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Oral Inferential

Comprehension
Intervention

An intervention programme aimed at improving oral


inferential comprehension of narratives in young children
with developmental language disorder.

Dr Emily Dawes
Associate Professor Suze Leitão
Dr Mary Claessen

This programme was designed and evaluated as part of doctoral research


completed at Curtin University in 2015. The thesis containing the research is
located open access here:
https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/56528
While this intervention programme is freely available for clinicians and
researchers to use, please respect our work and do not copy or adapt the
intervention sessions or resources without acknowledging the authors as the
intervention programme is copyright protected.

Edition 4 of the intervention was uploaded and made available on the19th


September 2019
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Contents

Contents ................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 4
Aims ...................................................................................................................... 4
Intensity and duration ............................................................................................ 4
Theoretical rationale .............................................................................................. 5
Research evidence ................................................................................................ 5
Intervention Principles ........................................................................................... 6
Resources and materials ....................................................................................... 8
Assessment and Measuring Progress ................................................................... 9
Things to remember............................................................................................... 9
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................. 10
Contact ................................................................................................................ 10
Narrative 1: The Very Brave Bear ........................................................................... 11
Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis ............................................................. 11
Character feelings to explore: .............................................................................. 11
Tier 2 Vocabulary: ............................................................................................... 11
The Very Brave Bear Session 1 ........................................................................... 13
The Very Brave Bear Session 2 ........................................................................... 16
The Very Brave Bear Session 3 ........................................................................... 20
The Very Brave Bear Session 4 ........................................................................... 23
Narrative 2: Monkey Puzzle .................................................................................... 25
Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis ............................................................. 25
Character feelings to explore: .............................................................................. 25
Tier 2 Vocabulary: ............................................................................................... 26
Monkey Puzzle Session 1 .................................................................................... 27
Monkey Puzzle Session 2 .................................................................................... 30
Monkey Puzzle Session 3 .................................................................................... 34
Monkey Puzzle Session 4 .................................................................................... 36
Narrative 3: Giraffes Can’t Dance ........................................................................... 38
Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis ............................................................. 38

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Character feelings to explore: .............................................................................. 38


Tier 2 Vocabulary ................................................................................................ 38
Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 1 ........................................................................... 40
Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 2 ........................................................................... 43
Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 3 ........................................................................... 47
Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 4 ........................................................................... 50
Narrative 4: The Gruffalo......................................................................................... 52
Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis ............................................................. 52
Tier 2 Vocabulary ................................................................................................ 53
The Gruffalo Session 1 ........................................................................................ 54
The Gruffalo Session 2 ........................................................................................ 57
The Gruffalo Session 3 ........................................................................................ 63
The Gruffalo Session 4 ........................................................................................ 66
Resources .............................................................................................................. 69
‘Work it Out...’ Thinking Poster ............................................................................ 70
Emotions brainstorm ............................................................................................ 71
Predictions brainstorm ......................................................................................... 72
References ............................................................................................................. 73

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Introduction

This document contains 16 session plans for a small group oral inferential
comprehension intervention designed, implemented, and evaluated by speech-
language pathologist Emily Dawes as part of her PhD research supervised by
Associate Professor Suze Leitão and Dr Mary Claessen at Curtin University in Perth,
Western Australia. The intervention programme is delivered in the book sharing
context and is based on thirteen intervention principles (see p. 5-7), which were
developed based on a literature review and the results of a study which investigated
the skills underlying oral inferential comprehension in young children with
developmental language disorder (Dawes, Leitão, Claessen, & Kane, 2018; Dawes,
2017).

Aims

This intervention is designed to support and improve oral inferential comprehension


of narratives in young children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The
intervention is provided in the naturalistic context of book sharing using both implicit
and explicit intervention strategies to target:
 Inferential comprehension of narratives,
 Literal comprehension of narratives,
 Narrative retelling,
 Vocabulary, and
 Theory of mind.

Intensity and duration

The intervention is designed to be provided by one clinician or educator to a small


group of 3 to 4 children. There are 16 sessions in total. The recommended intensity
and duration of the intervention is two, 30 minute sessions per week over eight
weeks.
The programme can be adapted for use with larger groups of children, and with
children in mainstream school settings. However, the intervention has not yet been
evaluated with larger groups of children, in mainstream settings, or with other age
groups. As such, we encourage clinicians and educators to collect assessment data

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to measure progress and evaluate the effectiveness of the programme for any
children who participate in the intervention.

Theoretical rationale

Narrative retelling skills, literal comprehension, vocabulary, and theory of mind are
important skills which support inferential comprehension in children with DLD (Currie
& Cain, 2015; Dawes, Leitão, Claessen, & Kane, 2018; Dawes, 2017; Norbury &
Bishop, 2002; Silva & Cain, 2015). As such, targeting these skills is hypothesised to
improve oral inferential comprehension. Additionally, targeting discourse-level
language (narrative retelling, and inferential and literal comprehension) is
hypothesised to promote the development of well-specified schemas. Schemas
provide the organisation which allows an individual to understand and remember a
text and, as such, narrative comprehension and retelling ability reflect narrative
schemas (Bishop, 2014; van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983). Repeated and consistent
exposure to, and engagement in, inferential and literal comprehension and narrative
retelling should therefore increase the variety, structure, accessibility and,
robustness of an individual’s schemas, therefore supporting inferential
comprehension.

Research evidence

The intervention was evaluated in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) (Dawes,


Leitão, Claessen, & Kane, 2019; Dawes, 2017). Thirty-seven, 5 to 6 year old children
with DLD took part. The children were randomly allocated to the inferential
comprehension intervention or a control intervention. The intervention was found to
be effective at improving oral inferential comprehension across the narrative context
(as assessed by both a repeated narrative comprehension measure and a
generalisation narrative comprehension measure), and the improvement was
maintained two months following the intervention. The participants were assessed
using the Squirrel Story Narrative Comprehension Assessment (NCA) and the Peter
and the Cat Narrative Comprehension Assessment (NCA) (freely downloadable, see
Black Sheep Press website or
https://www.languageandliteracyinyoungpeople.com/apps-resources) (Dawes,
Leitão, Claessen, & Black Sheep Press Ltd, 2018a, 2018b; Dawes, 2017).

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Intervention Principles

The intervention is based on the following principles.


Intervention Principle References

1 Ensure that intervention is focused at the Dawes, 2017


discourse-level. Focus on narrative retelling Dawes, Leitão,
(macrostructure and microstructure) ability, in Claessen, & Kane
addition to literal and inferential narrative (2018)
comprehension, to support the development of Gillam et al. (2012)
well-structured and coherent narrative schemas. van Dijk & Kintsch
(1983)

2 Use dialogic book-sharing with scripted literal Desmarais et al. (2013)


and inferential questions embedded during van Kleeck (2006)
reading of a text. van Kleeck et al. (2006)

3 Use a range of open-ended inferential Dunst et al. (2012)


comprehension questions (causal, informative, Paris & Paris (2007)
evaluative) to promote inferential thinking and Spencer Kelley et al.
discussion about narratives. (2015)
van Kleeck (2008)
van Kleeck et al. (2006)

4 Integrate developmentally appropriate theory of Dawes, 2017


mind skills in questioning and discussion, Dawes, Leitão,
including predicting thoughts, feelings, and Claessen, & Kane
behaviours, and linking feelings to prior (2018)
experiences. Westby & Robinson
(2014)

5 Use think-alouds to model appropriate Beck & McKeown (2001)


comprehension processes and to prompt children McClintock et al. (2014)
to engage in inferential thinking (e.g. I think..., I McGee & Schickedanz
wonder...). (2007)
Paris & Paris (2007)
van Kleeck (2008)

6 Relate the story and events within the story to Culatta et al. (2010)
children’s personal experiences and make Dunst et al. (2012)
predictions. Spencer Kelley et al.
(2015)

Focus on meta-narrative awareness by explicitly Westerveld & Gillon


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unpacking story grammar elements, discussing (2008)
what makes a ‘good’ story, and encouraging
children to monitor their own and others’ retelling of
stories in terms of whether all story grammar
elements were included.

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8 Use scaffolding techniques to support children to Desmarais et al. (2013)


respond to inferential comprehension questions, Paris & Paris (2007)
including rephrasing the question, providing van Kleeck (2006)
semantic and phonemic cues, and using cloze Westerveld & Gillon
sentences. (2008)

9 Use graphic organisers, via the use of story Dexter & Hughes (2011)
grammar elements and sketches, to create a story Idol (1987)
map to assist children in understanding, Kim et al. (2004)
remembering, and recalling the story structure. Paris & Paris (2007)
Ukrainetz (1998)
Westerveld & Gillon
(2008)

10 Establish and maintain an explicit focus on Dunning (1992)


inferential comprehension by alerting children to Paris & Paris (2007)
the use of inferencing skills and making van Kleeck (2006, 2008)
learning goals explicit.

11 Use stories containing well-defined story Beck & McKeown (2007)


structure, higher level vocabulary, and Beck et al. (2002)
emotions, whilst providing exposure to literate Dawes, 2017
language, and embed discussion of higher level Dawes, Leitão,
(Tier II) vocabulary during book-sharing. Claessen, & Kane
(2018)
Gillam et al. (2012)
Hickman et al. (2004)
Spencer Kelley et al.
(2015)
Westerveld & Gillon
(2008)

12 Ensure that book-sharing is engaging by Dunst et al. (2012)


increasing the salience of naturalistic book-sharing Kaderavek & Justice
strategies (e.g. facial expression, tone of voice, (2002)
volume, balance of comments and questions, etc). Paris & Paris (2007)
van Kleeck (2008)

13 Use of repeated reading of story books. Gillam et al. (2012)


Morrow & Brittain (2003)
Spencer et al. (2013)
Spencer Kelley et al.
(2015)
Strouse et al. (2013)

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Resources and materials

The intervention has been designed to be easily implemented by clinicians (speech


language pathologists/therapists) and educators using resources and materials that
are either readily available in clinical practice or easy to acquire. The essential
resources and materials for the intervention include:
 Narratives: The intervention is based on four story books. A copy of each
narrative is essential to carry out the intervention 1. The narratives are:
o Bland, N. (2013). The Very Brave Bear. Lindfield, Australia: Scholastic
Press.
o Donaldson, J., & Scheffler, A. (2000). Monkey Puzzle. London,
England: Macmillan Children's Books.
o Andreae, G., & Parker-Rees, G. (2000). Giraffes Can't Dance. London,
England: Orchard Books.
o Donaldson, J., & Scheffler, A. (2001). The Gruffalo. London, England:
Macmillan Children's Books.
 Story grammar icons: The Story Grammar Marker® narrative
macrostructure icons from Braidy the StoryBraid ® (Moreau & Zagula, 2002)
are used in this intervention. These could be substituted by any story
grammar icons that the children receiving the intervention are familiar with,
but the icons used must include initiating event, character plan, and feelings.
 Paper and marker/s. A3 paper (or similar) and at least one marker / texta /
felt pen are required to draw the story maps and write the students’ ideas on
the feelings and plan brainstorm pages. A printer and A3 paper will be
required to print the feelings and plan brainstorm pages.
Optional resources and materials include:
 ‘Work it out...’ thinking poster: a ‘working it out thinking’ poster was used in
the intervention study as a visual reminder of inferencing (see the Resources
section). ‘Working it out thinking’ was used as a child-friendly phrase to make
the focus on inferential comprehension explicit.
 Story telling wand: a story telling wand can be used to point to each part of
the story map (a similar resource such as a hat or cloak could also be used).
Children can take turns to point to parts of the story map during group retells
once they have practiced the story a few times.

1
If these narratives are unavailable or the intervention programme is being adapted to be
implemented with a different age group (or population), different books may be used. However,
please note the intervention has not been evaluated with different narratives. The selected narratives
should adhere to the intervention principles (see principle 11).

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 Reward system: Clinicians and educators may like to use their own reward
system (e.g. chart and stickers) for listening, attention, and participation in
intervention sessions.

Assessment and Measuring Progress

As mentioned, the Squirrel Story NCA and the Peter and the Cat NCA were used to
evaluate the intervention programme (Dawes, Leitão, et al., 2018a, 2018b). The
Narrative Comprehension Assessment tasks provide total scores for both inferential
and literal narrative comprehension and can be used to measure progress (e.g. pre-
to post- intervention). The assessments are freely downloadable from the Black
Sheep Press website (a purchased copy of the narrative retell assessment in hard
copy or the iPad app are required to administer the NCAs). Normative reference data
for the NCAs have been collected and will be published in the near future (Dawes,
Leitão, Claessen, & Lingoh, 2019).
Dawes, E., Leitão, S., Claessen, M., & Black Sheep Press Ltd. (2018a). Peter and the Cat Narrative
Comprehension Assessment (NCA). Retrieved from
https://www.blacksheeppress.co.uk/product/peter-cat-narrative-comprehension-assessment-
nca/
Dawes, E., Leitão, S., Claessen, M., & Black Sheep Press Ltd. (2018b). The Squirrel Story Narrative
Comprehension Assessment (NCA). Retrieved from
https://www.blacksheeppress.co.uk/product/squirrel-story-narrative-comprehension-
assessment-nca/
Dawes, E., Leitão, S., Claessen, M., & Lingoh, C. (2019). Oral literal and inferential narrative
comprehension in young typically developing children and children with developmental
language disorder. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(3).
doi:10.1080/17549507.2019.1604803

Things to remember

Book sharing: The session plans in this intervention provide guide scripts to follow
for each intervention session. The scripts provided for each book share are to be
used as a guide, and additional think alouds, comments, and questions should
also be used during each book share. It is very important that think alouds,
comments, and questions adhere to book sharing strategies (see Principle 12) -
book sharing should be naturalistic and engaging.
Narrative retelling: While it is important to encourage children to join in narrative
retelling practice during sessions, it is not essential for children to express the
whole retell as the primary focus of this programme is not narrative expression. The
clinician should model the retelling and simply encourage the children to join in. After
practicing the retell a few times (e.g. twice), and once the children are becoming

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more familiar with the story, the clinician can ask a child to point to each part in the
story map to help the group retelling (e.g. with the use of a story telling wand). This
can be a useful reward for participation.
Narrative macrostructure: The narrative macrostructure analyses and retelling
script are provided as a guide. Some components of each macrostructure analysis
are not explicitly stated in the narrative (e.g. elements of setting, feelings, plan, etc).
These should be discussed with children (as per the guide session scripts) during
the story map creation.
Session Timing: Clinicians and educators may find that flexibility with the timing of
sessions is needed (e.g. if all parts of the first session have been covered in less
than 30 minutes, clinicians/educators may want to move on to cover parts of the
story map from the second session plan).

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to everyone who has helped with the development of this intervention
programme – particularly to Suze and Mary for their supervision and to the wonderful
students with developmental language disorder who participated in the randomised
controlled trial. Thank you to Black Sheep Press Ltd. for their generosity in providing
the pictures used in the resources (illustrated by Helen Rippon). Thank you to Curtin
University and the Australian Government Research Training Program for supporting
the doctoral research during which this intervention was developed.

Contact

If you have any questions about the intervention please contact Emily Dawes (email:
emily.dawes@graduate.curtin.edu.au, Twitter: @EmilyDawesSLP) or contact Emily,
Suze or Mary via https://www.languageandliteracyinyoungpeople.com/contact.

Dawes, E. C. (2017). The hidden language skill: oral inferential comprehension in children with
developmental language disorder. (Doctor of Philosophy), Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
Retrieved from https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/56528
Dawes, E., Leitão, S., Claessen, M., & Kane, R. (2018). A profile of the language and cognitive skills
contributing to oral inferential comprehension in young children with developmental language
disorder. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 53(6), 1139-1149.
doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12427
Dawes, E., Leitão, S., Claessen, M., & Kane, R. (2019). A randomized controlled trial of an oral
inferential comprehension intervention for young children with developmental language
disorder. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 35(1), 39-54.
doi:10.1177/0265659018815736

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Narrative 1: The Very Brave Bear

Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis


Who: Bear
Where: in the jingle jangle jungle on the edge of a slimy bog
When: One day/once upon a time
Initiating event: Bear was picking berries when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud and
Bear fell off his wobbly log
Internal response: Bear felt scared and surprised because he did not know that Boris was
in the mud
Plan: so Bear decided to show Boris that he was just as brave, ‘I’m just as brave as you, the
bravest thing you can do, I can do it too!’
Attempt/Action: Bear did a double somersault and splashed into the slimy bog
Attempt/Action: Bear climbed up the tallest tree he could find and Boris climbed right
behind, ‘that was easy’ said Boris
Attempt/Action: Boris wandered up and tumbled down the steepest hill he could find and
Bear was right behind, ‘that was easy, I’m just as brave as you’ said Bear
Attempt/Action: Bear and Boris crossed a racing river
Attempt/Action: Bear and Boris swung between the trees
Attempt/Action: Bear and Boris tried to catch a porcupine
Attempt/Action: Bear and Boris tried to wear a beard of bees
Initiating event: Bear and Boris came across a very scary cave and heard a ‘roar’
Internal response: Bear and Boris both felt very scared because they thought that there
was a terrible creature in the cave
Plan: so they decided not to go in the cave and ran away instead
Attempt/Action: from inside the cave came a tiny little frog, ‘I didn’t mean to scare you’ said
the frog and invited Bear and Boris inside the cave
Direct consequence / resolution: in the end Bear and Boris felt pleased and relieved
because they agreed that they were equally as brave.

Character feelings to explore: scared/frightened, brave

Tier 2 Vocabulary:
Slimy – muddy, oozy, slippery
Grin – smile
Brave – to not show fear (show courage), ready to face danger/pain

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Somersault – to turn in the air


Mighty – very great strength/power
Pleasant – happy, nice, good
Steep – rising/falling sharply (almost straight)
Boast – talking with pride about what you have done
Hurry – to go quickly
Agreed – to have the same view/opinion as someone else
Equally – the same

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The Very Brave Bear Session 1

Goals:
1. To activate students’ background knowledge to assist with narrative comprehension.
2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential
comprehension of the narrative.
3. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.

Narrative: ‘The Very Brave Bear’ by Nick Bland

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘We are going to read a story. Let’s have a look at the front cover (show front ‘The Very
Pre-story cover). Can anyone guess who the story is about?... (provide a think aloud if Brave
knowledge no child provides an idea, e.g. I think that the story is about a bear and a Bear’
activation buffalo, what do you think?).’ narrative
 Link to prior knowledge: have you seen a bear / buffalo before? Where?
2 - 5 mins When? Where do you think the bear and buffalo live? What do you think
might happen in the story? (prediction – use visual clues, bear/buffalo
have back to each other, arms crossed, facial expressions).
 What do you think the title of the story could be? ... The story is called
‘The Very Brave Bear’ and it was written by Nick Bland.
‘Now we are going to read the story together!’ ‘The Very
Book  Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and model Brave
sharing inferential thinking: Bear’
(first page) ‘the log looks very wobbly, I wonder if bear will fall off!..’ narrative
10 mins (second page) ‘Bear looks so surprised and scared ... I don’t think he
knew Boris Buffalo was in the mud!...’
(on the tree) ‘I think Bear feels grumpy because Boris was just as brave
as him climbing up the tree!
(at hill) ‘I wonder what they will do next...?’ Use clue from the text to
predict – going back into the jungle (and link with conjunction ‘because’).
(at bees) ‘wow, they are both very brave! Who do you think will be the
bravest?’
(at cave) ‘I wonder if they will go into the cave. What do you think?....’
(running away) ‘I think Bear and Boris look so frightened! They are not
brave now! I wonder what is in the cave...?’
(when frog appears) ‘I think they feel so relieved because it was only a
little frog in the cave!’
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – do this during every re-
read of the narrative. Discuss throughout and explain meaning or ask
children what the words mean:
Slimy – muddy, oozy, slippery
Grin – smile
Brave – to not show fear (show courage), ready to face danger/pain

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Somersault - to turn in the air


Mighty – very great strength/power
Pleasant – happy, nice, good
Steep – rising/falling sharply (almost straight)
Boast – talking with pride about what you have done
Hurry – to go quickly
Agreed – to have the same view/opinion as someone else
Equally – the same
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to build a story map – ask *‘The
Build story literal and inferential questions and model inferential thinking, map story Very
map components to narrative icons. Alert to inferential thinking by using the Brave
phrase ‘we are going to WORK OUT...’. Bear’
15 mins Print out a story map template with narrative icons or, as you discuss each narrative
story grammar element, draw the matching narrative icon on an A3 page and * A3
use arrows () to map to the next story component. Draw a quick picture paper
(‘sketch’ – discuss what this is) next to the icon. * marker /
‘We are going to practice telling this story so we can become good story texta
tellers. Good story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well
as special words like the character’s feelings which make the story
interesting! Being a good story teller also helps us to understand stories
better. We are going to help ourselves remember what happens in the story
by making a story map using our story icons and drawing sketches of what
happens (a sketch is a really quick drawing). The story map will help our
brains to make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to start a
story map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the first page.
 Show the children the setting icon for when. ‘WHEN do you think the
story took place?’ – accept any reasonable response and discuss why
(e.g. it is not dark so probably not night time). One day/once upon a time
- Let’s stick our WHEN icon at the top of the page, and I am going to draw
a quick sketch of X (a sun, a book) to help us remember WHEN the story
took place’.
 Show children the character icon. ‘WHO is the main character in the
story?’ – Bear. Use visual prompt if needed (have a look at the picture to
help you remember). ‘Bear! Let’s stick our WHO icon next to the WHEN
icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of bear to
help us remember. Who else is in the story?’. Discuss and use pictures in
narrative as support (Boris buffalo, tiny frog).
 Show the children the setting icon for where. ‘WHERE do Bear and Boris
Buffalo live?’ – discuss responses and refer to visual clues (e.g. plants,
trees, bog/mud). ‘In the jingle jangle jungle! Let’s stick our WHERE icon
on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of a jungle to
help us remember where the story took place’.
 Show the children the kick-off icon (turn to appropriate page in the
narrative). ‘What do you think the kick-off was in the story?’ Provide

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support if needed (cloze-sentence- Bear was picking berries when Boris


Buffalo jumped....). ’The kick-off was that Boris Buffalo jumped out of the
mud and Bear fell off his wobbly log! Let’s stick our kick-off icon on our
story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of Boris Buffalo jumping
out of the mud and Bear falling off his log to help us remember what the
kick-off is.’
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). Alert to inferential
thinking – ‘Now we’re going to talk about feelings. We’re going to WORK
OUT how the characters were feeling!’ ‘How do you think that Bear felt
when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud?’ Discuss feelings (scared,
surprised) and provide think-aloud for support (I think that Bear felt
scared because he had did not know that Boris was in the mud, what do
you think?). Briefly discuss physical, visual clues (eyes wide, eyebrows
up, lost balance/fell off log) ‘Bear felt scared because he did not know
that Boris was in the mud. Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story
map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of Bear with a scared face to
help us remember how he felt’.
 Turn to the second page of the book. Show the children the plan icon.
Alert to inferential thinking – ‘Now we know how the characters feel, we’re
going to WORK OUT what they plan to do next!’ ‘What did Boris Buffalo
say to Bear?....(discuss) ‘I didn’t mean to scare you!’ and what did Bear
say back? ..(discuss)..’I wasn’t even scared!’ So what was Bear’s PLAN?’
Discuss the plan, provide think-aloud for support (I think that the plan
was....). ‘So Bear decided to show Boris that he was brave – he said ‘I’m
just as brave as you. The bravest thing you can do, I can do it too!’ Let’s
stick our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick
sketch of Boris with a speech bubble to help us remember what the plan
was’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for The Very Brave Bear! What was our goal *‘The
Retell the today? (to start a story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Very
story We are going to work on it some more next time, but first we are going to Brave
2 - 5 mins practice telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then we’ll tell it Bear’
together...’ narrative
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map) with the children. * Story
e.g. One day (when) there was bear (who) who lived in the jungle (where). map
Bear was picking berries when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud and
Bear fell off his wobbly log (kick-off). Bear felt scared because he did not
know that Boris was in the mud (internal response), so he decided to show
Boris that he was brave, ‘I’m just as brave as you. The bravest thing you can
do, I can do it too!’ he said! (plan)

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The Very Brave Bear Session 2

Goals:
1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential
comprehension of the narrative.
2. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.
3. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements.

Narrative: ‘The Very Brave Bear’ by Nick Bland

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we talked about last time?... That’s right, The Very ‘The Very
Book Brave Bear! Who remembers what the kick-off was?...(provide cloze Brave
sharing sentence as prompt: Bear was picking berries when....) yes, the kick-off was Bear’
narrative
that bear was picking berries when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud
5 - 10 mins
and bear fell off his log! Who remembers how he felt? (provide phonemic cue
as prompt: he felt scar...) He felt scared! Poor bear! So what did he decide to
do?...he decided to show Boris Buffalo that he was just as brave! We are
going to read the story again to help us remember what happened, so we
can finish our Very Brave Bear story map and practice our story telling!’
 Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and ask
inferential questions:
(at kick-off) ‘why did Boris Buffalo jump out of the mud?’ (discuss reasons
– to see if Bear wanted to come in –play/chat/have fun together).
(swinging through trees) ‘why did Bear do all these things like crossing
the river and swinging through trees?’ Link to prior knowledge (he wanted
to show Boris that he was brave)
(at cave) ‘Bear and Boris look so scared and frightened.. I wonder who
they think is in the cave...’
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do, think
and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout and ask
children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘The
Build story telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Very
map story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special Brave
15 – 20 words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting!.’ Bear’
mins One day (when) there was bear (who) who lived in the jungle (where). Bear narrative
was picking berries when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud and Bear * A3
fell off his wobbly log (kick-off). Bear felt scared because he did not know paper
that Boris was in the mud (internal response), so he decided to show Boris * marker /
that he was brave, ‘I’m just as brave as you. The bravest thing you can do, I texta

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can do it too!’ he said! (plan)


Explicitly break down story grammar elements to finish building the story map
– ask literal and inferential questions to map to narrative icons. Draw a quick
picture (‘sketch’) next to the icon.
‘Now we are going to finish making our story map using our story icons and
drawing sketches of what happens. The story map will help our brains to
make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to finish our story
map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the third page (the plan). ‘How did Bear feel when he
saw Boris jump out of the mud?...Bear felt scared because he did not
know that Boris was in the mud. The last part of the story map we created
was the plan – who remembers what the plan was? (provide cloze
sentence as prompt: Bear decided...) yes! Bear decided to show Boris
that he was brave.’
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did Bear do first?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘First Bear did
a somersault and splashed into the bog! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on
the story map – that shows when something happens (action) or when
the characters try to do something (attempt) to follow their plan – I am
going to draw a quick sketch of Bear splashing into the bog to help us
remember Bear’s first attempt to show Boris how brave he is’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did Bear do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Bear
climbed up the tallest tree he could find... and what did Boris do?... He
climbed up right behind! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map. I
am going to draw a quick sketch of Bear climbing up the tall tree and
Boris climbing behind to show Bear’s next attempt’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did they do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Boris
climbed up the steepest hill he could find and tumbled down,... and what
did Bear do?... He went right behind! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on
the story map. I am going to draw a quick sketch of Boris and Bear
tumbling down the hill to show the next attempt’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did they do after that?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘After
that Bear and Boris crossed a racing river! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon
on the story map. I am going to draw a quick sketch of Boris and Bear
crossing the racing river to show the next attempt’.
 Link actions/attempts to feelings and plan throughout to repeat modelling
of inferential thinking, e.g. ‘bear tried crossing the racing river because he
wanted to show Boris that he was brave, not scared!’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did they do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Bear
and Boris swung between the trees! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the
story map. I am going to draw a quick sketch of Boris and Bear swinging

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between the trees to show the next attempt’.


 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did they do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Bear
and Boris tried to catch a porcupine to show they were both as brave!
Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map. I am going to draw a
quick sketch of Boris and Bear after they tried to catch a porcupine to
show the next attempt’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did they do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Bear
and Boris tried to wear a beard of bees! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on
the story map. I am going to draw a quick sketch of Boris and Bear
wearing a beard of bees to show the next attempt’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘Hmm, Bear
and Boris thought their next attempt would be to go in the cave, but what
happened?! ...discuss. What was the next kick-off in the story?’ Discuss
and turn page. ‘The next kick-off was that Bear and Boris came across a
very scary cave and hear a loud ‘roar’! Let’s stick our KICK-OFF icon on
the story map. I am going to draw a quick sketch of Boris and Bear
looking at the cave and a roar coming out to show the next kick-off’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
that Bear and Boris Buffalo felt when they heard the roar?’ Discuss
feelings (scared, frightened, terrified) and provide think-aloud for support
(I think that Bear & Boris felt scared because they thought there was a
very scary creature in the cave, what do you think?). Briefly discuss
physical, visual clues (eyes wide, mouth open, running away) ‘Bear &
Boris felt scared because they thought that there was a very scary
creature in the cave. Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map,
and I am going to draw a quick sketch of Bear & Boris with a scared face
to help us remember how they felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What did Bear and Boris Buffalo decide
to do?’ Discuss the plan, provide think-aloud for support (I think that the
plan was....). ‘So Bear & Boris decided not to go in the cave and run away
instead! Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to
draw a quick sketch of Bear and Boris running away to help us remember
what the plan was’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT happened next?’
– discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next from inside the cave came a tiny
little frog! What did the frog say to Bear and Boris?... ‘I didn’t mean to
scare you!’ and what did he do? ... invited them into the cave! Out came
a tiny frog, ‘I didn’t mean to scare you’ he said, and so Bear and Boris
went inside the cave. Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map – I
am going to draw a quick sketch of the little frog with a speech bubble to
help us remember what happened next. How do you think that Bear and
Boris felt when they realised it was just a frog?...discuss and link to
reasoning (relieved because...)’

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 Turn to the next page: Show the tie-up icon. ‘WHAT did Bear and Boris
agree?...(discuss and provide cloze sentence as support: They agreed
that they were both equally as...). ‘They agreed that they were both
equally as brave – they were the same amount of brave! How do you
think they felt?... discuss possible emotions (happy, pleased, relieved)
and provide think-aloud as support. ‘In the end, Bear and Boris Buffalo
felt pleased because they agreed they were equally as brave’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for The Very Brave Bear! What was our goal *‘The
Retell the today? (to finish the story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Very
story We have finished! Now we can tell the whole story and we have the icons Brave
5 mins Bear’
and pictures on the story map to help us remember what happens in the narrative
story. Let’s practice telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then * Story
we’ll tell it together...’’ map
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the narrative)
with the children.
One day there was bear who lived in the jungle. Bear was picking berries
when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud and Bear fell off his wobbly log.
Bear felt scared because he did not know that Boris was in the mud, so he
decided to show Boris that he was brave, ‘I’m just as brave as you. The
bravest thing you can do, I can do it too!’ he said!
First Bear did a somersault and splashed into a bog. Next Bear climbed the
tallest tree and Boris climbed right behind. Then Boris climbed up and
tumbled down the steepest hill and Bear went right behind. After that Bear
and Boris crossed a racing river, swung between the trees, tried to catch a
porcupine and tried to wear a beard of bees!
Then they came to a scary cave and heard a loud ‘roar’! They felt scared
because they thought there was a scary creature in the cave so they
decided not to go in the cave and to run away instead. Then from inside the
cave came a tiny frog who said ‘I didn’t mean to scare you’, so Bear and
Boris went inside the cave. In the end, Bear and Boris Buffalo felt pleased
because they agreed that they were equally as brave.

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The Very Brave Bear Session 3

Goals:

1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s inferential comprehension of


character emotions and to build on background knowledge of emotions by relating to
personal experiences.
2. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements – specifically, the inclusion
of character emotions.

Narrative: ‘The Very Brave Bear’ by Nick Bland

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, The Very *‘The Very
Book Brave Bear! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Brave
sharing and happened, so we can practice our story telling! Today we are going to talk Bear’
discuss narrative
character’s about the FEELINGS in the book – how Bear and Boris Buffalo felt. So our * 2x
internal goal today is to WORK OUT how the characters in the book are FEELING – emotions
responses we need to remember the feeling words in the book and what they mean. brainstorm
(feelings) What is our goal?’ page
(scared;
 Begin reading the story. Ask inferential questions related to feelings:
20 - 25 brave).
mins (first page) ‘how did Bear feel when Boris jumped out of the mud?’ * marker /
discuss appropriate feelings – relate to the children’s experiences, ‘how texta
would you feel if someone jumped out at you and you didn’t expect it?’
(surprised, shocked, scared, frightened) and the reason why the
character would feel like that – model using think-alouds (I think that
Bear felt surprised and scared because he did not know that Boris was
there – it was a surprise!).
 Relate to other occurrences in the book – e.g. ‘how did Bear and Boris
feel when they saw the dark cave / heard the roar?’. Discuss emotions
and synonyms (scared, frightened, terrified, worried) and the reason why
they would feel that emotion. Link to children’s personal experiences and
brainstorm kick-offs when the children have experienced that emotion.
‘Have you felt scared before?’, ‘what made you feel scared?’, ‘why did
you feel scared?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt scared
because...). Link to plan – ‘what would your plan be if you heard a roar
from a dark cave?’.
 Continue reading the story. Ask causal inferential questions:
(Bear’s plan) ‘Why do you think that Bear decided to show Boris that he
was brave?’ Discuss possible reasons (e.g. he didn’t want to let Boris
think he was scared, he felt embarrassed because he was scared when
Boris appeared) and relate to character traits (e.g. Bear is proud).
(at cave) ‘Why didn’t Bear and Boris go into the cave?’ discuss and link
to reason, use cloze-sentence as a prompt (‘because they thought that
there might be a ...’).

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(page with frog) ‘How do you think Bear and Boris felt when they realised
it was just a frog inside the cave?’ discuss appropriate feelings
(surprised, relieved) and link to the reason using causal connector
because.
 Continue reading the story.
(last page) ‘what did Bear and Boris agree on in the end?’ discuss (they
were both as brave). ‘How were Bear and Boris brave?’ discuss actions
– relate to the children’s experiences, ‘how would you feel if you...
climbed a tall tree/swung between trees/crossed a racing river, wore a
beard of bees, etc?’ (brave, proud, scared) and the reason why the
character would feel like that – model using think-alouds (I think that
Bear and Boris felt brave because they were doing dangerous actions).
 Relate to the children’s personal experiences and brainstorm kick-offs
when the children have experienced that emotion. ‘Have you felt brave
before?’, ‘what made you feel brave?’, ‘why did you feel brave?’. Link to
causal connector because (e.g. you felt brave because...).
What was our goal today? (to work out how the characters are feeling).
What feeling words did we talk about? What do they mean? Did we achieve
our goal? (yes!)
Revise the story map created in the first sessions: ‘We are going to practice *‘The Very
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Brave
story story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special Bear’
5 – 10 mins narrative
words, like character feelings we’ve just talked about, which make the story * Story
interesting! Our next goal for today is for you to tell the story and include all map
the feeling words we talked about.’
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
One day there was bear who lived in the jungle. Bear was picking berries
when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud and Bear fell off his wobbly log.
Bear felt scared because he did not know that Boris was in the mud, so he
decided to show Boris that he was brave, ‘I’m just as brave as you. The
bravest thing you can do, I can do it too!’ he said!
First Bear did a somersault and splashed into a bog. Next Bear climbed the
tallest tree and Boris climbed right behind. Then Boris climbed up and
tumbled down the steepest hill and Bear went right behind. After that Bear
and Boris crossed a racing river, swung between the trees, tried to catch a
porcupine and tried to wear a beard of bees!
Then they came to a scary cave and heard a loud ‘roar’! They felt scared
because they thought there was a scary creature in the cave so they
decided not to go in the cave and to run away instead. Then from inside the
cave came a tiny frog who said ‘I didn’t mean to scare you’, so Bear and
Boris went inside the cave. In the end, Bear and Boris Buffalo felt pleased
because they agreed that they were equally as brave.

Well done! What was our second goal for today? (to tell the story with the

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feeling words). Did we achieve our goal of including the feeling words?
(yes!). You are becoming excellent story tellers because you included the
feeling words which make the story interesting!

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The Very Brave Bear Session 4

Goals:

1. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of all targeted macrostructure and microstructure elements.
2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s ability to make an appropriate
prediction based on the events in a narrative.

Narrative: ‘The Very Brave Bear’ by Nick Bland

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, The Very *‘The Very
Book Brave Bear! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Brave
sharing happened, so we can practice our story telling!’’ Bear’
narrative
5 minutes  Re-read the story, making a small number of comments/think alouds. * Story
Pause to let the children tell you what happens next, e.g. then Bear and map
Boris Buffalo...
 Add in internal response of characters, e.g. at first kick-off, Bear felt
scared because he did not know that Boris was in the mud.
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do,
think and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout and
ask children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘The Very
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Brave
story – story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special Bear’
group retell narrative
5 – 10 mins words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting! Our goal * Story
today is to tell the story and include all the parts of the story and all the map
special feeling and connecting words which make the story interesting.
What is our goal?
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
One day there was bear who lived in the jungle. Bear was picking berries
when Boris Buffalo jumped out from the mud and Bear fell off his wobbly
log. Bear felt scared because he did not know that Boris was in the mud, so
he decided to show Boris that he was brave, ‘I’m just as brave as you. The
bravest thing you can do, I can do it too!’ he said!
First Bear did a somersault and splashed into a bog. Next Bear climbed the
tallest tree and Boris climbed right behind. Then Boris climbed up and
tumbled down the steepest hill and Bear went right behind. After that Bear
and Boris crossed a racing river, swung between the trees, tried to catch a
porcupine and tried to wear a beard of bees!
Then they came to a scary cave and heard a loud ‘roar’! They felt scared
because they thought there was a scary creature in the cave so they
decided not to go in the cave and to run away instead. Then from inside the

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cave came a tiny frog who said ‘I didn’t mean to scare you’, so Bear and
Boris went inside the cave. In the end, Bear and Boris Buffalo felt pleased
because they agreed that they were equally as brave.
‘What was our goal for today? (to tell the story with all the parts and special *‘The Very
Story words). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You are excellent story tellers! You Brave
predictions remembered to include the special feeling words and the connecting words Bear’
– 15 – 20 narrative
we’ve been talking about. Now we are going to WORK OUT what we think
minutes *
happens next, AFTER the story finishes. That is not something that HAS Predictions
already happened, but something that IS GOING TO happen, so to think of brainstorm
something that is going to happen NEXT we have to think of something new page
and link it to what we know from the story. So our next goal for today is to * marker /
texta
WORK OUT what is going to happen next. What is our next goal?’.
 Revise ending of story: Bear and Boris went into frog’s cave and they
felt pleased because they agreed that they were both brave! What are
they doing with frog in his cave?..(discuss – having tea/a drink)..What
do you think happens NEXT? Or rephrase, What do you think happens
AFTER the story is finished?
You can also support prediction by showing the children the last page in
the book and saying If there was another page in the story, what would
be on it?
 Discuss appropriate predictions and brainstorm – ensure each child has
a turn to brainstorm a prediction. Discuss which predictions are likely
and why (using connector because), link to personal experiences when
possible. Provide a think-aloud as support/modelling – e.g. I think that
Bear and Boris have dinner with the frog, BECAUSE they feel hungry
after doing so many brave activities; I think Bear and Boris go home and
have a rest, BECAUSE they feel tired after doing so many brave
activities; I think Bear and Boris go on more adventures together,
BECAUSE they have agreed that they are both equally as brave!
 Ask questions to monitor children’s reasoning of likely vs. unlikely
predictions, link to evaluative reasoning: e.g. do you think that Bear and
Boris should do those brave activities again? Why/why not? Do you
think Bear and Boris should have gone into the cave the first time they
saw it? Why/why not?
‘What was our second goal for today (to work out what is going to happen
next). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You have been very clever at
thinking of what Bear and Boris Buffalo might do NEXT, AFTER the story is
finished! Next time we are going to read a different story!’

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Narrative 2: Monkey Puzzle

Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis


WHEN: One day
WHO: Monkey (little monkey)
WHERE: in the jungle
Initiating event: Little monkey lost his mum
Internal response: monkey feels worried because he is alone and he doesn’t know where
his mum is/how he will find her
Plan: Butterfly decides to help little monkey to find his mum
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she is big’ – butterfly takes monkey to an elephant
(‘that’s not my mum!’)
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she coils round trees’ – butterfly takes monkey to a
snake (‘that’s not my mum!’)
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she has more legs’ – butterfly takes monkey to a
spider (‘that’s not my mum!’)
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she lives in treetops’ – butterfly takes monkey to a
parrot (‘that’s not my mum!’)
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she leaps and springs’ – butterfly takes monkey to a
frog (‘that’s not my mum!’)
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she is brown and furry’ – butterfly takes monkey to a
bat (‘that’s not my mum!’)
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she is not as small/little’ – butterfly takes monkey back
to the elephant again!
Attempt/Action: Little monkey says: ‘she looks like me!’
Internal response: monkey still feels worried because he doesn’t know if he will find his
mum. Butterfly feels surprised because her babies do not look like her, so realises she
needs to find an animal that looks like little monkey
Direct consequence: butterfly finds little monkey’s dad and then monkey’s mum arrives
Internal response: little monkey feels relieved because he has found his mum. He feels
excited/happy/pleased to see his parents.
Butterfly also feels relieved and excited because she helped little monkey to find his parents.
Resolution: In the end, the monkeys feel relieved and pleased because they are together
again and little monkey is not lost any more.

Character feelings to explore: worried, relieved

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Tier 2 Vocabulary:
Hush – be quiet
Coil – to wrap/curl around
Slither – to slide
Leap / spring – to jump high
Creature – a living thing
Discover – to find

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Monkey Puzzle Session 1

Goals:

1. To activate students’ background knowledge to assist with narrative comprehension.


2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential
comprehension of the narrative.
3. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.

Narrative: ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘We are going to read a story. Let’s have a look at the front cover (show front ‘Monkey
Pre-story cover). Can anyone guess who the story is about?... (provide a think aloud if Puzzle’
knowledge no child provides an idea, e.g. I think that the story is about a monkey, what narrative
activation
do you think?). Who else do you think could be in the story?...’
2 - 5 mins  Link to prior knowledge: have you seen a monkey before? Where?
When? Where do you think this monkey lives? What do you think
happens to the monkey? (prediction – use visual clues, monkey’s facial
expression & finger on chin – looks worried/confused).
 What do you think the title of the story could be? ... The story is called
‘Monkey Puzzle’ and it was written by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
‘Now we are going to read the story together!’ ‘Monkey
Book  Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and model Puzzle’
sharing narrative
inferential thinking:
10 mins (first page) ‘I think the little monkey looks really worried...’
(at snake) ‘I wonder who butterfly will take little monkey to next...’ Use
clue from the text to predict (and link with conjunction ‘because’).
(at parrot) ‘who do you think butterfly will take little monkey to next?’
(at elephant again) ‘I wonder if monkey is going to find his mum again.
What do you think?....’
(last page) ‘I think little monkey feels relieved and happy because he’s
found both of his parents!’
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – do this during every re-
read of the narrative. Discuss throughout and explain meaning or ask
children what the words mean:
Hush (be quiet) – e.g. ‘hush, little monkey, don’t you cry.. what does
‘hush’ mean?’
Coil (to wrap/curl around something)
Slither (to slide)
Leap and spring (to jump high)
Creature (a living thing)
Discover (to find)
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to build a story map – ask *‘Monkey
Build story literal and inferential questions and model inferential thinking, map story Puzzle’
map components to narrative icons. Alert to inferential thinking by using the narrative
* A3

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15 mins phrase ‘we are going to WORK OUT...’. paper
Print out a story map template with narrative icons or, as you discuss each *marker/
story grammar element, draw the matching narrative icon on an A3 page and texta
use arrows () to map to the next story component. Draw a quick picture
(‘sketch’ – discuss what this is) next to the icon.
‘We are going to practice telling this story so we can become good story
tellers. Good story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well
as special words like the character’s feelings which make the story
interesting! Being a good story teller also helps us to understand stories
better. We are going to help ourselves remember what happens in the story
by making a story map using our story icons and drawing sketches of what
happens (a sketch is a really quick drawing). The story map will help our
brains to make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to start a
story map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the first page.
 Show the children the setting icon for when. ‘WHEN do you think the
story took place?’ – accept any reasonable response and discuss why
(e.g. it is not dark so probably not night time). One day/once upon a time
- Let’s stick our WHEN icon at the top of the page, and I am going to draw
a quick sketch of X(a sun, a book) to help us remember WHEN the story
took place’.
 Show children the character icon. ‘WHO is the main character in the
story?’ – little monkey. Use visual prompt if needed (have a look at the
picture to help you remember). ‘Little monkey! Let’s stick our WHO icon
next to the WHEN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick
sketch of little monkey to help us remember’.
 Show the children the setting icon for where. ‘WHERE do you think the
story takes place?’ – discuss responses and refer to visual clues (e.g.
forest vs. Jungle – types of plants and animals seen). ‘In a jungle! Let’s
stick our WHERE icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick
sketch of a jungle to help us remember where the story took place’.
 Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘What do you think the kick-off was in
the story?’ Provide support if needed (cloze-sentence- little monkey
lost...). ’The kick-off was that little monkey had lost his mum! Let’s stick
our KICK-OFF icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick
sketch of little monkey to help us remember what the kick-off is’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). Alert to inferential
thinking – ‘Now we’re going to talk about feelings. We’re going to WORK
OUT how the character feels!’ ‘How do you think that little monkey felt
when he realised he had lost his mum?’ Discuss feelings and provide
think-aloud for support (I think that little monkey felt worried because he
had lost his mum and was alone, what do you think?). Briefly discuss
physical, visual clues (eyes wide, eyebrows up, mouth in a frown, finger
to chin) ’Little monkey felt worried because he had lost his mum. Let’s
stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a
quick sketch of little monkey with a worried face to help us remember how

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he felt’.
 Turn to the second page of the book. Show the children the plan icon.
Alert to inferential thinking – ‘Now we know how the characters feel, we’re
going to WORK OUT what they plan to do next!’
‘Little monkey felt worried because he had lost his mum. What was the
PLAN to fix the problem?’ Discuss the plan, provide think-aloud for
support (I think that the plan was....). ‘The plan was that butterfly decided
to help little monkey to look for his mum in the jungle. Let’s stick our
PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the
butterfly with a speech bubble and little monkey to help us remember
what the plan was’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for Monkey Puzzle! What was our goal today? *‘Monkey
Retell the (to start a story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) We are Puzzle’
story going to work some more on it next time, but first we are going to practice narrative
2 - 5 mins * Story
telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then we’ll tell it together...’
map
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map) with the children.
e.g. One day (when) there was a little monkey (who)playing in the jungle
(where) when he lost his mum (kick-off). He felt worried because he lost his
mum (internal response).So a butterfly decided to help him find his mum
(plan).

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Monkey Puzzle Session 2

Goals:

1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential


comprehension of the narrative.
2. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.
3. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements.

Narrative: ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we talked about last time?... That’s right, Monkey ‘Monkey
Book Puzzle! Who remembers what the kick-off was?...(provide cloze sentence as Puzzle’
sharing prompt: little monkey lost his...) yes, the kick-off was that little monkey lost his narrative

5 - 10 mins mum! Who remembers how he felt when he lost his mum? (provide
phonemic cue as prompt: he felt worr...) He felt worried! Poor little monkey.
We are going to read the story again to help us remember what happened,
so we can finish our Monkey Puzzle story map and practice our story telling!’
 Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and ask
inferential questions:
(at parrot) ‘why did the butterfly take little monkey to the parrot?’ (go to
previous page as prompt: because monkey said his mum lives in the
trees).
(last page) ‘I think little monkey feels relieved and happy because he’s
found both of his parents!’
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do, think
and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout and ask
children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘Monkey
Build story telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Puzzle’
map story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special narrative
* A3
15 - 20 words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting!.’
paper
mins One day (when) there was a little monkey (who) in the jungle (where)
* marker /
but he lost his mum (kick-off). He felt worried because he lost his mum
texta
(internal response).So a butterfly decided to help him find his mum (plan).
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to finish building the story map
– ask literal and inferential questions to map to narrative icons.
As you discuss each story grammar element, draw a quick picture (‘sketch’)
next to each narrative icon. Use arrows () to map to the next story
component.
‘Now we are going to finish making our story map using our story icons and
drawing sketches of what happens. The story map will help our brains to
make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to finish our story

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map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the third page (the plan). ‘How did little monkey feel
when he lost his mum?... He felt worried because he lost his mum! The
last part of the story map we created was the plan – who remembers
what the plan was? (provide cloze sentence as prompt: butterfly
decided...) yes! butterfly decided to help little monkey to look for his mum
in the jungle.’
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT did the butterfly do first?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘First
the butterfly took little monkey to an elephant! What do you think little
monkey said?’ Accept reasonable response and discuss. ‘”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– that shows when something happens (action) or when the characters
try to do something (attempt) to follow their plan – I am going to draw a
quick sketch of an elephant and little monkey with a speech bubble to
help us remember butterfly’s first attempt to find monkey’s mother’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey to a snake! What do you think little monkey said?....”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of a snake and little monkey with a
speech bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find
monkey’s mother’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey to a spider! What do you think little monkey said?....”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of a spider and little monkey with a
speech bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find
monkey’s mother’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey to a spider! What do you think little monkey said?....”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of a spider and little monkey with a
speech bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find
monkey’s mother’.
 Link actions/attempts to feelings and plan throughout to repeat modelling
of inferential thinking, e.g. ‘little monkey must still feel WORRIED
because they have not found his mum!’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey to a parrot! What do you think little monkey said?....”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of a parrot and little monkey with a
speech bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find

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monkey’s mother’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey to a frog! What do you think little monkey said?....”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of a frog and little monkey with a
speech bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find
monkey’s mother’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey to a bat! What do you think little monkey said?....”that’s not my
mum!” said little monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of a bat and little monkey with a
speech bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find
monkey’s mother’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the butterfly
do next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly took little
monkey back to the elephant! What do you think little monkey said?....”No
no no, that’s the elephant again! My mum looks like me!” said little
monkey!’ Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map – I am going to
draw a quick sketch of an elephant and little monkey with a speech
bubble to help us remember butterfly’s next attempt to find monkey’s
mother.
 Show the feelings icon. How do you think little monkey feels here?’
Discuss reasonable answers and why little monkey would feel that way,
provide a think aloud as support (I think little monkey feels worried
because they have found lots of different animals but they still haven’t
found monkey’s mum!), e.g. frustrated, worried, upset. ‘How do you think
butterfly feels?’(turn page during discussion) Discuss feelings and why
(surprised, her babies do not look like her), provide think aloud as support
– use as a cloze sentence for children to provide reason (I think that
butterfly feels surprised because...). ‘Little monkey felt worried because
they could not find his mum and butterfly felt surprised because her
babies do not look like her! Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story
map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of little monkey and butterfly
to help us remember how they felt’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the direct consequence icon. ‘WHAT
happened next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the butterfly
found little monkey’s dad! And then... (turn to the next page)...they found
little monkey’s mum. After lots of searching, little monkey found his dad
and his mum! Let’s stick our CONSEQUENCE icon on the story map – I
am going to draw a quick sketch of little monkey and butterfly finding
monkey’s mum and dad’.
 Show the tie-up icon. ‘How do you think little monkey felt when he found
his parents again?’ Discuss possible emotions (happy, pleased, grateful,
relieved). Provide a think aloud to introduce the feeling relieved ‘I think

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that little monkey felt relieved because he found both his parents and
wasn’t alone anymore! ‘Let’s stick our feelings icon on the story map. I
am going to draw a quick sketch of little monkey feeling relieved to help
us remember how he felt when he finally found his parents again!’.
‘How do you think butterfly felt?’ discuss appropriate emotions, use a
think-aloud as support (I think that butterfly felt relieved and pleased
because she helped little monkey to find his parents).
‘How do you think monkey’s parents felt?’ Discuss emotions and why
each character might feel relieved/pleased/happy. ‘In the end, the
monkeys and butterfly felt relieved and pleased because they were
together again and little monkey was not lost any more. Let’s stick our tie-
up icon on the story map to remember the end of the story, and I am
going to draw the characters’ faces looking relieved and pleased.’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for Monkey Puzzle! What was our goal today? *‘Monkey
Retell the (to finish the story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Puzzle’
story We have finished! Now we can tell the whole story and we have the icons narrative
5 mins * Story
and your pictures to help us remember what happens in the story. Let’s
map
practice telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then we’ll tell it
together...’’
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the narrative)
with the children.
One day there was a little monkey playing in the jungle when he lost his
mum. He felt worried because he lost his mum (internal response).So a
butterfly decided to help him find his mum (plan).
First butterfly took little monkey to an elephant. ‘That’s not my mum!’ said
monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a snake. ‘That’s not my mum!’
said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a spider. ‘That’s not my
mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a parrot. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a frog. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a bat. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey back to the elephant!
? ”No no no, that’s the elephant again! My mum looks like me!” said little
monkey. Little monkey felt worried because they could not find his mum and
butterfly felt surprised because her babies do not look like her!
Finally little monkey found his dad and his mum! The monkeys and butterfly
felt relieved and pleased because they were together again and little monkey
was not lost any more. The end.

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Monkey Puzzle Session 3

Goals:
1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s inferential comprehension of
character emotions and to build on background knowledge of emotions by relating to
personal experiences.
2. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements – specifically, the inclusion
of character emotions.
Narrative: ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Activity & Description & Script Materials
Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, Monkey *‘Monkey
Book Puzzle! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Puzzle’
sharing and happened, so we can practice our story telling! Today we are going to talk narrative
discuss * 2x
character’s about the FEELINGS in the book – how little monkey and the other emotions
internal characters felt. So our goal today is to WORK OUT how the characters in brainstorm
responses the book are FEELING – we need to remember the feeling words in the page
(feelings) book and what they mean. What is our goal?’ (worried;
relieved).
 Begin reading the story. Ask inferential questions related to feelings:
20 - 25 * marker /
mins (first page) ‘how did little monkey feel when he realised he had lost his texta
mum?’ discuss appropriate feelings – relate to the children’s
experiences, ‘how would you feel if you lost your mum?’ (worried, upset,
sad, miserable, lonely) and the reason why the character would feel like
that – model using think-alouds (I think little monkey felt worried because
he was alone and he did not know where his mum was).
 Relate to the children’s personal experiences and brainstorm kick-offs
when the children have experienced that emotion. ‘Have you felt
worried before?’, ‘what made you feel worried?’, ‘why did you feel
worried?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt worried
because...). Link to plan – ‘what would your plan be if you lost your
mum/dad?’.
 Continue reading the story. Ask causal inferential questions:
(second page) ‘Why do you think that butterfly helped monkey?’ Discuss
possible reasons (e.g. because she was monkey’s friend, because she
could see that there was a problem, etc) and relate to character traits
(e.g. butterfly is kind and likes to help others).
(page with bat) ‘Why did butterfly keep taking little monkey to the wrong
animal?’ discuss and link to reason, use cloze-sentence as a prompt
(‘because she thought that monkey looked different...to his
mum/parents’).
(page with butterfly & caterpillars) ‘How did butterfly feel when she found
out that little monkey looks different to his mum?’, ‘How did little monkey
feel?’, discuss appropriate feelings (surprised, confused) and link to the
reason using causal connector because.
 Continue reading the story.

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(last page) ‘how did little monkey feel when he found his parents at last?’
discuss appropriate feelings – relate to the children’s experiences, ‘how
would you feel if you found your mum/dad after you had been lost?’
(relieved, happy, pleased, excited) and the reason why the character
would feel like that – model using think-alouds (I think little monkey felt
relieved because he had been looking for his parents for a long time, I
think little monkey felt pleased/excited/happy because he was with his
parents again). Link to other character feelings – ‘how did monkey’s
parents/butterfly feel?’.
 Relate to the children’s personal experiences and brainstorm kick-offs
when the children have experienced that emotion. ‘Have you felt
relieved before?’, ‘what made you feel relieved?’, ‘why did you feel
relieved?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt relieved
because...).
What was our goal today? (to work out how the characters are feeling).What
feeling words did we talk about? What do they mean? Did we achieve our
goal? (yes!)
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘Monkey
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Puzzle’
story story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special narrative
5 – 10 mins * Story
words, like the character feelings we’ve just talked about, which make the map
story interesting! Our next goal for today is for you to tell the story and
include all the feeling words we talked about.’
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
One day there was a little monkey playing in the jungle when he lost his
mum. He felt worried because he lost his mum (internal response).So a
butterfly decided to help him find his mum (plan).
First butterfly took little monkey to an elephant. ‘That’s not my mum!’ said
monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a snake. ‘That’s not my mum!’
said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a spider. ‘That’s not my
mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a parrot. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a frog. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a bat. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey back to the
elephant! ? ”No no no, that’s the elephant again! My mum looks like me!”
said little monkey. Little monkey felt worried because they could not find his
mum and butterfly felt surprised because her babies do not look like her!
Finally little monkey found his dad and his mum! The monkeys and butterfly
felt relieved and pleased because they were together again and little
monkey was not lost any more. The end.

Well done! What was our second goal for today? (to tell the story with the
feeling words). Did we achieve our goal of including the feeling words?
(yes!). You are becoming excellent story tellers because you included the
feeling words which make the story interesting!

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Monkey Puzzle Session 4

Goals:

1. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of all targeted macrostructure and microstructure elements.
2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s ability to make an appropriate
prediction based on the events in a narrative.

Narrative: ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, Monkey *‘Monkey
Book Puzzle! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Puzzle’
sharing happened, so we can practice our story telling!’’ narrative
* Story
5 minutes  Re-read the story, making a small number of comments/think alouds. map
Pause to let the children tell you what happens next, e.g. then butterfly
took little monkey to a....
 Add in internal response of characters, e.g. on the first page, little
monkey felt worried because he had lost his mum and was all alone.
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do,
think and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout and
ask children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘Monkey
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Puzzle’
story – story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special narrative
group retell * Story
5 – 10 mins words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting! Our goal map
today is to tell the story and include all the parts of the story and all the
special feeling and connecting words which make the story interesting.
What is our goal?
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
One day there was a little monkey playing in the jungle when he lost his
mum. He felt worried because he lost his mum (internal response).So a
butterfly decided to help him find his mum (plan).
First butterfly took little monkey to an elephant. ‘That’s not my mum!’ said
monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a snake. ‘That’s not my mum!’
said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a spider. ‘That’s not my
mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a parrot. ‘That’s not
my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a frog. ‘That’s
not my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey to a bat. ‘That’s
not my mum!’ said monkey. Next butterfly took little monkey back to the
elephant! ? ”No no no, that’s the elephant again! My mum looks like me!”
said little monkey. Little monkey felt worried because they could not find his
mum and butterfly felt surprised because her babies do not look like her!
Finally little monkey found his dad and his mum! The monkeys and butterfly

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felt relieved and pleased because they were together again and little
monkey was not lost any more. The end.
‘You are excellent story tellers! What was our goal for today? (to tell the *‘Monkey
Story story with all the parts and special words). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!). Puzzle’
predictions You are becoming excellent story tellers because you included all the parts narrative
– 15 – 20 *
which make the story interesting!
mins Predictions
minutes You remembered to include the special feeling words and the connecting brainstorm
words we’ve been talking about. Now we are going to WORK OUT what we page
think happens next, AFTER the story finishes. That is not something that * marker /
HAS already happened, but something that IS GOING TO happen, so to texta
think of something that is going to happen NEXT we have to think of
something new and link it to what we know from the story. So our next goal
for today is to WORK OUT what is going to happen next. What is our next
goal?...’
 Revise ending of story: Little monkey found his mum and dad, what do
you think happens NEXT? Or rephrase, What do you think happens
AFTER the story is finished?
You can also support prediction by showing the children the last page in
the book and saying If there was another page in the story, what would
be on it?
 Discuss appropriate predictions and brainstorm – ensure each child has
a turn to brainstorm a prediction. Discuss which predictions are likely
and why (using connector because), link to personal experiences when
possible. Provide a think-aloud as support/modelling – e.g. I think that
little monkey and his family go home to have dinner, BECAUSE little
monkey is very hungry after being lost for so long!
 Ask questions to monitor children’s reasoning of likely vs. unlikely
predictions, link to evaluative reasoning: e.g. do you think that little
monkey will go off and play on his own next? Why/why not? Should little
monkey go off by himself again? Why/why not?
‘What was our second goal for today (to work out what is going to happen
next). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You have been very clever at
thinking of what little monkey and his family might do NEXT, AFTER the
story is finished! Next time we are going to read a different story!’

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Narrative 3: Giraffes Can’t Dance

Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis

WHEN: One day / one afternoon (sun setting)

WHO: Gerald the tall giraffe

WHERE: African bush

Initiating event: Gerald wanted to dance at the Jungle dance but he thought he was very
bad at dancing

Internal response: miserable because he is not good at dancing (he wanted to be a good
dancer like everyone else).

Plan: He decided he might try to dance

Attempt/Action: the warthogs, rhinos, lions, chimps and baboons all performed good
dances

Attempt/Action: Gerald walked towards the dancefloor

Internal response: Gerald felt brave as he walked towards the dance floor

Initiating event: All the animals laughed at Gerald

Internal response: Gerald ‘froze up’ – he felt embarrassed because he was not good at
dancing so he walked away by himself feeling miserable and lonely.

Plan: Gerald found a little clearing and a cricket said ‘sometimes when you are different, you
just need a different song!’SO Gerald listened to the grass, trees and the moon. The cricket
played his violin.

Attempt/Action: Gerald began to shuffle, sway and swish his tail around. Gerald was
dancing! He did a backwards somersault and leapt up in the air.

Direct consequence: Gerald felt ‘wonderful’ (pleased and excited) because he was
dancing. “I’m dancing” Gerald cried! The animals arrived to watch Gerald dance and
watched him ‘entranced’.

Resolution: In the end, Gerald felt pleased because he had found music that he loved (and
could dance to).

Character feelings to explore: miserable, brave, lonely/alone

Tier 2 Vocabulary

Slim – thin, very little

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Bandy knees – bent outwards

Munching – chewing

Prance – to jump lightly

Elegant – very nice/smart – graceful, stylish

Bold – confident, courageous, brave

Splendid – excellent, very good, wonderful

Clumsy – make mistakes

Daft/fool – silly

Clot – silly/foolish person

Clearing – an open space in a forest/jungle

Swaying / Shuffling / Swishing – moving from side to side, lightly (the children can practice
‘acting’ these verbs out)

Somersault – to flip head over heels/body move the whole way around

Wonderful – excellent, really good, fantastic

Entranced – to keep someone’s whole attention with something wonderful / amazing /


interesting

Miracle – something amazing that happens and is very good/unexpected

Twizzled – infer meaning from sentence  to turn around

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Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 1

Goals:
1. To activate students’ background knowledge to assist with narrative comprehension.
2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential
comprehension of the narrative.
3. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.

Narrative: ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘We are going to read a story. Let’s have a look at the front cover (show front ‘Giraffes
Pre-story cover). Can anyone guess who the story is about?... (provide a think aloud if Can’t
knowledge no child provides an idea, e.g. I think that the story is about a giraffe, what do Dance’
activation narrative
you think?). Who else do you think could be in the story?, What do you think
2 - 5 mins the giraffe is doing?...’
 Link to prior knowledge: have you seen a giraffe before? Where? When?
Where do you think this giraffe lives? What do you think happens to the
giraffe? (prediction – use visual clues, giraffe’s facial expression).
 What do you think the title of the story could be? ... The story is called
‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ and it was written by Giles Andreae and Guy
Parker-Rees.
‘Now we are going to read the story together!’ Giraffes
Book  Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and model Can’t
sharing Dance’
inferential thinking:
narrative
10 mins (first page) ‘It looks very dry where the giraffe lives...’
(second page) ‘I think he feels miserable because he can’t run around...’
(at Jungle Dance) ‘I think Gerald really wants to be in the dance... what
do you think is going to happen?...’ Use clues from the text to predict (and
link with conjunction ‘because’ – he is watching from the outside – he
might have a go anyway, he might not go, he might practice dancing).
(Gerald walking away from dance) ‘I think he feels really embarrassed
and miserable because everyone laughed at him... look at how he’s
holding his head, poor Gerald.’ Point out visual clues – facial expression
and body language (when walking away – head hanging down).
‘I wonder what he’s going to do...’
(at somersault) ‘I think he looks really happy because he’s dancing!’
(other animals watching) ‘I think the other animals will feel surprised and
shocked because Gerald is such a good dancer! How do you think they
will feel?......’
(last page) ‘Gerald looks so pleased and happy because he has found
music that he loves and can dance to!’
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – do this during every re-
read of the narrative. Discuss throughout and explain meaning or ask
children what the words mean:

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Slim (thin, very little)
Bandy knees (bent outwards)
Munching (chewing)
Prance (to jump lightly)
Elegant (very nice/smart – graceful, stylish)
Bold (confident, courageous, brave)
Splendid (excellent, very good, wonderful)
Clumsy (make mistakes)
Daft/fool (silly)
Clot (silly/foolish person)
Clearing (an open space in a forest/jungle)
Swaying / Shuffling / Swishing (moving from side to side, lightly)
Somersault (to flip head over heels/body move the whole way around)
Wonderful (excellent, really good, fantastic)
Entranced (to keep someone’s whole attention with something wonderful
/ amazing / interesting)
Miracle (something amazing that happens and is very good/unexpected)
Twizzled (infer meaning from sentence  to turn around)
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to build a story map – ask *‘Giraffes
Build story literal and inferential questions and model inferential thinking, map story Can’t
map components to narrative icons. Alert to inferential thinking by using the Dance’
narrative
15 mins phrase ‘we are going to WORK OUT...’. * A3
Print out a story map template with narrative icons or, as you discuss each paper
story grammar element, stick the matching narrative icon on an A3 page and * marker /
use arrows () to map to the next story component. Draw a quick picture texta
(‘sketch’ – discuss what this is) next to the icon.
‘We are going to practice telling this story so we can become good story
tellers. Good story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well
as special words like the character’s feelings which make the story
interesting! Being a good story teller also helps us to understand stories
better. We are going to help ourselves remember what happens in the story
by making a story map using our story icons and drawing sketches of what
happens (a sketch is a really quick drawing). The story map will help our
brains to make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to start a
story map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the first page.
 Show the children the setting icon for when. ‘WHEN do you think the
story took place?’ – accept any reasonable response and discuss why
(e.g. visual clues – light/not dark, sun part way down/setting). One
day/one afternoon - Let’s stick our WHEN icon at the top of the page, and
I am going to draw a quick sketch of X(a sun setting) to help us
remember WHEN the story took place’.
 Show children the character icon. ‘WHO is the main character in the
story?’ – Gerald the tall giraffe. Use visual prompt if needed (have a look
at the picture to help you remember). ‘Gerald the tall giraffe! Let’s stick
our WHO icon next to the WHEN icon on our story map, and I am going

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to draw a quick sketch of Gerald the giraffe to help us remember’.
 Show the children the setting icon for where. ‘WHERE do you think the
story takes place?’ – discuss responses and refer to visual clues (e.g.
bush vs. forest vs. desert – types of plants and animals seen). ‘In the
(African) bush! Let’s stick our WHERE icon on our story map, and I am
going to draw a quick sketch of the African bush to help us remember
where the story took place. Where does Gerald go for the dance? (the
jungle)’.
 Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘What do you think the kick-off was in
the story?’ Provide support if needed (cloze-sentence- Gerald wanted to
dance.....). ’The kick-off was that Gerald wanted to dance at the Jungle
Dance BUT he thought he was very bad at dancing! Let’s stick our KICK-
OFF icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of
Gerald trying to dance to help us remember what the kick-off is’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). Alert to inferential
thinking – ‘Now we’re going to talk about feelings. We’re going to WORK
OUT how Gerald was feeling!’
‘How do you think that Gerald felt about being a bad dancer?’ Discuss
feelings and provide think-aloud for support (I think that Gerald felt very
miserable because he wanted to be a good dancer, what do you think?).
Briefly discuss physical, visual clues (eyes looking down, mouth in a
frown) ’Gerald the giraffe felt miserable because he wanted to be a good
dancer like everyone else. Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story
map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of Gerald with a miserable
face to help us remember how he felt’.
 Turn to the second page of the book. Show the children the plan icon.
Alert to inferential thinking – ‘Now we know how Gerald felt, we’re going
to WORK OUT what he plans to do next!’
‘Gerald the giraffe felt miserable because he wanted to be a good dancer
like everyone else. What was his PLAN?’ Discuss the plan, provide think-
aloud for support (I think that the plan was to have a go at the Jungle
Dance....). ‘The plan was that Gerald decided to have a go at the Jungle
Dance. Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to
draw a quick sketch of Gerald going to the dance’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for Giraffes Can’t Dance! What was our goal *‘Giraffes
Retell the today? (to start a story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Can’t
story We are going to work some more on it next time, but first we are going to Dance’
2 - 5 mins narrative
practice telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then we’ll tell it * Story
together...’ map
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map) with the children.
e.g. One afternoon (when) there was a tall giraffe called Gerald (who) who
lived in the African bush (where). He wanted to dance at the Jungle Dance
BUT he thought he was very bad at dancing (kick-off). He felt miserable
because he wanted to be a good dancer like all the other animals (internal
response), but he decided to have a go at the Jungle Dance (plan).

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Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 2

Goals:

1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential


comprehension of the narrative.
2. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.
3. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements.

Narrative: ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we talked about last time?... That’s right, Giraffes ‘Giraffes
Book Can’t Dance! Who remembers what the kick-off was?...(provide cloze Can’t
sharing sentence as prompt: Gerald wanted to dance...) yes, the kick-off was that Dance’
narrative
5 - 10 mins Gerald wanted to dance at the Jungle Dance but he thought he was bad at
dancing! Who remembers how he felt about that? (provide phonemic cue as
prompt: he felt mis...) He felt miserable, poor Gerald! We are going to read
the story again to help us remember what happened, so we can finish our
Giraffes Can’t Dance story map and practice our story telling!’
 Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and ask
inferential questions:
(at Jungle Dance page) ‘why do you think that Gerald decided to have a
go at the dance?’ (provide think aloud as prompt; he felt brave, the Jungle
Dance was lots of fun/he loved dancing so he wanted to have a go).
(when Gerald tries to dance) ‘why do you think that the other animals
laughed at Gerald when he tried to dance? (provide think-aloud as
prompt: they thought he looked...sil..; he looked silly/clumsy, he was not
good at / a bad dancer, the other animals were mean).
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do, think
and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout and ask
children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘Giraffes
Build story telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Can’t
map story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special Dance’
narrative
15 – 20 words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting!.’ * A3
mins One afternoon (when) there was a tall giraffe called Gerald (who) who lived in paper
the African bush (where). He wanted to dance at the Jungle Dance BUT he * marker /
thought he was very bad at dancing (kick-off). He felt miserable because he texta
wanted to be a good dancer like all the other animals (internal response), but
he decided to have a go at the Jungle Dance to see how he went (plan).
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to finish building the story map
– ask literal and inferential questions to map to narrative icons.
As you discuss each story grammar element, draw a quick picture (‘sketch’)

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next to each narrative icon. Use arrows () to map to the next story
component.
‘Now we are going to finish making our story map using our story icons and
drawing sketches of what happens. The story map will help our brains to
make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to finish our story
map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the third page (the plan). ‘How did Gerald feel about
being bad at dancing? He felt miserable because he wanted to be a good
dancer like all the other animals ...The last part of the story map we
created was the plan – who remembers what the plan was? (provide
cloze sentence as prompt: Gerald decided...) yes! Gerald decided to have
a go at the Jungle Dance to see how he went.’
 Turn to the next page: Show the children the icon for attempt/action.
‘WHAT happened first at the dance?’ – discuss and look at the picture.
‘First the warthogs performed a good dance! Let’s stick our ACTION icon
on the story map – that shows when something happens (action) or when
the characters try to do something (attempt) to follow their plan. I am
going to draw a quick sketch of the warthogs dancing. WHAT happened
next at the dance?’ – discuss. ‘Next the rhinos performed a good dance! I
am going to draw a quick sketch of the rhinos dancing next to the
warthogs. WHAT happened next at the dance?’ – discuss. Next the lions
performed a good dance! I am going to draw a quick sketch of the lions
dancing next to the rhinos. WHAT happened next at the dance?’ – turn
the page & discuss. Next the chimps performed a good dance! I am going
to draw a quick sketch of the chimps dancing next to the lions. WHAT
happened next at the dance?’ – discuss. Next the baboons performed a
good dance! I am going to draw a quick sketch of the baboons dancing.
So next all the other jungle animals performed good dances’.
 Link actions to feelings to repeat modelling of inferential thinking, e.g.
Gerald must feel so miserable because he thinks his dancing will not be
as good as all the other animals.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT happened next
at the dance?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Gerald walked
towards the dance floor to dance! Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the
story map – I am going to draw a quick sketch of Gerald walking towards
the dance floor to help us remember what happened next’.
 Turn to the next page: Show feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do
you think that Gerald felt when he walked to the dance floor?’ Discuss
appropriate feelings (brave, scared, worried) and provide a think aloud for
support (I think that..). ‘Gerald felt brave as he walked towards the dance
floor because he wanted to have a go at dancing. Let’s stick our
FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch
of Gerald with a brave face to help us remember how he felt’.
 Turn to the next page: Show kick-off icon. ‘WHAT happened next?’ –
discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next the animals all laughed at Gerald
because they thought he looked clumsy and silly. Let’s stick our KICK-

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OFF icon on the story map. I am going to draw a quick sketch of the
animals laughing at Gerald to help us remember what happened next’.
 Turn to the next page: Show the feelings icon. ‘How do you think that
Gerald felt when the animals laughed at him?’ Discuss appropriate
feelings (he ‘froze up’ - embarrassed, ashamed), provide a think aloud for
support (I think that..). ‘Gerald felt embarrassed because the animals
laughed at him. So what did he do?... he left the dance. How do you think
that Gerald felt as he walked away from the dance?’ Discuss appropriate
feelings (upset/sad/miserable, lonely) and provide a think-aloud for
support. ‘Gerald felt embarrassed because he was not good at dancing
so he walked away by himself feeling miserable and lonely. Let’s stick our
FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch
of Gerald with an embarrassed and miserable face to help us remember
how he felt’.
 Turn to the next page: show plan icon. ‘Gerald felt embarrassed,
miserable and lonely because he was not good at dancing and he was all
alone. He went to a little clearing. What was the PLAN to help him?...’
(provide a think aloud as support, I think that the cricket...) ‘...yes, the
cricket had a plan to help Gerald by listening to a different song. What did
he say to Gerald?... yes, he said ‘sometimes when you are different, you
just need a different song!’, SO what did Gerald do?...(turn to the next
page) he listened to the grass, trees and moon and the cricket played his
violin! So the PLAN was that the cricket said ‘sometimes when you are
different, you just need a different song!’ so Gerald listened to the sounds
around him. Let’s stick out PLAN icon on the story map - – I am going to
draw a quick sketch of the cricket talking to Gerald to help us remember
what the plan was’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did Gerald do
next? – discuss and look at the picture. ‘Next Gerald began to shuffle,
sway and swish his tail! ... and then (turn the page)... he did a backwards
somersault! What was he doing?... (provide phonemic prompt if
needed:... he was dan...)...He was dancing! What did he say?.. ‘I’m
dancing!’ Gerald cried! Let’s stick our ATTEMPT icon on the story map – I
am going to draw a quick sketch of Gerald dancing to the night music with
a speech bubble to show what he said – his attempt to follow the cricket’s
advice’.
 Turn to the next page: Show direct consequence icon. ‘How do you think
that Gerald felt when he realised that he was dancing?’ Discuss
appropriate feelings (he felt wonderful  pleased, happy, excited),
provide a think aloud for support (I think that..). ‘Gerald felt pleased and
excited because he was dancing. ‘WHAT happened next? – discuss and
look at the picture. ‘Next all the animals arrived and watched him,
entranced! ..What did the animals say?... ‘It’s a miracle, Gerald’s the best
dancer we’ve ever seen’ they shouted! Let’s stick our CONSEQUENCE
icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of Gerald
with a pleased and excited face, and all the animals watching entranced

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with a speech bubble, to help us remember how the consequence of his
attempts’.
 Turn to the next page (show the next two pages throughout this part):
show the tie-up icon. ‘How do you think that Gerald felt when all the
animals watched him entranced?...’ discuss possible emotions (happy,
pleased, excited, grateful, proud)... Gerald felt pleased... what did Gerald
say to the other animals?... ‘we can all dance when we find music that we
love’.. where did he look when he said that?... at the moon and stars!, so
in the end, Gerald felt pleased because he had found music that he
loved. Let’s stick our tie-up icon on the story map to remember the end of
the story, and I am going to draw Gerald’s face looking pleased and
looking up at the moon and stars.’
‘Wow, look at our story map for Giraffes Can’t Dance! What was our goal *‘Giraffes
Retell the today? (to finish the story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Can’t
story We have finished! Now we can tell the whole story and we have the icons Dance’
5 mins narrative
and your pictures to help us remember what happens in the story. Let’s * Story
practice telling the story with our story map.’ map
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the narrative)
with the children.
One afternoon there was a tall giraffe called Gerald who lived in the African
bush. He wanted to dance at the Jungle Dance BUT he thought he was very
bad at dancing. He felt miserable because he wanted to be a good dancer
like all the other animals, but he decided to have a go at the Jungle Dance.
The other jungle animals all performed good dances.
Then Gerald walked towards the dance floor. He felt brave because he
wanted to have a go at dancing. All the animals laughed at Gerald because
they thought he looked clumsy and silly. Gerald felt embarrassed because
he was not good at dancing so he walked home by himself feeling miserable
and lonely. He got to a clearing and a cricket said ‘sometimes when you are
different, you just need a different song!’ so Gerald listened to the sounds
around him. Next Gerald began to shuffle, sway and swish his tail, and then
he did a backwards somersault! ‘I’m dancing’ he cried! Gerald felt excited
because he was dancing. Next all the other animals arrived and watched
Gerald, entranced. ‘It’s a miracle, Gerald’s the best dancer we’ve ever seen!’
they shouted. In the end, Gerald felt pleased because he had found music
that he loved.

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Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 3

Goals:
1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s inferential comprehension of
character emotions and to build on background knowledge of emotions by relating to
personal experiences.
2. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements – specifically, the inclusion
of character emotions.

Narrative: ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, Giraffes Can’t *‘Giraffes
Book Dance! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Can’t
sharing happened, so we can practice our story telling! Today we are going to talk about Dance’
and the FEELINGS in the book – how Gerald the giraffe felt at different parts of the narrative
discuss story. So our goal today is to WORK OUT how the characters in the book are * 2x
character’ emotions
FEELING – we need to remember the feeling words in the book and what they
s internal brainstorm
responses mean. What is our goal? ’ page
(feelings)  Begin reading the story. Ask inferential questions related to feelings: (miserable
(first page) ‘how did Gerald feel about being bad at dancing?’ discuss ; excited).
20 - 25 appropriate feelings – relate to the children’s experiences, ‘how would you feel * marker /
mins if you weren’t very good at something?’ (upset, sad, miserable) and the reason texta
why the character would feel like that – model using think-alouds (I think that
Gerald felt miserable because he could not dance very well and he wanted to
dance like everyone else).
 Link to repeated emotion after the animals laughed at Gerald: ‘did Gerald feel
miserable again in the story?... let’s find when he felt miserable...how did
Gerald feel when he walked away from the dance floor?...’ discuss emotions
(miserable, lonely, embarrassed). Relate to the children’s personal
experiences and brainstorm kick-offs when the children have experienced that
emotion. ‘Have you felt miserable before?’, ‘what made you feel miserable?’,
‘why did you feel miserable?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt
miserable because...). Link to plan – ‘what would your plan be if you weren’t
good at something?’.
 Continue reading the story (from before the dance). Ask causal inferential
questions:
(at the jungle dance) ‘Why do you think that Gerald decided to have a go at
the dance? Discuss possible reasons (e.g. because he wanted to try/be a
good dancer like everyone else) and relate to character traits (e.g. Gerald is
brave, courageous). Link to feelings:
‘How do you think Gerald felt when he walked up to the dance floor?’ discuss
appropriate feelings (e.g. brave, courageous, worried, scared) – relate to
children’s experiences, ‘how would you feel if you were having a go at
something you weren’t very good at?’. Link to the reason why the character
would feel like that – model using think-alouds (I think that Gerald felt brave
because he wanted to have a go). Relate to the children’s personal

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experiences. ‘Have you felt brave before?’, ‘what made you feel brave?’, ‘why
did you feel brave?’.
 Continue reading the story (from the dance). Ask causal & evaluative
inferential questions:
(jungle dance) ‘Why do you think that the animals laughed at Gerald?’ ‘Was
laughing at Gerald a nice thing to do? – why / why not?’
(Gerald ‘froze up’) Briefly discuss additional emotions (embarrassed, lonely)
and link to personal experiences, ‘have you felt... before?’, ‘what / why did you
feel....?’.
(at cricket) ‘Why do you think that the cricket helped Gerald?’
(Gerald doing somersault) ‘Why do you think that Gerald could dance to the
night music?’
 ‘How did Gerald feel when he realised he was dancing? Why?’ Discuss
emotions (excited, happy, pleased, relieved) and link to personal
experiences. ‘how would you feel if you finally did something you had wanted
to do for a long time?’. Link to the reason why the character would feel like
that – model using think-alouds (I think that Gerald felt excited because he
was finally dancing!). Relate feeling excited to children’s personal experiences
and brainstorm kick-offs when the children have experienced that emotion -
‘Have you felt excited before?’, ‘what made you feel excited?’, ‘why did you
feel excited?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt excited
because...).
 Continue reading (animals watching Gerald dance) ‘Why were the animals
entranced/ surprised to see Gerald dancing so well?’
What was our goal today? (to work out how the characters are feeling). What
feeling words did we talk about? What do they mean? Did we achieve our goal?
(yes!)
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice telling *‘Giraffes
Retell the the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good story tellers Can’t
story remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special words, like the Dance’
5 – 10 character feelings we’ve just talked about, which make the story interesting! Our narrative
mins next goal for today is for you to tell the story and include all the feeling words we * Story
map
talked about.’
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the narrative) with
the children.
One afternoon there was a tall giraffe called Gerald who lived in the African bush.
He wanted to dance at the Jungle Dance BUT he thought he was very bad at
dancing. He felt miserable because he wanted to be a good dancer like all the
other animals, but he decided to have a go at the Jungle Dance (plan).
The other jungle animals all performed good dances.
Then Gerald walked towards the dance floor. He felt brave because he wanted to
have a go at dancing. All the animals laughed at Gerald because they thought he
looked clumsy and silly. Gerald felt embarrassed because he was not good at
dancing so he walked home by himself feeling miserable and lonely. He got to a
clearing and a cricket said ‘sometimes when you are different, you just need a
different song!’ so Gerald listened to the sounds around him. Next Gerald began
to shuffle, sway and swish his tail, and then he did a backwards somersault! ‘I’m
dancing’ he cried! Gerald felt excited because he was dancing. Next all the other
animals arrived and watched Gerald, entranced. ‘It’s a miracle, Gerald’s the best
dancer we’ve ever seen!’ they shouted. In the end, Gerald felt pleased because

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he had found music that he loved.

Well done! What was our second goal for today? (to tell the story with the feeling
words). Did we achieve our goal of including the feeling words? (yes!). You are
becoming excellent story tellers because you included the feeling words which
make the story interesting!

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Giraffes Can’t Dance Session 4

Goals:

1. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of all targeted macrostructure and microstructure elements.
2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s ability to make an appropriate
prediction based on the events in a narrative.

Narrative: ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, Giraffes *‘Giraffes
Book Can’t Dance! We are going to read the story again to help us remember Can’t
sharing what happened, so we can practice our story telling!’’ Dance’
narrative
5 minutes  Re-read the story, making a small number of comments/think alouds. * Story
Pause to let the children tell you what happens next, e.g. then the map
cricket said....
 Add in internal response of characters, e.g. Gerald felt brave because
he wanted to have a go at the dance.
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do,
think and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout
and ask children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘Giraffes
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Can’t
story – story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special Dance’
group retell narrative
5 - 10 mins words, like the character feelings, which make the story interesting! Our * Story
goal today is to tell the story and include all the parts of the story and all the map
special feeling and connecting words which make the story interesting.
What is our goal?
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
One afternoon (when) there was a tall giraffe called Gerald (who) who lived
in the African bush (where). He wanted to dance at the Jungle Dance BUT
he thought he was very bad at dancing (kick-off). He felt miserable
because he wanted to be a good dancer like all the other animals (internal
response), but he decided to have a go at the Jungle Dance (plan).
The other jungle animals all performed good dances.
Then Gerald walked towards the dance floor. He felt brave because he
wanted to have a go at dancing. All the animals laughed at Gerald
because they thought he looked clumsy and silly. Gerald felt embarrassed
because he was not good at dancing so he walked home by himself
feeling miserable and lonely. He got to a clearing and a cricket said
‘sometimes when you are different, you just need a different song!’ so
Gerald listened to the sounds around him. Next Gerald began to shuffle,
sway and swish his tail, and then he did a backwards somersault! ‘I’m

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dancing’ he cried! Gerald felt excited because he was dancing. Next all the
other animals arrived and watched Gerald, entranced. ‘It’s a miracle,
Gerald’s the best dancer we’ve ever seen!’ they shouted. In the end,
Gerald felt pleased because he had found music that he loved.
‘What was our goal for today? (to tell the story with all the parts and special *‘Giraffes
Story words). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You are excellent story tellers! You Can’t
predictions – remembered to include the special feeling words and the connecting words Dance’
15 – 20 narrative
we’ve been talking about. Now we are going to WORK OUT what we think
minutes *
happens next, AFTER the story finishes. That is not something that HAS Predictions
already happened, but something that IS GOING TO happen, so to think of brainstorm
something that is going to happen NEXT we have to think of something page
new and link it to what we know from the story. So our next goal for today * marker /
texta
is to WORK OUT what is going to happen next. What is our second goal?’
 Revise ending of story: Gerald found music that he loved and could
dance to, what do you think happens NEXT? Or rephrase, What do you
think happens AFTER the story is finished?
You can also support prediction by showing the children the last page
in the book and saying If there was another page in the story, what
would be on it?
 Discuss appropriate predictions and brainstorm – ensure each child
has a turn to brainstorm a prediction. Discuss which predictions are
likely and why (using connector because), link to personal experiences
when possible. Provide a think-aloud as support/modelling – e.g. I think
that Gerald becomes the best dancer in the jungle BECAUSE he has
found music that is special for him; I think that Gerald teaches other
animals to dance BECAUSE it took him a long time to find out what
would help him to be a good dancer so he will be good at helping other
animals learn!
 Ask questions to monitor children’s reasoning of likely vs. unlikely
predictions, link to evaluative reasoning: e.g. do you think that Gerald
will dance at the next Jungle Dance? Why/why not? Should Gerald be
friends with the other jungle animals? Why/why not?
‘What was our second goal for today (to work out what is going to happen
next). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You have been very clever at
thinking of what Gerald might do NEXT, AFTER the story is finished! Next
time we are going to read a different story!’

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Narrative 4: The Gruffalo

Guide Narrative Macrostructure Analysis

WHEN: One day / once upon a time

WHO: Mouse

WHERE: Deep dark wood

Action: the mouse took a stroll (walk)

Initiating event: fox asked the mouse to lunch

Internal response: mouse felt scared because the fox wanted to eat him

Plan: mouse decided to be brave and trick the fox

Action/Attempt: he said to fox ‘I’m going to have lunch with a gruffalo. He has terrible tusks
and terrible claws, and terrible teeth!’

Internal response: The fox felt scared because he thought the gruffalo would eat him

Plan: So the fox ran away

Initiating event: the owl asked the mouse to tea

Internal response: mouse felt scared because the owl wanted to eat him

Plan: mouse decided to be brave and trick the owl

Action/Attempt: he said to owl ‘I’m going to have tea with a gruffalo. He has knobbly knees
and turned-out tows, and a poisonous wart on his nose!’

Internal response: The owl felt scared because he thought the gruffalo would eat him

Plan: So the owl flew away

Initiating event: the snake asked the mouse to a feast

Internal response: mouse felt scared because the snake wanted to eat him

Plan: mouse decided to be brave and trick the snake

Action/Attempt: he said to snake ‘I’m going to have a feast with a gruffalo. His eyes are
orange, his tongue is black and he has purple prickles all over his back!’

Internal response: The snake felt scared because he thought the gruffalo would eat him

Plan: So the snake slid away

Initiating event: The gruffalo came along and wanted to eat the mouse ‘my favourite food!’

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Internal response: The mouse felt surprised because he thought the gruffalo didn’t exist
and scared because he thought the gruffalo was going to eat him, he said ‘oh help, oh no,
it’s a gruffalo!’

Plan: so he decided to trick the gruffalo, ‘I’m the scariest creature in this wood! Just walk
behind me and soon you’ll see, everyone is afraid of me!’ he said

Action: the gruffalo walked behind the mouse through the wood

Action: they came to the snake. Snake felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would
eat him, so he slid off, ‘good bye little mouse’

Action: they came to the owl. Owl felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat
him, so he flew off, ‘good bye little mouse’

Action: they came to the fox. Fox felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat
him, so he ran off, ‘good bye little mouse’

Action: the mouse said to the gruffalo ‘everyone is afraid of me! My favourite food is gruffalo
crumble!’

Direct consequence: the gruffalo felt frightened because he thought the mouse was going
to eat him so the gruffalo ran away.

Resolution: in the end the mouse was relieved and pleased because he had tricked all the
animals and had not been eaten!

Character feelings to explore: scared/frighted, brave, surprised, relieved

Tier 2 Vocabulary

Deep – far down/far in (meaning in book  it is a big wood)

Stroll – a small/slow walk

Kind – nice, friendly

Terrible – very bad, awful

Sped – went quickly

Knobbly – having lumps

Poisonous – a substance that could make you sick/ill or kill you (link to prior knowledge –e.g.
snakes, spiders)

Stream – a small river

Feast – large/huge meal

Afraid – scared, frightened, feeling fear of something

Astounding – really impressive, amazing, surprising

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The Gruffalo Session 1

Goals:

1. To activate students’ background knowledge to assist with narrative comprehension.


2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential
comprehension of the narrative.
3. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.

Narrative: ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘We are going to read a story. Let’s have a look at the front cover (show front ‘The
Pre-story cover). Can anyone guess who the story is about?... (provide a think aloud if Gruffalo’
knowledge no child provides an idea, e.g. I think that the story is about a mouse and narrative
activation a...I’m not sure what that animal is!, what do you think?). Who else do you
think could be in the story?, What do you think the mouse will do?...’
2 - 5 mins
 Link to prior knowledge: have you seen a mouse before? Have you seen
an animal like this one before? Where? When? What do you think
happens to the mouse? (prediction – use visual clues).
 What do you think the title of the story could be? ... The story is called
‘The Gruffalo’ and it was written by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
‘Now we are going to read the story together!’ ‘The
Book  Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and model Gruffalo’
sharing inferential thinking: narrative
(first page) ‘I wonder if the fox is going to eat the mouse..?’
10 mins
(second page) ‘I think the fox feels scared because he thinks the mouse
will eat him!..’
(when mouse tricks animals) ‘I think the mouse is very brave and clever
to trick the animals!’
(when Gruffalo appears) ‘I think that the mouse feels really surprised
because he didn’t think the gruffalo was real! He looks really frightened
too... what do you think is going to happen?...’ Use clues from the text to
predict (and link with conjunction ‘because’ – the gruffalo is scary, has his
tongue & hand out, walking towards the mouse – the gruffalo might eat
the mouse, the mouse might run away).
(at the snake) ‘I think the snake feels really frightened because he thinks
the Gruffalo is going to eat him! Who does the Gruffalo think the snake is
scared of? ...’ Point out visual clues – facial expression and body
language (mouth and eyes wide open).
(at Gruffalo running away) ‘the Gruffalo looks really scared! Why is he
running away from the mouse?’
(last page) ‘the mouse must be so relieved because he didn’t get eaten! I
think he feels pleased because he was brave and clever to trick the
animals and the Gruffalo!’
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – do this during every re-
read of the narrative. Discuss throughout and explain meaning or ask
children what the words mean:
Deep – far down/far in (meaning in book  it is a big wood)

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Stroll - a small/slow walk
Kind – nice, friendly
Terrible – very bad, awful
Sped – went quickly
Knobbly – having lumps
Poisonous – a substance that could make you sick/ill or kill you (link to
prior knowledge –e.g. snakes, spiders)
Stream – a small river
Feast – large/huge meal
Afraid – scared, frightened, feeling fear of something
Astounding - really impressive, amazing, surprising
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to build a story map – ask *‘The
Build story literal and inferential questions and model inferential thinking, map story Gruffalo’
map components to narrative icons. Alert to inferential thinking by using the narrative
phrase ‘we are going to WORK OUT...’. * A3
15 mins Print out a story map template with narrative icons or, as you discuss each paper
story grammar element, stick the matching narrative icon on an A3 page and * marker /
use arrows () to map to the next story component. Draw a quick picture texta
(‘sketch’ – discuss what this is) next to the icon.
‘We are going to practice telling this story so we can become good story
tellers. Good story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well
as special words like the character’s feelings which make the story
interesting! Being a good story teller also helps us to understand stories
better. We are going to help ourselves remember what happens in the story
by making a story map using our story icons and drawing sketches of what
happens (a sketch is a really quick drawing). The story map will help our
brains to make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to start a
story map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the first page.
 Show the children the setting icon for when. ‘WHEN do you think the
story took place?’ – accept any reasonable response and discuss why
(e.g. visual clues – light/not dark). One day/once upon a time - Let’s stick
our WHEN icon at the top of the page, and I am going to draw a quick
sketch of X(a sun, a book opening) to help us remember WHEN the story
took place’.
 Show children the character icon. ‘WHO is the main character in the
story?’ – the mouse. Use visual prompt if needed (have a look at the
picture to help you remember). ‘the mouse! Let’s stick our WHO icon next
to the WHEN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick
sketch of the mouse to help us remember’.
 Show the children the setting icon for where. ‘WHERE do you think the
story takes place?’ – discuss responses and refer to visual clues (e.g. lots
of trees – wood/forest). ‘In a wood! Let’s stick our WHERE icon on our
story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the wood to help us
remember where the story took place.’
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT was the mouse
doing?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘the mouse was going for a walk
(stroll)! Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map – I am going to
draw a quick sketch of the mouse walking’.
 Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘What was the kick-off?’ Provide

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support if needed (cloze-sentence- the fox asked...). ’The kick-off was
that the fox asked the mouse to lunch. Did the fox really want to have
lunch with the mouse...? what did he want to eat for lunch? (the mouse!).
Let’s stick our KICK-OFF icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a
quick sketch of the fox asking the mouse to lunch to help us remember
what the first kick-off is’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). Alert to inferential
thinking – ‘Now we’re going to talk about feelings. We’re going to WORK
OUT how the characters were feeling!’
‘How do you think the mouse felt when the fox asked him for lunch?’
Discuss feelings and provide think-aloud for support (I think that the
mouse felt frightened because he knew that the fox wanted to eat him,
what do you think?). Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map,
and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the mouse with a frightened face
to help us remember how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. Alert to inferential thinking – ‘Now we
know how the characters feel, we’re going to WORK OUT what they plan
to do next!’ ‘What was the mouse’s PLAN?’ Discuss the plan, provide
think-aloud for support (I think that the plan was to trick the fox....). ‘The
plan was that the mouse decided to be brave and trick the fox. Let’s stick
our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch
of the mouse thinking’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the mouse
do?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘he said to the fox, ‘I’m going to
have lunch with a gruffalo!’ Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of the mouse with a speech box
telling the fox about the gruffalo’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
the fox felt when he heard about the gruffalo?’ Discuss feelings and
provide think-aloud for support (I think that the fox felt frightened because
he thought the gruffalo might eat him). Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on
our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the fox with a
frightened face to help us remember how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What was the fox’s PLAN?’ Discuss the
plan, use visual clues (fox running). ‘The fox’s plan was to run away so he
didn’t get eaten by the gruffalo! Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story
map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the fox running away’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for The Gruffalo! What was our goal today? (to *‘The
Retell the start a story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Gruffalo’
story We are going to work some more on it next time, but first we are going to narrative
2 - 5 mins practice telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then we’ll tell it * Story
together...’ map
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map) with the children.
e.g. Once upon a time (when) there was a mouse (who) who lived in a deep
dark wood (where). He was going for a stroll(or walk) (action) when a fox
asked him to lunch (kick-off)! The mouse felt frightened because he knew
that the fox wanted to eat him (internal response), so he decided to be brave
and trick the fox (plan)! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have lunch with the
gruffalo!’ (attempt). The fox felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo
would eat him (internal response) so he ran away (plan).

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The Gruffalo Session 2

Goals:

1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s literal and inferential


comprehension of the narrative.
2. To explicitly break down and discuss the story grammar of the narrative using literal
and inferential questioning while creating a story map to support narrative retell.
3. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements.

Narrative: ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we talked about last time?... That’s right, The ‘The
Book Gruffalo! Who remembers what the first kick-off was?...(provide cloze Gruffalo’
sharing sentence as prompt: the fox asked the mouse...) yes, the first kick-off was narrative
that the fox asked the mouse to lunch! Who remembers how the mouse felt
5 - 10 mins
about that? (provide phonemic cue as prompt: he felt fri...) He felt frightened
because he knew the fox wanted to eat him, poor mouse! Then his plan was
to trick the fox. We are going to read the story again to help us remember
what happened, so we can finish our Gruffalo story map and practice our
story telling!’
 Begin reading the story. Make comments (think alouds) and ask
inferential questions:
(at owl) ‘why do you think that the owl asked the mouse to lunch?’
(provide think aloud as prompt; he wanted to eat the mouse).
(when Gruffalo appears) ‘how do you think the mouse feels here? ...
why?’ Provide cloze sentence as prompt: he felt frigh....
(when mouse takes Gruffalo through the wood) Who did the Gruffalo
think the animals were scared of? Why? ... who were the animals really
scared of? Provide explicit links to earlier elements in the story to support
inferencing.
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do, think
and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout and ask
children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘The
Build story telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Gruffalo’
map story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special narrative
words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting!’ * A3
15 – 20
Once upon a time (when) there was a mouse (who) who lived in a deep dark paper
mins
wood (where). He was going for a stroll(or walk) (action) when a fox asked * marker /
him to lunch (kick-off)! The mouse felt frightened because he knew that the texta
fox wanted to eat him (internal response), so he decided to be brave and
trick the fox (plan)! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have lunch with the gruffalo!’
(attempt). The fox felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat
him (internal response) so he ran away (plan).
Explicitly break down story grammar elements to finish building the story

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map – ask literal and inferential questions to map to narrative icons.
As you discuss each story grammar element, draw a quick picture (‘sketch’)
next to each narrative icon. Use arrows () to map to the next story
component.
‘Now we are going to finish making our story map using our story icons and
drawing sketches of what happens. The story map will help our brains to
make a strong memory of the story. So our GOAL today is to finish our story
map with pictures to help us remember the story. What is our goal?’
 Open the book to the third page (the plan). ‘How did the fox feel when the
mouse said he was going to have lunch with the gruffalo?..the fox felt
frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him! The last part
of the story map we created was the fox’s plan – who remembers what
the plan was? (provide cloze sentence as prompt: the fox ran...) yes! The
fox felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him so he
ran away’.
 Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘What was the next kick-off?’ Provide
support if needed (cloze-sentence- the owl asked...). ’The kick-off was
that the owl asked the mouse to tea. Did the owl really want to have tea
with the mouse...? what did the owl want to do? (eat the mouse!). Let’s
stick our KICK-OFF icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a
quick sketch of the owl asking the mouse to tea to help us remember
what the next kick-off is’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
the mouse felt when the owl asked him for tea?’ Discuss feelings and
provide think-aloud for support (I think that the mouse felt frightened
because he knew that the owl wanted to eat him, what do you think?).
Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am going to draw
a quick sketch of the mouse with a frightened face to help us remember
how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What was the mouse’s PLAN?’ Discuss
the plan, provide think-aloud for support (I think that the plan was to trick
the owl....). ‘The plan was that the mouse decided to be brave and trick
the owl. Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to
draw a quick sketch of the mouse thinking’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the mouse
do?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘he said to the owl, ‘I’m going to
have lunch with a gruffalo!’ Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of the mouse with a speech box
telling the owl about the gruffalo’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
the owl felt when he heard about the gruffalo?’ Discuss feelings and
provide think-aloud for support (I think that the owl felt frightened because
he thought the gruffalo might eat him). Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on
our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the owl with a
frightened face to help us remember how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What was the owl’s PLAN?’ Discuss the
plan, use visual clues (owl flying). ‘The owl’s plan was to fly away so he
didn’t get eaten by the gruffalo! Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story
map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the owl flying away’.

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 Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘What was the next kick-off?’ Provide
support if needed (cloze-sentence- the snake asked...). ’The kick-off was
that the snake asked the mouse to a feast. Did the snake really want to
have a feast WITH the mouse...? what did the snake want to do? (feast
on the mouse!). Let’s stick our KICK-OFF icon on our story map, and I am
going to draw a quick sketch of the snake asking the mouse to a feast to
help us remember what the next kick-off is’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
the mouse felt when the snake asked him to a feast?’ Discuss feelings
and provide think-aloud for support (I think that the mouse felt frightened
because he knew that the snake wanted to eat him, what do you think?).
Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am going to draw
a quick sketch of the mouse with a frightened face to help us remember
how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What was the mouse’s PLAN?’ Discuss
the plan, provide think-aloud for support (what was his plan with the other
animals? ...I think that the plan was to trick the snake....). ‘The plan was
that the mouse decided to be brave and trick the snake. Let’s stick our
PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a quick sketch of the
mouse thinking’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the mouse
do?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘he said to the snake, ‘I’m going to
have lunch with a gruffalo!’ Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map
– I am going to draw a quick sketch of the mouse with a speech bubble
telling the snake about the gruffalo’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
the snake felt when he heard about the gruffalo?’ Discuss feelings (how
did the other animals feel?) and provide think-aloud for support (I think
that the snake felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo might eat
him). Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am going to
draw a quick sketch of the snake with a frightened face to help us
remember how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What was the snake’s PLAN?’ Discuss
the plan, use visual clues (snake slithering away into hiding). ‘The
snake’s plan was to slide away so he didn’t get eaten by the gruffalo!
Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a
quick sketch of the snake sliding away’.
 Show the children the kick-off icon. ‘What was the next kick-off?’ Provide
support if needed (cloze-sentence- the gruffalo appeared and...). ’The
next kick-off was that the gruffalo appeared and wanted to eat the mouse.
What did he say when he saw the mouse? ... ‘my favourite food!’ he said.
Let’s stick our KICK-OFF icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a
quick sketch of the gruffalo with a speech bubble to help us remember
what the next kick-off is’.
 Show the children the feelings icon (internal response). ‘How do you think
the mouse felt when he saw the gruffalo?’ Discuss feelings, use
questioning (e.g. did the mouse think the gruffalo was real?) and provide
think-aloud for support (I think that the mouse felt surprised because he
didn’t think that the gruffalo was real, what do you think? I think the

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mouse also felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo was going to
eat him!). Let’s stick our FEELINGS icon on our story map, and I am
going to draw a quick sketch of the mouse with a surprised and frightened
face to help us remember how he felt’.
 Show the children the plan icon. ‘What was the mouse’s PLAN?’ Discuss
the plan, provide think-aloud for support (what was his plan with the other
animals? ...I think that the plan was to trick the gruffalo....). ‘The plan was
that the mouse decided to be brave and trick the gruffalo, like he had with
the other animals! What did the mouse say?... ‘I’m the scariest creature in
this wood! Just walk behind me and soon you’ll see, everyone is afraid of
me!’ Let’s stick our PLAN icon on our story map, and I am going to draw a
quick sketch of the mouse with a speech bubble’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the mouse
do?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘he walked in the wood with the
gruffalo walking behind. Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map – I
am going to draw a quick sketch of the mouse walking with the gruffalo
following behind’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT happened next?’
– discuss and look at the picture. ‘they found the snake. What did the
snake do?.... he slid off. What did he say to the mouse? ‘goodbye little
mouse!”. How do you think the snake felt? (discuss) why? (discuss –
frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him) Let’s stick our
ACTION icon on the story map – I am going to draw a quick sketch of the
snake sliding away from the mouse and gruffalo’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT happened next?’
– discuss and look at the picture. ‘they found the owl. What did the owl
do?.... he flew off. What did he say to the mouse? ‘goodbye little mouse!”.
How do you think the owl felt? (discuss) why? (discuss – frightened
because he thought the gruffalo would eat him) Let’s stick our ACTION
icon on the story map – I am going to draw a quick sketch of the owl
flying away from the mouse and gruffalo’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT happened next?’
– discuss and look at the picture. ‘they found the fox. What did the fox
do?.... he ran off. What did he say to the mouse? ‘goodbye little mouse!”.
How do you think the fox felt? (discuss) why? (discuss – frightened
because he thought the gruffalo would eat him) Let’s stick our ACTION
icon on the story map – I am going to draw a quick sketch of the fox
running away from the mouse and gruffalo’.
 Turn to the next page: Show attempt/action icon. ‘WHAT did the mouse
say next?’ – discuss and look at the picture. ‘the mouse said to the
gruffalo ‘everyone is afraid of me and my favourite food is gruffalo
crumble!’ Let’s stick our ACTION icon on the story map – I am going to
draw a quick sketch of the mouse with a speech bubble saying to the
gruffalo ‘everyone is afraid of me and my favourite food is gruffalo
crumble!’’.
 Show the children the direct consequence icon. ‘How do you think the
gruffalo felt when the mouse said that his favourite food was gruffalo
crumble?’ Discuss feelings, use questioning (e.g. did the gruffalo think the
other animals were scared of the mouse? Why?) and provide think-aloud

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for support (I think that the gruffalo felt frightened because he thought
that the mouse would eat him, what do you think?). ‘What did the gruffalo
do?’ Discuss the direct consequence, provide think-aloud for support (the
gruffalo ran away because he felt frightened that the mouse was going to
eat him!....). ‘The consequence of the mouse’s plan was that the gruffalo
ran away! Let’s stick our CONSEQUENCE icon on our story map, and I
am going to draw a quick sketch of the gruffalo running away from the
mouse’.
 Turn to the last page. Show the children the tie-up icon. ‘How do you
think the mouse felt in the end?....’ discuss possible emotions and
reasons (happy, pleased, glad, relieved, proud). ‘why did the mouse feel
relieved/pleased’ provide think-alouds for support (e.g. I think that the
mouse felt relieved because he had not been eaten! What do you
think?)...’in the end, the mouse felt relieved and pleased because he had
tricked all the animals and had not been eaten! Let’s stick our tie-up icon
on the story map to remember the end of the story, and I am going to
draw the mouse’s face looking relieved and pleased’.
‘Wow, look at our story map for The Gruffalo! What was our goal today? (to *‘The
Retell the finish the story map with pictures). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!) Gruffalo’
story We have finished! Now we can tell the whole story and we have the icons narrative
5 mins and your pictures to help us remember what happens in the story. Let’s * Story
map
practice telling the story with our story map. I’ll have a go, then we’ll tell it
together...’
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the narrative)
with the children.
Once upon a time there was a mouse who lived in a deep dark wood. He
was going for a stroll(or walk) when a fox asked him to lunch! The mouse felt
frightened because he knew that the fox wanted to eat him, so he decided to
be brave and trick the fox! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have lunch with the
gruffalo!’. The fox felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat
him so he ran away. Next an owl asked the mouse to tea! The mouse felt
frightened because he knew that the owl wanted to eat him, so he decided
to be brave and trick the owl! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have lunch with
the gruffalo!’. The owl felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would
eat him, so he flew away. After that a snake asked the mouse to a feast!
The mouse felt frightened because he knew that the snake wanted to eat
him, so he decided to be brave and trick the snake! The mouse said ‘I’m
going to have lunch with the gruffalo!’. The snake felt frightened because he
thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he slid away. Then the gruffalo
appeared and said to the mouse ‘my favourite food!’. The mouse felt
surprised because he thought the gruffalo was not real and frightened
because he thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he decided to be brave
and trick the gruffalo. The mouse said ‘I’m the scariest creature in this wood!
Just walk behind me and soon you’ll see, everyone is afraid of me!’ so the
gruffalo walked behind the mouse through the wood. First they met the
snake who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and slid off! Then they met the owl
who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and flew off! Finally they met the fox who
said ‘good bye little mouse’ and ran off! The mouse said to the gruffalo
‘everyone is afraid of me and my favourite food is gruffalo crumble!’. The

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gruffalo felt frightened because he thought the mouse was going to eat him
so he ran away! In the end, the mouse felt relieved and pleased because he
had tricked all the animals and had not been eaten!

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The Gruffalo Session 3

Goals:

1. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s inferential comprehension of


character emotions and to build on background knowledge of emotions by relating to
personal experiences.
2. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of macrostructure and microstructure elements – specifically, the inclusion
of character emotions.

Narrative: ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, The *‘The
Book Gruffalo! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Gruffalo’
sharing and happened, so we can practice our story telling! Today we are going to talk narrative
discuss * 2x
character’s about the FEELINGS in the book – how the mouse and the other characters emotions
internal felt. So our goal today is to WORK OUT how the characters in the book are brainstorm
responses FEELING – we need to remember the feeling words in the book and what page
(feelings) they mean. What is our goal?’ (frightened;
surprised).
 Begin reading the story. Ask inferential questions related to feelings:
20 - 25 * marker /
mins (when mouse comes across animals) ‘how did the mouse feel when he texta
saw the fox/owl/snake?’ discuss appropriate feelings – relate to the
children’s experiences, ‘how would you feel if you saw a scary
animal/an animal that would eat you (i.e. lion, shark)?’ (scared,
frightened, afraid) and the reason why the character would feel like that
– model using think-alouds (I think that the mouse felt frightened
because he knew that the fox/owl/snake was planning to eat him!).
 Relate to the children’s personal experiences and brainstorm kick-offs
when the children have experienced that emotion. ‘Have you felt
frightened before?’, ‘what made you feel frightened?’, ‘why did you feel
frightened?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt frightened
because...). Link to plan – ‘what would your plan be if you thought you
were going to be eaten by something?’ – use questioning (e.g. would
you try and trick the animal like the mouse?) and/or think-alouds for
support (e.g. I think I might...).
 Continue reading the story. Ask causal inferential questions & use think
alouds:
(at animals) ‘Why do you think that the fox/owl/snake ran away?’
Discuss possible reasons (e.g. because the gruffalo sounded scary,
because they thought the gruffalo would eat them, etc) and relate to
character traits (e.g. gruffalo is terrible, fierce, scary).
‘Why did the mouse trick the fox/owl/snake?’ discuss and link to reason,
use cloze-sentence as a prompt (‘because otherwise he would be...
eaten by the animal/s’).
(at animals) ‘I think the little mouse is very brave talking to the animals

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© Dawes 2015
and tricking them! What do you think he would do if he didn’t trick them’,
discuss appropriate predictions (e.g. run away, hide, etc).
‘I wonder how the mouse felt when he did not get eaten by the
fox/owl/snake?... I think the mouse felt relieved because the
fox/owl/snake did not eat him!’
 Continue reading the story.
(when the gruffalo appears) ‘how do you think the mouse felt when he
saw the gruffalo?’ discuss appropriate feelings (frightened, scared).
‘How else do you think he felt?’ use questioning to prompt (e.g. did the
mouse think the gruffalo was real?, do you think he expected to see the
gruffalo?) and discuss appropriate feelings (shocked, surprised,
amazed) – relate to the children’s experiences, ‘how would you feel if
you saw a scary creature that you thought was not real / was pretend?’
(scared, frightened, afraid, shocked, surprised, amazed) and the reason
why the character would feel like that – model using think-alouds (I think
the mouse felt surprised when he saw the gruffalo because he did not
think that the gruffalo was real! I think he also felt frightened because
the gruffalo wanted to eat him).
 Relate to the children’s personal experiences and brainstorm kick-offs
when the children have experienced that emotion. ‘Have you felt
surprised before?’, ‘what made you feel surprised?’, ‘why did you feel
surprised?’. Link to causal connector because (e.g. you felt surprised
because...).
 Discuss tie-up emotions in the narrative, ‘how do you think that mouse
felt after the gruffalo left?’ discuss appropriate emotions and link to
causal connector (e.g. pleased/happy/excited because..., relieved
because...).
What was our goal today? (to work out how the characters are feeling).
What feeling words did we talk about? What do they mean? Did we achieve
our goal? (yes!)
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘The
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Gruffalo’
story story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special narrative
5 – 10 mins * Story
words, like character feelings we’ve just talked about, which make the story map
interesting! Our next goal for today is for you to tell the story and include all
the feeling words we talked about.’
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
Once upon a time there was a mouse who lived in a deep dark wood. He
was going for a stroll(or walk) when a fox asked him to lunch! The mouse
felt frightened because he knew that the fox wanted to eat him, so he
decided to be brave and trick the fox! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have
lunch with the gruffalo!’. The fox felt frightened because he thought the
gruffalo would eat him so he ran away. Next an owl asked the mouse to tea!
The mouse felt frightened because he knew that the owl wanted to eat
him, so he decided to be brave and trick the owl! The mouse said ‘I’m going

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© Dawes 2015
to have lunch with the gruffalo!’. The owl felt frightened because he
thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he flew away. After that a snake
asked the mouse to a feast! The mouse felt frightened because he knew
that the snake wanted to eat him, so he decided to be brave and trick the
snake! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have lunch with the gruffalo!’. The
snake felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he
slid away. Then the gruffalo appeared and said to the mouse ‘my favourite
food!’. The mouse felt surprised because he thought the gruffalo was not
real and frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he
decided to be brave and trick the gruffalo. The mouse said ‘I’m the scariest
creature in this wood! Just walk behind me and soon you’ll see, everyone is
afraid of me!’ so the gruffalo walked behind the mouse through the wood.
First they met the snake who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and slid off! Then
they met the owl who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and flew off! Finally they
met the fox who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and ran off! The mouse said to
the gruffalo ‘everyone is afraid of me and my favourite food is gruffalo
crumble!’. The gruffalo felt frightened because he thought the mouse was
going to eat him so he ran away! In the end, the mouse felt relieved and
pleased because he had tricked all the animals and had not been eaten!

Well done! What was our second goal for today? (to tell the story with the
feeling words). Did we achieve our goal of including the feeling words?
(yes!). You are becoming excellent story tellers because you included the
feeling words which make the story interesting!

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© Dawes 2015
The Gruffalo Session 4

Goals:

1. To retell a narrative using structural scaffolds (story map and narrative) to support the
inclusion of all targeted macrostructure and microstructure elements.
2. To use scaffolding techniques to support children’s ability to make an appropriate
prediction based on the events in a narrative.

Narrative: ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Activity & Description & Script Materials


Time
‘Who remembers the story we have been telling?... That’s right, The *‘The
Book Gruffalo! We are going to read the story again to help us remember what Gruffalo’
sharing happened, so we can practice our story telling!’’ narrative
* Story
5 – 10  Re-read the story, making a small number of comments/think alouds. map
minutes Pause to let the children tell you what happens next, e.g. then the
mouse met a....
 Add in internal response of characters, e.g. when the mouse meets the
snake, the mouse felt frightened because he knew the snake wanted to
eat him.
 Introduce higher level vocabulary (3-4 words) – explain ‘to tell a good
story we need to use special words to describe what characters do,
think and feel. They make the story interesting!’. Discuss throughout
and ask children what the words mean.
Revise the story map created in the first session: ‘We are going to practice *‘The
Retell the telling the story again using our story map to help us. Remember that good Gruffalo’
story – story tellers remember to include all the parts in a story, as well as special narrative
group retell * Story
5 – 10 words, like character feelings, which make the story interesting! Our goal map
minutes today is to tell the story and include all the parts of the story and all the
special feeling and connecting words which make the story interesting.
What is our goal?
 Practice a group retell of the story (using the story map and the
narrative) with the children.
Once upon a time there was a mouse who lived in a deep dark wood. He
was going for a stroll(or walk) when a fox asked him to lunch! The mouse
felt frightened because he knew that the fox wanted to eat him, so he
decided to be brave and trick the fox! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have
lunch with the gruffalo!’. The fox felt frightened because he thought the
gruffalo would eat him so he ran away. Next an owl asked the mouse to
tea! The mouse felt frighted because he knew that the owl wanted to eat
him, so he decided to be brave and trick the owl! The mouse said ‘I’m
going to have lunch with the gruffalo!’. The owl felt frightened because he
thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he flew away. After that a snake
asked the mouse to a feast! The mouse felt frighted because he knew that
the snake wanted to eat him, so he decided to be brave and trick the
snake! The mouse said ‘I’m going to have lunch with the gruffalo!’. The

Oral inferential comprehension intervention


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© Dawes 2015
snake felt frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he
slid away. Then the gruffalo appeared and said to the mouse ‘my favourite
food!’. The mouse felt surprised because he thought the gruffalo was not
real and frightened because he thought the gruffalo would eat him, so he
decided to be brave and trick the gruffalo. The mouse said ‘I’m the scariest
creature in this wood! Just walk behind me and soon you’ll see, everyone is
afraid of me!’ so the gruffalo walked behind the mouse through the wood.
First they met the snake who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and slid off! Then
they met the owl who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and flew off! Finally they
met the fox who said ‘good bye little mouse’ and ran off! The mouse said to
the gruffalo ‘everyone is afraid of me and my favourite food is gruffalo
crumble!’. The gruffalo felt frightened because he thought the mouse was
going to eat him so he ran away! In the end, the mouse felt relieved and
pleased because he had tricked all the animals and had not been eaten!
‘What was our goal for today? (to tell the story with all the parts and special *‘The
Story words). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You are excellent story tellers! You Gruffalo’
predictions – remembered to include the special feeling words and the connecting words narrative
15 – 20 *
minutes we’ve been talking about. Now we are going to WORK OUT what we think Predictions
happens next, AFTER the story finishes. That is not something that HAS brainstorm
already happened, but something that IS GOING TO happen, so to think of page
something that is going to happen NEXT we have to think of something * marker /
new and link it to what we know from the story. So our next goal for today texta
is to WORK OUT what is going to happen next. What is our second goal?’
 Revise ending of story: the mouse felt...(pause to let children state
emotions) relieved and pleased because he had tricked all the other
animals and had not been eaten. What do you think happens NEXT?
Or rephrase, What do you think happens AFTER the story is finished?
You can also support prediction by showing the children the last page
in the book and saying If there was another page in the story, what
would be on it?
 Discuss appropriate predictions and brainstorm – ensure each child
has a turn to brainstorm a prediction. Discuss which predictions are
likely and why (using connector because), link to personal experiences
when possible. Provide a think-aloud as support/modelling – e.g. I think
that the mouse goes home to have lunch/dinner, BECAUSE he is
hungry after walking for so long and tricking all the other animals!, I
think that the mouse goes to find his friends and tell them about what
he has done, BECAUSE he is proud that he was brave and clever
enough to trick the animals/relieved because he did not get eaten by
the animals!). Link to predictions about other characters (e.g. what will
the other characters do & why, what will the characters do next time
they see the mouse again? Why?).
 Ask questions to monitor children’s reasoning of likely vs. unlikely
predictions, link to evaluative reasoning: e.g. do you think that the
mouse will go on another walk by himself through the woods? Why/why
not?

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‘What was our second goal for today (to work out what is going to happen
next). Did we achieve our goal? (yes!).You have been very clever at
thinking of what the mouse might do NEXT, AFTER the story is finished!’

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© Dawes 2015

Resources

‘Work it Out...’ Thinking Poster

This poster was used in the intervention study as a visual reminder of inferencing.

Emotions brainstorm

This resource is used in the third intervention session with each narrative. Write the focus
emotion and add a picture or photograph depicting the facial expression of the targeted
emotion in the heart shape.

Predictions brainstorm

This resource is used in the fourth intervention session with each narrative.

Oral inferential comprehension intervention


Work it
out...

Pictures by Helen Rippon, © Black Sheep Press Ltd. for the Oral Inferential Comprehension Intervention © Dawes,
Leitao & Claessen 2015
______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

______________________ ______________________

Pictures by Helen Rippon, © Black Sheep Press Ltd. for the Oral Inferential Comprehension Intervention © Dawes,
Leitao & Claessen 2015
What do YOU
think happens
NEXT?

Pictures by Helen Rippon, © Black Sheep Press Ltd. for the Oral Inferential Comprehension Intervention © Dawes,
Leitao & Claessen 2015
73
© Dawes 2015

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