Literacy Station 1
Beginning, Middle, End​
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Reporting
The second literacy station that I created and implemented built on the learning intention that had been developed by my mentor teacher for the area of reading prior to my professional practice: ‘use reading strategies to read our book’. The students selected to participate in this literacy station were the main reading group, consisting of 12 students who at that point in time had been performing at the expected level (C/B grade). Upon observing the two guided reading sessions conducted by my mentor teacher I realised that the reading strategies employed were more aimed towards enhancing their oral reading skills, such as fluency and expression, and word recognition. I consequently decided to focus on features of plot using the ‘beginning, middle, end’ (BME) framework, thereby providing a sequencing strategy that allows students to comprehended the text effectively. Each page from the text The Big Black Cloud (Mewburn, 2009) was placed in a random order on the floor. Students were required to sequence the events of the story across a ‘storyline’. I facilitated this process, highlighting the main events that defined the beginning (characters and setting), middle (problem/conflict) and end (problem solved/resolution) features of the plot. Every student took part in the sequencing of the story while also participating in constructive group discussion. The knowledge of plot features and level of comprehension of each student was evaluated through the completion of a BME worksheet.
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Responding
The students all successfully completed their BME worksheet, thereby demonstrating adequate understanding of features of plot and meeting the learning intention. All students appeared very engaged throughout the entire lesson, particularly when completing the sequencing process as a result of its interactive and kinaesthetic nature. Upon reflection, I should have only selected pages for the sequencing activity that exhibited key events so that the beginning, middle and end features of the plot could be clearly identified and comprehended by students. Alternatively, students could have identified each feature of the plot by placing content word cards on the relevant event, thereby illustrating the words that carry the most meaning within the text (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014).
Relating
Explicitly communicating to students the underlying elements of plot provides them with a powerful comprehension tool that allows them to identify the most important structural components of a text, thereby enhancing their overall understanding of the narrative (Therriault & Raney, 2009; Mahdavi & Tensfeldt, 2013). The key to this process is ensuring students engage in intentional thinking, that is, they apply the specific structural comprehension strategy while reading their text. Ultimately, students should internalise this comprehension strategy so that it becomes an automatic process however, at the primary level more emphasis will naturally be given to obvious text elements and less to metacognitive processing (Williams, 2005). The pictorial representation used to organise and convey the major events of the plot particularly enhance the comprehension of less skilled readers as it promotes memory development and bridging the gaps between content reading and key information (Naughton, 1993).
Reasoning
Through the implementation of this literacy station I have come to realise that importance of making reading strategies explicit to students, especially prior to reading the text. Initially, I thought that students would gain a deeper understanding of the features of the plot through reflective practice, that is, reading the text first then recalling the events that align with the relevant component of the story. However, I have realised that equipping students with the BME strategy prior to reading the text would add more value to their level of comprehension as they will be aware of their expectations and consciously strive to identify key events during the reading process.
Reconstructing
Prior to the students’ first guided reading session I will explicitly teach them the BME reading comprehension strategy, how it enhances comprehension and what opportunities will necessitate its utilisation. Furthermore, I would add an extension activity to promote the development of higher cognitive understanding such as determining the overall theme of the text in addition to the main events that took place. In this instance, identifying that in addition to reducing traffic to solve the smoke problem, students should acknowledge that this promotes the use of public transport (as shown in the work sample of the first student featured above) (Williams, 2005).
References
Fellowes, J., & Oakley, G. (2014). Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education. Victoria: Oxford University Press.
Mahdavi, J., & Tensfeldt, L. (2013). Untangling Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Assisting Struggling Readers in the Primary Grades. Preventing School Failure, 57(2), 77-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2012.668576
Mewburn, K. (2009). The Big Black Cloud. Victoria: Oxford University Press.
Naughton, V. (1993). Creative mapping for content reading. Journal of Reading, 37(4), 324-326. Retrieved from ProQuest.
Therriault, D., & Raney, G. (2009). The Representation and Comprehension of Place-on-the-Page and Text-Sequence Memory. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6(2), 117-1134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S1532799XSSR0602_01
Williams, J. (2005). Instruction in Reading Comprehension for Primary-Grade Students: A Focus on Text Structure. The Journal of Special Education, 39(1), 6-18. Retrieved from ProQuest.
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Figure 2: recounting the story with students upon their successful sequencing of story events.
Figure 3: identifying the events that define the main features of the plot (learning intention) with reference to the BME worksheet.
Figure 1: The front cover of The Big Black Cloud by Kyle Mewburn.
Figure 4 & 5: students completing the BME worksheet independently.
Figure 6 & 7: work samples from students, the first student demonstrated a sound understanding the key events that contributed to the features of the plot while the second student, although still correct, did not communicate the main events fully. For instance, the middle picture should highlight the conflict (black smoke was making everything dirty) and what the source of the problem was (excessive traffic).