Domain 5 - Comprehension

Kimberly Taron
Domain 5: Comprehension
Competency 14:  Instruction and Assessment-Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts
Grade Level: 2nd Grade
           

Story Map for "Sheila Ray the Brave"

INSTRUCTION:   I observed the teacher teaching her second graders "Instruction in the Elements of Story Grammar" including teaching literary genres and utilizing story maps to recall specific details.  This is part of Competency 14, Domain 5 - Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment-Understanding and Analyzing Narrative texts. First, the teacher read the students a story called Sheila Ray the Brave.   This story was part of a series that the students had been reading in their class with the teacher.  She read the story slowly and let the students look at the pictures.  Her reading pace was a form of scaffolding that aided her ELs in the room time to take in what she was reading. Seeing the illustrations while she read was a support for many of the students to help them follow along.  When she was finished reading, the class discussed the book for a few minutes.  They discussed the characters and what happened in the story. 
Then, each student was given a story map which had a spot to fill in the characters, setting, problem, and solution (see photo on right).   This story map visually provided the structure to work from when further discussing the story as a class.  The teacher provided support in this lesson by first reviewing the meaning of each of the elements of the story.  She asked the students, "Who can tell me what the setting would be for a story?" and the students would respond that it is where and when the story took place (this was also posted on a poster in the room).  This way everyone was on track and knew what they were looking for, and they were able to move on getting to the answers together.  The class-with help from the teacher on the overhead projector-filled in each of the elements on the story map by discussing and coming up with the answers for each together.  This story map is an way of organizing the information for students and is a great supportive material for the visual learners in the class.  This map provided an overall visual for the students so they could see the connections between the different components of the story, which is also a big help for struggling readers.


INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:   

The instructional setting I observed provided supports for the learning in terms of comprehension.  The story map was a supportive document that provided visual organization for the students.  There was poster with the definitions of the different elements of the story that students could refer to when discussing each element of Sheila Ray the Brave with the teacher and deciding what to put into their story map.