Krystina Madej

One Narrative Norm – Language Arts Curriculum in North America

(From Chapter 4. Perspectives on Narrative in Characteristics of Early Narrative Experience: Connecting Print and Digital Game, SFU 2007)

Classic narrative structure is taught across North America as well as in English-speaking countries such as England and Australia in the educational system’s language arts curriculum. One aim of curriculum developers is to make “independent and fluent” readers who are familiar with conventional narrative structure.[1] The process of developing this familiarity continues throughout elementary school and can be seen in examples that I examined from English Language programs in Georgia, Illinois, and Washington State in the U.S. and the Province of Ontario and the Western Protocol (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, and (at the time) Northwest Territories) in Canada.[2] These programs show a progressive approach to introducing narrative structure in the elementary years. To support teachers in delivering curriculum materials, resources such as the Oral Resource Book and the Writing Resource Book, developed by the First Steps Program, are used by both public and private schools teachers in Australia, England, Canada, and the U.S.[3] In addition publishing teacher resources, educational publishing companies such as Pearson Education provide “leveled books for guided reading” through programs such as “Ginn Reading Steps.”[4] These books take advantage of the same progressive approach to developing an understanding of traditional narrative structure.

Curriculums in programs across the continent show evidence of a common ground. Learning outcomes are similar, though they may be categorized differently and identified or named differently. In addition, concepts are introduced to children at slightly different ages. The learning outcomes range from concept driven general outcomes – “enhance the clarity and artistry of communication” (Western Protocol) – to specific outcomes – “distinguish between fact and opinion” (Washington State). The purpose of the review is not to compare programs but to note the language used in reference to story and story elements and identify how story was progressively introduced throughout the grades with regards to the concept of traditional narrative and elements of its structure. With its highly specific approach to identifying outcomes, the Washington program provided the most useful (and easily identifiable) examples of language arts teachings grounding children in conventional narrative mores.[5]

Washington State’s Reading Grade-Level Expectations provides a precisely identified set of expectations that help teachers guide children through the process of understanding text. Very comprehensive, the guide divides learning outcomes into thirteen categories that are age dependent. The assumption of a traditional structure is most obviously seen in Component 2.2, a component in all the grades, which speaks to the need for children to “Understand and apply knowledge of text components to comprehend text.” Within this category there are two areas that most interest us: “Understanding story sequence” and “Understanding story elements.” The complete progression of outcomes in these categories from Kindergarten to Grade Five is shown in Appendix C.1. Figure 3.5 shows the skills that can most obviously be associated with the concept of the traditional narrative. Briefly, the program takes children from retelling stories using “beginning, middle, and end” in kindergarten to identifying “the major actions that define the plot and how actions lead to conflict or resolution” in Grade Five.

Figure 4.3. Language Arts story structure curriculum

Kindergarten

· Retell familiar stories using a beginning, middle, and end.

Grade One

· Retell stories with correct sequence of events.

Grade Two

· Retell text focusing on the problem or events in sequence.

· Recognize and use sentences, paragraphs, and chapter structure to understand the organization in both informational/expository text and literary/narrative text

Grade Three

· Understand sequence in informational/expository text and literary/narrative text.

· Explain story ideas or events in sequential order.

Grade Four

· Recognize and explain literary/narrative text written out of sequence

· Identify the main events in a plot, including the cause and effect relationship in problem solving.

· Identify and use text written in the text organizational structures of cause and effect and order of importance to find and organize information and comprehend text.

Grade Five

· Identify the major actions that define the plot and how actions lead to conflict or resolution.

The other programs surveyed have similar learning objectives. The Western Protocol program outcome under “Understand Forms and Techniques” for Grade One reads, “relate or represent the beginning, middle, and end of a variety of texts.” For Grade Three it reads, “identify the sequence of events in a variety of texts, the time and place in which they occur, and the roles of main characters.”

The Ontario Language Curriculum expectations for Grade One include “organize information so that the writing conveys a clear message (e.g. describe events in the proper sequence: We went to see the dog. I liked him very much. We took him home on the bus).” In Grade Two children will “organize ideas in a logical sequence (e.g. write stories that have a beginning, middle, and end).”

The Cobb County School District (Georgia) Student Literacy Expectations for Kindergarten include “sequence pictures to tell a story.” In Grade One they should be able to “include beginning and end of story” when writing. By Grade Three they will “recognize explicit and implicit cause and effect relationships in short selections.”

The Champaign School District (Illinois) has a reading and writing timeline for students that is more ambitious, requiring that kindergarteners be able to “use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas (e.g., focus on one topic; organize writing to include a beginning, middle and end; use descriptive words when writing about people, places things, events). Reading goals for the end of Grade One include being able to “identify the literary elements of theme, setting, plot, and character within literary works.” In Grade Two students will “Give complete story retelling with characters, setting, problem, events, and conclusion.” By Grade Four students will “Describe how literary elements (theme, character, setting, plot, tone, conflict) are used in literature to create meaning.”

The Champaign School District provides descriptions and examples of the type of books children progress through on their way to becoming the silent reader mentioned at the beginning of this section. The district provides characteristics of books in level A & B (kindergarten) some of which are: “single idea or simple story line, print clearly separated from pictures, most books have 1-4 lines of text per page.” Characteristics of books in level M (end of Grade Two) include: “long, with lots of text per page, smaller print, and narrower word spacing.”

In addition to curriculum outcomes that provide for a grounding in “traditional narrative structure,” resources for teachers such as Rigby Heinemann’s Oral Language Resource Book do so as well. Appendix C.2 provides an excerpt from the Resource Book that presents what is recognized by educators as a child’s “Beginning, Developing, Consolidating, and Expanding” understanding of narrative. This curriculum takes children from little or no understanding of organization and sequencing of narrative elements to understanding “all elements of narrative structure… setting, problem and resolution.”[6]

Once children are thoroughly indoctrinated in a traditional structure they are introduced to new genres and alternative structures, particularly in middle and high schools. Indeed, exploration of new and different structures is often encouraged. The structures are, however, considered to be divergent from a textual norm.

At a university level, where the study of non-conforming literature is more than likely the norm, the convention of the linear climactic plot still defines the foundation on which much critical analysis is based. University narrative courses references such as Michael Toolan’s Narrative, A critical linguistic introduction, and Nick Lacey’s Narrative and Genre: Key Concepts in Media Studies reinforce this idea. Toolan sees “sequenced and interrelated events” and “crisis to resolution progression” as defining features of narrative.[7] Lacey writes, “What distinguishes narrative from other forms is that it presents information as a connected sequence of events. The most basic narratives are linear sequences… moreover this sequence is not random; it structured logically. Most narratives structure their sequences causally, each event logically follows on from the previous one; each event causes the next one….”[8]

Web-based resources are now commonplace for all levels of education. In university settings where students work more independently of the education system, they are probably as influential in students’ language arts education as are print resources, if not more so. Numerous sites exist to help students understand narrative; these sites reinforce the norm. Sites such as RSCC Online Writing Lab under Short Stories/Novel, for instance, provides explications of literary terms. This site defines Plot as “The arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story” which consists of attributes that follow traditional narrative structure closely:[9]

▪ Causality – One event occurs because of another event

▪ Foreshadowing – A suggestion of what is going to happen

▪ Suspense – A sense of worry established by the author

▪ Conflict – Struggle between opposing forces

▪ Exposition – Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot

▪ Complication or Rising Action – Intensification of conflict

▪ Crisis – Turning point; moment of great tension that fixes the action.

▪ Resolution/Denouement – The way the story turns out.

Along with the resources specific to Language Arts curriculum, there are also general resources for children’s literature such as Children and Books by Zena Sutherland and May Hill Arbuthnot. Used as a resource for college and university children’s literature courses, books such as this compendium provide a comprehensive introduction to children’s books in print. Sutherland and Arbuthnot give educators an overview of different literary genres, from ABC’s for young children to historical fiction for adolescent readers, and suggest ways to approach teaching literature to children. They remind teachers that “Books are written for children, but adults buy them,” and that standards for evaluating the quality of books both for pleasure and for educational purposes are helpful to educators.[10] There is, on the one level, the need to look at a book with “mind and heart, interest and sympathy,”[11] and on the other, to go beyond the emotional response and examine the elements which produce the response. Sutherland and Arbuthnot identify these as setting, character, plot, theme, style, and point-of-view. In describing plot, they follow the classical narrative structure:

A plot is basically a series of actions that move in related sequence to a logical outcome; if there is no sequence or interaction, the book may have a series of episodes rather than a plot or a story line. Simple as it sounds, a story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. First the author must set the stage. Then, to have development and momentum, a plot needs conflict, opposition, or a problem. Last there should be a definitive ending: a climax of action or even a strong indication of future resolution. [12]

Plots for young children are simple and generally without subplots, while for older children plots are more complex and may have “many threads.” In the teacher resource book, Literature and the Child, Bernice Cullinen also presents a traditional outlook on narrative structure:

The narrative is developed through the plot – the temporal events or actions that lead to the solution of the problem – progresses to a climax, or solution to the problem, and ends with a resolution, or closure to the story. [13]

Cullinen also states that setting, characterization, plot, and theme are the important basic elements to consider when evaluating books.[14] These are but two of the resources available for educators that reinforce the standard of a traditional narrative structure in children’s literature.

We can see from the preceding examples that from the time they enter school, and throughout their language arts education, children are progressively taught that the traditional standard for story is a linear sequence that presents events progressing to a climax and ending with resolution and closure. By the time they are young adults and their language arts education is complete, children have been thoroughly indoctrinated into the belief that such a narrative structure is both traditional and the norm. Seymour Chatham, in Story and Discourse, reaffirms that certain narrative conventions are naturalized by audiences who absorb the convention and forget that it is a convention.[15] This naturalizing phenomenon is another reason that has led to western society’s current affirmation of the Aristotle/Freytag model as our traditional narrative structure.

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[1] The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: Language. Toronto, Ontario: Ministry of Education and Training, 1997. p. 27.

[2] I had direct experience and was familiar with language arts curriculum in Illinois, Georgia, and B.C. After a search of what was readily available for review via the internet I chose two additional programs that were well structured and in which narrative goals were easy to understand, Ontario and Washington State. The sites can be accessed at: Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington State at http://www.k12.wa.us/, English/Language Arts – CUSD #4 at http://www.champaignschools.org/, Language Arts – Pacesetter English at http:// www.picasso.cobbk12org/, The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1- 8, Language at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language.html, and The Common Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts, Kindergarten to Grade 12 from the Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education at http://www.wncp.ca/ela/ela.html

[3] These books are part of the Rigby-Heinemann, Harcourt Education roster of teacher resources. See http://www.harcourteducation.com/au/contact.htm

[4] Resources are available for both teachers (study guides) and students (story books) and are grade related. See http://www.pearsoned.ca/school/LanguageArts/grs.html

[5] To its credit, this program also identifies alternatives through inclusive language such as the note, “Story telling order can differ between cultures. For example, in some cultures the end of the story is told first,” that is included with the “Understand story sequence” category.

[6] Allen, Leanne. Oral Language: Resource Book. First Steps:Education Department of Western Australia. Port Melbourne, Australia: Ridby Heinemann, A Division of Harcourt Education, 2004. This is one of a number of language resource books that is used by the kindergarten teacher who participated in the observation at Mulgrave School, West Vancouver, BC, Canada. Introduced to the series while teaching kindergarten in London, England she has adapted it for use with BC’s Language Arts curriculum..

[7] Toolan. Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction. p. 8.

[8] Lacey. Narrative and Genre: Key Concepts in Media Studies. p. 9.

[9] http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/ElementsLit.html

[10] Sutherland, Zena, and May Hill Arbuthnot. Children and Books. 8th edition ed. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991. p. 35.

[11] Sutherland. Children and Books. p. 37.

[12] Sutherland. Children and Books. p. 42.

[13] Cullinan, Bernice E., and Lee Galda. Literature and the Child. 4th ed. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1981. p. 6.

[14] Cullinan. Literature and the Child.

[15] Chatman. Story and Discourse, Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film.