Chapter 3. Do children’s oral retellings of narrative and informational texts predict scores on a standardized reading comprehension test?
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Helen Chen Kingston
Abstract
This study assesses whether oral retellings of a narrative and informational text during the summer following third grade predicted performance on reading comprehension in the fall of fourth grade. To assess comprehension of a narrative and an informational text, 52 teachers called 117 third-grade students over the summer and asked them to provide an oral retelling of two books. All students were participating in a summer literacy intervention called READS for Summer Learning (READS). Oral retellings of narrative and informational books from the READS lessons were analyzed using content units, or individual units of meaning, from the books. We found that the percentage of total content units recalled on the narrative text was a predictor of narrative comprehension subtest scores, while the percentage of content units recalled on the informational text was not a significant predictor of informational comprehension subtest scores. This study lends further empirical evidence to the link between oral retellings of narrative texts and later reading comprehension and extends prior research by examining the possible link between both informational oral discourse skills and reading skills.
Abstract
This study assesses whether oral retellings of a narrative and informational text during the summer following third grade predicted performance on reading comprehension in the fall of fourth grade. To assess comprehension of a narrative and an informational text, 52 teachers called 117 third-grade students over the summer and asked them to provide an oral retelling of two books. All students were participating in a summer literacy intervention called READS for Summer Learning (READS). Oral retellings of narrative and informational books from the READS lessons were analyzed using content units, or individual units of meaning, from the books. We found that the percentage of total content units recalled on the narrative text was a predictor of narrative comprehension subtest scores, while the percentage of content units recalled on the informational text was not a significant predictor of informational comprehension subtest scores. This study lends further empirical evidence to the link between oral retellings of narrative texts and later reading comprehension and extends prior research by examining the possible link between both informational oral discourse skills and reading skills.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- About the authors xv
- Introduction to narrative, literacy and other skills 1
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Part I. The importance of oral narratives for literacy, language and socio-cognitive skills
- Chapter 1. The developing language foundation for reading comprehension 21
- Chapter 2. Storybooks to promote emergent literacy in kindergarten classrooms 43
- Chapter 3. Do children’s oral retellings of narrative and informational texts predict scores on a standardized reading comprehension test? 69
- Chapter 4. Does emotional narrative context influence retention of newly learned words? 91
- Chapter 5. Enhancing mental state language and emotion understanding of toddlers’ social cognition 109
- Chapter 6. The effects of bookreading with and without mental state themes on preschoolers’ theory of mind 129
- Chapter 7. Using narrative thinking in argumentative writing 151
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Part II. Promoting narrative skills
- Chapter 8. New frontiers in facilitating narrative skills in children and adolescents 173
- Chapter 9. Precursors of narrative abilities 201
- Chapter 10. Enriching parent-child discourse during book sharing 223
- Chapter 11. Investigating the effectiveness of the Our Story App to increase children’s narrative skills 245
- Chapter 12. Using a storytelling/story-acting practice to promote narrative and other decontextualized language skills in disadvantaged children 263
- Chapter 13. Promoting narratives through a short conversational intervention in typically-developing and high-functioning children with ASD 285
- Subject index 313
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- About the authors xv
- Introduction to narrative, literacy and other skills 1
-
Part I. The importance of oral narratives for literacy, language and socio-cognitive skills
- Chapter 1. The developing language foundation for reading comprehension 21
- Chapter 2. Storybooks to promote emergent literacy in kindergarten classrooms 43
- Chapter 3. Do children’s oral retellings of narrative and informational texts predict scores on a standardized reading comprehension test? 69
- Chapter 4. Does emotional narrative context influence retention of newly learned words? 91
- Chapter 5. Enhancing mental state language and emotion understanding of toddlers’ social cognition 109
- Chapter 6. The effects of bookreading with and without mental state themes on preschoolers’ theory of mind 129
- Chapter 7. Using narrative thinking in argumentative writing 151
-
Part II. Promoting narrative skills
- Chapter 8. New frontiers in facilitating narrative skills in children and adolescents 173
- Chapter 9. Precursors of narrative abilities 201
- Chapter 10. Enriching parent-child discourse during book sharing 223
- Chapter 11. Investigating the effectiveness of the Our Story App to increase children’s narrative skills 245
- Chapter 12. Using a storytelling/story-acting practice to promote narrative and other decontextualized language skills in disadvantaged children 263
- Chapter 13. Promoting narratives through a short conversational intervention in typically-developing and high-functioning children with ASD 285
- Subject index 313
