further encouragement

The teacher should use the same techniques, but use them explicitly and systematically.

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Narrative Skills

VOCABULARY WORK

Vocabulary is crucial for children’s progress through school but is too large to teach systematically in any detail.

Vocabulary work is an optional element in Narrative Skills and should not be introduced until children and staff are thoroughly familiar with skills teaching

Narrative Skills includes a Vocabulary Wordlist of 100 essential words selected from the vocabulary of properties and relations and the vocabulary of feelings and emotion. This Wordlist is intended to be supplemented with essential topic vocabulary

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Narrative Skills

VOCABULARY WORK

Staff can start by selecting 3 or 4 words from the Vocabulary Wordlist, and 6 or 10 items of essential topic vocabulary from the current curriculum, to provide 9 to 14 words for explicit teaching as ‘this week’s special words’

These words can be varied week by week, phasing some words out and some new ones in, and returning from time to time to any words that have proved difficult

This will ensure that all children are exposed to the relevant vocabulary, but will not ensure that every child does in fact know them

Some children may need detailed vocabulary work in small groups, using vocabulary checklists to assess and monitor their individual learning

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Narrative Skills

MONITORING PROGRESS

Each child is monitored separately using the checklists. As each child acquires a behaviour or question form it gets ticked off on the checklist

A behaviour or question form should only be credited when the child is using it confidently, competently and consistently. If there is any doubt about a behaviour, it should not be credited

The teacher need to ensure that each behaviour or question form has been properly consolidated, and should return later to any items that have proved difficult, to confirm that previous learning has been retained

It is always more important that children consolidate basic skills than that they move on to more advanced ones

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Narrative Skills

MOVING ON

The class normally keeps working on the same question forms on a rolling basis until everyone has learnt them

Each group normally keeps working on the same skill until everyone has learnt all the relevant behaviours, but it may sometimes be better to move on to another skill and come back again later, or to reorganise teaching groups

Each group can go at its own pace through the checklist but staff should wait until all groups have completed that checklist before proceeding to the next checklist

Special arrangements may have to be made for children or groups who are having particular difficulty

Each checklist is expected to take about a term to complete23

Narrative Skills

LINKS TO LITERACY

Narrative skills are particularly important for writing:

Children need to be able to talk about something, coherently and at length, before being expected to write about it

Independent writing should begin with simple enjoyable exercises that make minimum demands on children’s grammatical and narrative skills

Different types of simple writing (present, past and future) can be linked to the Narrative Skills checklists

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Narrative Skills

LINKS TO LITERACY

Younger children (ages 5 to 6) should also be developing:

their understanding and use of reading, by becoming familiar with factual writing, information sources and poetry, as well as stories

their auditory and phonic skills, including learning some factual items by heart and letter-sound links

their visual-motor skills for writing, including letter shapes and sizing

their understanding and use of writing, by making use of different types of written source

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Narrative Skills

LINKS TO LITERACY

Older children (aged 6 to 7) should also be developing:

their understanding and use of reading, including being able to summarise and abstract information, and learning the technical vocabulary of books and reading

their auditory and phonic skills, including rote memory and more complex sound-letter links

their visual-motor skills for writing, including punctuation, paragraphing and simple layouts

their understanding and use of writing for different purposes.

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