One Step at a Time: Presentation of Narrative Skills

1. One Step at a Time: Presentation 7NARRATIVE SKILLS Introduction Initial Screen Skills Checklist Classroom Intervention Lesson Planning Teaching Method Vocabulary Work Monitoring Progress Moving On Links to Literacy

2. Narrative SkillsINTRODUCTION 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 .

3. Narrative SkillsINTRODUCTION Narrative is independent, extended talk, including: • describing things and events, present, past or future • reporting activities, recounting experiences, retelling stories • providing explanations, predictions, possibilities Narrative skills are important for: • coherent thought and expression • literacy, and especially writing

4. Narrative SkillsINITIAL 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

5. Narrative SkillsINITIAL 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.

6. Narrative SkillsINITIAL SCREEN

7. Narrative SkillsINITIAL 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

8. Narrative SkillsINITIAL 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.

9. Narrative SkillsSKILLS CHECKLISTS Narrative Skills has three checklists: • Talking about the Present • Talking about the Past • Talking about the Future

10. Narrative SkillsSKILLS CHECKLISTS

11. Narrative SkillsSKILLS 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

12. Narrative SkillsCLASSROOM 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

13. Narrative SkillsCLASSROOM 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

14. Narrative SkillsCLASSROOM 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

15. Narrative SkillsCLASSROOM 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

16. Narrative SkillsCLASSROOM 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

17. Narrative SkillsCLASSROOM 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

18. Narrative SkillsLESSON 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

19. Narrative SkillsTEACHING 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.

20. Narrative SkillsVOCABULARY 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

21. Narrative SkillsVOCABULARY 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

22. Narrative SkillsMONITORING 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

23. Narrative SkillsMOVING 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 complete

24. Narrative SkillsLINKS 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

25. Narrative SkillsLINKS 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

26. Narrative SkillsLINKS 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.