More information about how to teach using personal narratives written by yourself and your learner, including an example narrative.
In my post Teaching Using Narratives, Part 1, I explained what a narrative is and how to create one. In this post, you'll learn how you can take this narrative and structure an effective lesson around it.
A brief reminder about creating a narrative: Cater the writing level and vocabulary to match the reading level of your learner. You want to give your learner new vocabulary but limit the number and difficulty of the words so that they will not be overwhelming to the learner.
Image Source: ThinkMarin
For our example, we'll use a brief narrative that recapitulates what a tutor and their learner did together in their first meeting. This is in itself a form of the Language Experience Approach used by English at Large: you are presenting to them a text based on an experience you shared. You might write:
"Last week you and I met at the Burlington Library. We met and talked for about
two hours. I told you about my life. You told me about your life. I learned that
you have two sons in college. You mentioned that you have two kids in high school.
You learned this about me: I play intramural soccer, I'm an admissions worker, I'm making food for the bake sale next Saturday, etc.
We agreed to meet again this week, at the library. We are
now meeting again. And we are going to meet again next week at another convenient place."
You might want to include "intramural," "admissions," "bake sale," and "convenient" as vocabulary words to learn before your learner reads the narrative.
Once your learner has read the narrative and fully understands its content, ask them to underline all instances of a certain grammar construct. In this case, we'll choose past-tense verbs. You would then ask if they could list the past-tense verbs and change them into the present tense. A correct learner's list of past verbs (and past indicating phrases) from the story would look like this:
last week
met
met and talked
told you
told me
learned
mentioned
agreed
If they are missing some words or if the list is otherwise incorrect, give them a correct list of all the past-tense verbs in the story. Then, remove the story from sight and ask them to retell the story using only the verb list as cues. Let all errors slide other than incorrect usage of the verbs you provided.
Using the word list above, they try to retell the story you wrote. You don't want your learner to memorize what you wrote. Rather, you want them to retell the gist of the story, but it is important to use all of the words listed above. Once you're satisfied they can use each of the words accurately in speech, you are set up to teach the two new tenses contained in the final two sentences of your written story: "We are now meeting again" (present continuous) and "And we are going to meet again next week." (the "going to" future).
This post provided one example of a simple narrative and how to use it in a lesson. There are many more possibilities, so stick with me to find out more in future posts!
Happy tutoring!
Kris
Tufts University, Class of 2016
ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
Join the conversation
In my post Teaching Using Narratives, Part 1, I explained what a narrative is and how to create one. In this post, you'll learn how you can take this narrative and structure an effective lesson around it.
A brief reminder about creating a narrative: Cater the writing level and vocabulary to match the reading level of your learner. You want to give your learner new vocabulary but limit the number and difficulty of the words so that they will not be overwhelming to the learner.
For our example, we'll use a brief narrative that recapitulates what a tutor and their learner did together in their first meeting. This is in itself a form of the Language Experience Approach used by English at Large: you are presenting to them a text based on an experience you shared. You might write:
"Last week you and I met at the Burlington Library. We met and talked for about
two hours. I told you about my life. You told me about your life. I learned that
you have two sons in college. You mentioned that you have two kids in high school.
You learned this about me: I play intramural soccer, I'm an admissions worker, I'm making food for the bake sale next Saturday, etc.
We agreed to meet again this week, at the library. We are
now meeting again. And we are going to meet again next week at another convenient place."
You might want to include "intramural," "admissions," "bake sale," and "convenient" as vocabulary words to learn before your learner reads the narrative.
Once your learner has read the narrative and fully understands its content, ask them to underline all instances of a certain grammar construct. In this case, we'll choose past-tense verbs. You would then ask if they could list the past-tense verbs and change them into the present tense. A correct learner's list of past verbs (and past indicating phrases) from the story would look like this:
last week
met
met and talked
told you
told me
learned
mentioned
agreed
If they are missing some words or if the list is otherwise incorrect, give them a correct list of all the past-tense verbs in the story. Then, remove the story from sight and ask them to retell the story using only the verb list as cues. Let all errors slide other than incorrect usage of the verbs you provided.
Using the word list above, they try to retell the story you wrote. You don't want your learner to memorize what you wrote. Rather, you want them to retell the gist of the story, but it is important to use all of the words listed above. Once you're satisfied they can use each of the words accurately in speech, you are set up to teach the two new tenses contained in the final two sentences of your written story: "We are now meeting again" (present continuous) and "And we are going to meet again next week." (the "going to" future).
This post provided one example of a simple narrative and how to use it in a lesson. There are many more possibilities, so stick with me to find out more in future posts!
Happy tutoring!
Kris
Kristofer Pieper
Programs and Social Media Intern, English At LargeTufts University, Class of 2016
ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
Join the conversation
No comments:
Post a Comment