Narrative Text in the Secondary Classroom - Essay Example

Essay: Narrative Text in the Secondary room Narrative literature A narrative literature cab be said to be a report that is made up of interrelated events that are presented to the readers, audience or listeners in words that are arranged in sequence that is logical. Narrative has got synonyms such as a story, tale or description. The word story can also be used to refer to the succession events that are described in a narrative. Narrative literature thus can both be fictional such as novels and in addition to it being non-fictional work as in the case of memoirs. Most of the time, narrative literature comprises several of the following: character, plot, themes and problems. In works of fiction, for instance, an individual may generally discover a setting, that has got a beginning, a possible reaction and finally a conclusion (Roe, Stoodt-Hill, &P.C Burns, 2004).In a middle school classroom, narrative literature at times can, and actually does exist on its own and is mostly studied for its distinct literary devices and the response of the author. Narrative literature mostly can also be utilized as a supplement just prior to, through, or after instruction that is content based so as to reinforce proper comprehension of the material. As noted above, a text of narrative nature may either be non-fictional or fictional. There are several illustrations of fiction which include; science fiction, realistic fiction, folk tales, mysteries, myths and fairy tales. On the other hand, non-fiction are texts that are based on facts such as factual stories, biographies (Jim Burke) reports and so on and so forth. Narrative texts most of the time may have various purposes such as first and foremost, informing the reader ,secondly entertaining the reader and thirdly persuading the reader. A narrative or rather a story is a very powerful and effective learning tool due to its unique ability to hooking audiences, the principle pleasure ,and facilitating retention (Nathanson,2006).In this particular way, stories serve to make facts to be organized so as to make them more meaningful and applicable to the audience or reader. Human beings discovered this idea and have been utilizing it for centuries, making use of oral storytelling to pass on moral lessons and cultural knowledge to the future generations. Thus these stories not only were they remembered easily by the one telling them, they also captivated the audience and therefore had to be narrated. Egan (1992) believes that educators should make application of this same kind of thinking inside the classroom. Thus Egan believes that the narrative is the greatest tool at our disposal that we can utilize to ensure meaningful remembrance of its contents. This simply suggests how powerful tool narratives are for purposes of salient learning (Egan, 1992).Thus narrative literature can further be used in middle-school language arts and or content-area classrooms due to two of its key characteristics that contribute to its effectiveness as a learning tool; Foremost, a story naturally provokes an emotional or a response that is aesthetic in the reader and secondly, it contextualizes ideas and facts. Thus narratives are always about affective matters and emotions thus engaging the audience emotionally with the events and characters (Egan, 1992). There are several advantages of utilizing narrative literature to content-area classrooms and middle school language arts. Foremost, when a concept seems difficult to understand at first, a narrative text like a short story will allow students to be able to pick up different significant facts that may actually be hard to comprehend without previous knowledge. Thus use of narrative knowledge lets readers to comprehend other texts. The other advantage of utilizing narrative text in classroom setting is in reviewing of materials. For instances many lectures in American history deals with different historical events. Thus use of narrative texts, like historical fiction will let students to plunge themselves in another world, which includes all the different events and settings as what they just studied about. Use of narrative texts in the middle school class also comes with its own disadvantages such as lack of enough time to teach every material needed for a state assessment or rather covering all the required standards in addition to the variance of student comprehending and grasping of English. Use of only narrative in high school classroom, tangible concepts and facts will not have the particular instruction to be smoothened into students’ minds. This therefore means that without this, students would not be well prepared to perform well in their literary and social studies. The other main disadvantage of narratives lies in the fact that since today’s high school classrooms are additionally diverse more than ever before, composed of students of different mainstreamed abilities, it is crucial than ever before for tutors to utilize strategies and tactics to fulfill all the students’ needs. Integrating a narrative only learning atmosphere in the middle school classroom, learners would be held responsible for comprehending not only the substance (History of America), but also for literary substance too. Thus at times it’s hard for some students having learning disabilities and having difficulty understanding one subject area; it becomes almost impossible for them to require understanding literary devices and knowing the writer’s purpose. Trying to understand historical substance may be difficult enough, but to mix that difficulty with studying plots, characters and themes can be almost impossible. The other disadvantage of utilizing narrative text is the fact that some learners are not so much into fiction, stories or narrative texts. These learners thus prefer to study informational texts since they have a feeling that narrative texts don’t infuse their living outside of school. These learners would rather read informational texts simply because they can utilize them as representation for their writing. Therefore, these learners prefer informational texts since they love reading about facts and make use of discussion questions to advance their levels of critical thinking. There are several uses of narrative literature in a middle-school language arts and/or content-area classroom and one of them is to prepare learners to study more advanced reading in the textbook. For instance, in the History of America class, the American Revolution is a main part of study. Thus reading narrative text definitely allows one to discover what life was like for soldiers and the inspirations that the soldiers had while in the American Revolution (Massey, Heafner, 2004). Secondly, narratives can be utilized is in dependable technique of constructing understandings of cause and effect. Thus many of the readings in secondary classes apart from English class have got expository texts. While studying expository texts, learners need to by now have a backdrop of how to study it-including cause and effect. Studying narrative texts that are fictional may assist in painting a mental picture of what is occurring in the scene and optimistically translate to understanding expository texts similarly(subsequent occurrence of events).Thirdly narrative texts can be utilized in the promotion of the usage of analysis techniques, which further can be used in expository treading. A fourth area narrative texts can be utilized in middle class language classroom is in storytelling. Thus through storytelling, the history not only becomes enjoyable but also becomes easier to comprehend. Finally another possible and significant utilization of narrative literature is mostly in the historical fiction. Whereas historical fiction normally is made up of fictional characters, the location and events are usually genuine. Thus Wilkinson clearly points out that geography lessons related to place and location normally occur from the setting (Wilkinson, 2004). Graphic organizers usually support writing and reading. Tutors most of the time should construct graphic organizers so as to utilize them with narrative texts within their practicum actions. Graphic organizers also assist learners in the middle level school to memorize notions and to comprehend abstract thinking. In addition, graphic organizers assist students to organize their thoughts, and by utilizing the graphic organizers, they are able to show the differences and similarities amongst characters. This therefore means that graphic organizers are crucial apparatus since they assist young minds understand and read narrative texts between the lines. The following are some of the graphic organizers that can be utilized with narrative text within my practicum activities. Plot summary Players Scene (where?) First Predicament Solution Argument Highlight Falling Action Protagonist Opinion Antagonist Theme Scene Conclusion Thus teachers who are effective should make application of the strategies required to successfully understand narrative texts since nonfiction and fiction, mostly appeals to the emotions of students. Thus a proper understanding of narrative texts’ structure will immensely improve the learners’ comprehension and will enlarge the evenness in the students’ writing skills. In conclusion, narrative literature usage in middle-school language arts and/or content-area classroom can really assist students in bridging the gap of comprehending content while at the same time enriching the experience for learners who already understand the curriculum. References Betty R, Barbara S,Burns P. (2004). Secondary School Literacy Instruction:The Content Areas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Egan, K. (1992). Imagination in Teaching and Learning:The Middle Schol Years. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Massey , Heafner. T. (2004). Promoting Reading Comproiiension in Social Studies. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy , 26-40. Nathanson, S. (2006). Harnessing The Power of Story:Using Narrative Reading and Writing Across Content Areas. Reading Horizons , 47(1),1-26. Rosenblatt, L. (1978(Reprint 1994)). The Reader,The Text,The Poem:The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Wilkinson, C. J. (2004, May 14). Social Studies through Literature. Retrieved May 24, 2014, from Delaware Social Studies Education Project: http://www.udel.edu/dssep/articles/fosterwar_article.htm Read More