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Fine J. C. & Mosser, P. K. (2011). Celebrating what children comprehend: Using a rubric for written retellings of narrative text. American Reading Forum Annual Yearbook [Online], Vol. 31.

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Celebrating what children comprehend: Using a rubric for written retellings of narrative text

Joyce C. Fine

Florida International University

Pamela K. Mosser Broward County Public Schools

Pam, a tutor in a summer program, is sitting with Mauricio at a table where he is excitedly popping out of the chair. He is talking and waving his hands in the air telling parts of the story, Stellaluna. There are lots of details floating in random order as he retells details about the harrowing adventure of the bat. He collects animal stories and is fascinated with the information he extracts from the stories. His teacher knows she has found an entry point for his literacy via his love of animals. Now she thinks, how can I channel this enthusiasm to improve his writing?

As his teacher, she knows that he has the potential to excel with his writing, but he prefers talking and sharing orally what he is learning. When he is asked to write, the enthusiasm drains away. He is no longer eager to share the ideas because it is more difficult to write the words than for him to quickly say them. The effort to write inhibits his putting his thoughts on paper. Yet, his ability to write is going to be assessed the next year when he is in the fourth grade on a

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standardized test. His skills need development if he is going to develop his writing to match his reading level. If reading and writing develop synchronously (Bear & Barone, 1998), meaning that they both develop at the same rate and that development in one area usually requires there be development in the other, there needs to be an intervention that will scaffold him to develop his writing. The teacher can try several strategies such as recording what he says and then transcribing the story. Seeing his words in print would help him gain confidence in his ability. He might then practice rereading his own words. What else might the teacher use to allow him to monitor his own progress? What worked was a kid-friendly instrument to empower him to be involved with his writing progress.

This paper describes a rubric that allows students to be involved with assessing their own oral or written retellings of stories. The original rubric is designed to evaluate the extent of a students knowledge of narrative text structure in a written retelling. The article will focus on the analysis of two diverse struggling readers written retellings, one from a summer literacy program in August and the other from early in the school year, and then both in their classrooms after instructional time was devoted to teaching text structure. It will describe the steps in the instructional process and the next steps for research.

This rubric was created because even though there are checklists for assessing students ability to retell stories, such as Morrows (1985) rubric for oral retellings for emergent literacy learners which can be used to assess students knowledge of the elements of narratives, there currently is no valid, reliable instrument for determining students knowledge of text structure in a written retelling. After considering what teachers could use to collaboratively assess writing with their students, this rubric was devised. In this first stage of research, this rubric is being field tested to determine if it is a viable instrument for classroom teachers to use. Within a writing workshop context, this rubric allows the teacher and the students to gauge developmental progress over time.

The theoretical perspective for the development of this rubric and the concept of collaborating with the student come from a sociocultural perspective. We know that individuals construct meaning via an interaction with the sociocultural environment (Vygotsky, 1978). We also know that the cognitive processes of reading and writing are learned through contextualized activity and assisted learning (Englert & Palincsar, 1991). If students are nurtured in a reading and writing environment, their reading and writing should develop at the same pace. This is known as the Synchronous Model of Literacy Development (Bear & Barone, 1998). By using written retellings (Brown & Cambourne, 1987), teachers can analyze the extent of knowledge of narrative text structure that is present. By

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using a rubric with the written retelling, they can at the same time, evaluate the students comprehension and writing. When working with diverse, struggling readers, this information may be used for gathering data for planning both reading comprehension instruction and writing instruction.

The purpose for developing the Rubric (Fine, 2011) was to evaluate oral or written retellings to qualitatively analyze the degree to which narrative elements are present using a quantitative tool to measure growth. (See rubric in Appendix A.) The directions for using the rubric are to quantitatively measure with a score the extent to which narrative elements or characteristics are present. It they are present, the student would get a 1, if partially present, .5, and if not present, 0. The elements have been selected based on both the components of narrative text structure and the characteristics of quality writing.

To begin a trial run with the use of the rubric, a teacher used the rubric with a summer school group of diverse learners at a school that is 1/3 Black, 1/3 Hispanic and 1/3 White with 90% of the students on free and reduced meals. They were asked to evaluate the written retellings to determine 1) the students knowledge of narrative text structure and 2) the students areas for growth in writing.

The following is the teachers description of the instructional methods for this activity:

This assessment consisted of the students listening to a narrative text, The Keeping Quilt or Amazing Grace then writing a retelling of the text. The students' retelling was analyzed using the Fine Retelling Rubric for Narrative Text. After the samples were scored, a plan of instruction was created. The plan consisted of instruction on the narrative elements. Two students who lacked an understanding in specific narrative elements were the focus of this study. The instructional plan consisted of each element being explicitly taught in detail and with examples discussed from within various narrative texts. As the lessons progressed, the students were asked to identify the narrative elements within specific texts. After several weeks of instruction on the elements, including modeling and guided practice, a post assessment, using the book Stellaluna was administered. The post-test retellings were also scored using the Fine Retelling Rubric for Narrative Text. The focus students scores improved. The students added more elements and details as well as utilized vocabulary from the story within their retellings. One students score increased by one and one half points and the other students score increased by four points

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Cristian, a low-performing student in third grade, wrote this retelling. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1. Cristians September retelling

What does he comprehend from the story? He has some characters. He did not include setting or problem. He knows the quilt is the main thread of the story. He does not say it is a symbol of back-home Russia that is an indication that he missed part of the gist. He realizes that English had to be learned which may be evidence of his ability to make personal connections since he, himself, is a second language learner. He does not show evidence of knowing text structure. By looking at the writing and using the rubric with the student one could say that a next step for instruction would be to address two elements, setting and problem, and to teach him to recognize the importance of using sequence or order in the retelling. His score is a 2.5 out of 12. (See Figure 2)

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Figure 2. Cristians September scored rubric

In November, after instruction in narrative text structure, Cristian was able to retell Stellaluna with more detail. (See Figure 3) Grammar is now more of a problem, but the story has more parts indicating better understanding of text structure and greater comprehension. After instruction in text structure, Cristian has a score of 6.5 on the rubric. (See Figure 4)

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Figure 3. Cristians November retelling

Figure 4. Cristians November scored rubric

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Another student, Tamar, was asked to write a retelling of Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. From the writing and the use of the rubric, we see evidence that she comprehends the beginnings of text structure. (See Figure 5.)

Figure 5. Tamars August retelling

Tamar scored a 7 out of 12 on the rubric for retelling of Amazing Grace. (See Figure 6.

Figure 6. Tamars August scored rubric.

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What should she have been taught next? In November, after instruction in text structure, Tamar