8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas

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WHAT IS SEQUENCING? A DEFINITION.

Sequencing is an essential reading

skill that students must develop if
they are to fully understand all
reading material. Luckily, sequencing
comes naturally to most children as
the concept of chronological order is
reinforced from very early on through
the practice of the routines of daily
life.

From the very first days of

kindergarten, children are taught the
FULL YEAR OF VISUAL
importance of doing things in order.
WRITING PROMPTS:
Each daily task contains its own inherent sequence. From tying their shoelaces INFERENCE
to getting ready for school, children pick up an understanding of the
importance of performing tasks step-by-step.

The importance of a defined beginning, middle, and end is further emphasized

from the first fairy tales students encounter through to the later classics of
English literature. While it is clear our students have a sense of what sequence
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8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas

is right from the start, understanding how a sequence comes together, and
developing the necessary skills to identify its component parts, is another
matter and it is this that will serve as the focus of this article.
COMPLETE UNIT OF
WHY TEACH SEQUENCING? POETRY

Given its importance in our daily lives, it is no surprise that there are a myriad
STORY ELEMENT UNIT
reasons to teach sequencing skills to our students. Strong sequencing skills
help students:

●     With their reading comprehension of a text, especially narrative texts.

●     Understand the structure of a text and how it is put together.

●     Understand how texts are kept cohesive through the use of linking devices
such as connectives and transitions.

●     Organize information and ideas in their own writing.

GREAT STORY ELEMENTS UNIT

●     Develop problem-solving skills that are important in other curriculum areas
too.

PREMIUM LITERACY
For our students, being able to identify the RESOURCES
sequence of events in a piece of writing is
essential for them to gain a clear
understanding of what they are reading. An
important reading comprehension strategy,
sequencing allows students to make sense
of how events unfold in their reading. In
turn, these reading skills will help students
in their own writing. It will help them to EARL YEARS SEQUENCING ACTIVITY IDEA

construct a cohesive and logical flow to their

writing that readers can follow easily.

There are a multitude of applications for good sequencing skills outside of the
English classroom too. They are needed to effectively perform the steps of a
science experiment in the correct order, for writing a set of instructions, for
making sense of an historical series of events, and they are an important aspect OUR PURPOSE
of problem solving in mathematical computation.
The purpose of literacyideas.com is to
HOW TO IDENTIFY SEQUENCE WHEN READING OR VIEWING provide teachers and students with a
collection of guides, resources and tools
A TEXT.
to improve literacy levels for all ages
and ability levels. Why? Because
• In its simplest terms, identifying sequence in a text involves identifying the literacy is fundamental to a person’s
beginning, the middle, and the end. ability to learn at school and to engage
productively in society.
• One of the easiest ways to recognize the order of events is to look out for
the sequencing words or transitions that are used to connect the various Since launching in 2015 we have had
parts of the text. millions of teachers and students from
around the world access our ever
• Some of these words and phrases also act as signals to provide an
growing text-type writing guides,
indication of whether the event will be located in the beginning, in the
reading skills and general writing skills
middle, or toward the end of the text’s chronology. tutorials.

• There are a wide variety of ‘signal words’ and the following represent just a
We are constantly revising and add
few of the most common, as well as where they are most likely to occur.
content to meet your needs as
literacyideas.com continues to grow

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8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas
and evolve into one of the most popular
sites for teachers and students to
DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR improve reading and writing skills.

STUDENTS
Thank you for visiting, please share it
with others, and be sure to check back
• Over 30 engaging activities for regularly.
students to complete BEFORE,
DURING and AFTER reading
ANY BOOK

• Compatible with all devices and

digital platforms including
GOOGLE CLASSROOM.

• Fun, Engaging, Open-Ended

INDEPENDENT tasks.

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Beginning

●     Once upon a time / Once there was

●     In the beginning

●     First of all

Middle

●     Meanwhile

●     After that

●     Suddenly

End

●     In the end

●     Finally

●     After all

For more complex narratives and technical nonfiction genres that comprise
more moving parts, other techniques need to be employed.

Use graphic organizers for sequencing

Graphic organizers are a great way to to help students arrange their thoughts
more efficiently in a range of areas - and sequencing is no exception. There are

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8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas

a number of different graphic organizers that lend themselves well to

displaying sequences of events.

Let’s take a look at two of the most suitable:

i. Timelines

The timeline is the most commonly used form of graphic organizer used for
displaying events in chronological order. They can come in a wide variety of
forms, including vertical, horizontal, and illustrated. Students can get creative
with timelines in a number of ways. For example, they can create parallel
timelines whereby the main character’s timeline runs alongside a timeline
depicting concurrent historical events. Or, they could create a map timeline
which places the timeline onto a map depicting distance, place, and dates of
events. Timelines are great for sequencing the events in fiction and nonfiction
genres alike.

ii. The Story Sequence Chart

This graphic organizer visually represents a set of stair-steps. Students should

write the events of the story on each step of the stairs in the order they occur,
starting with the first event on the first step and with each event that follows
written on the next step above. This is also a useful way for students to
represent nonlinear narratives, such as in medias res. This organizer is a helpful
means to unravel more complex chronologies. The finished chart helps the
student to see each of the events in the story in the order that they occurred.

SEQUENCING GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS.

There are a range of ways to encourage student awareness of the importance

of sequencing for the comprehensive understanding of a text. Using the
graphic organisers mentioned above is one such way of helping students to
identify the main events of a text.

Here are a few more activities to help students get to grips with sequence in
their reading.

Order Out of Chaos

In this activity, divide the class up into smaller groups of three or four. Give each
a copy of a short story (for differentiation purposes, you could assign groups
based on ability here and give each a story according to their level). The short
stories should be cut up into paragraphs (or individual sentences). In their
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8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas

groups, students reassemble the story according to how the think the
chronology should be. If all groups use the same story, the class can then
compare their choices at the end. If each group has a different story, they can
read their story to the other groups at the end and explain reasons for their
decisions.

Telling It Like It Was

The preparation for this activity works well as a homework as it gives students
time to rehearse. However, it also works well after any reading activity to assess
a student’s understanding of the sequence of events and their overall
comprehension of what they have read.

Have students retell the events of the story, article, poem etc in their own
words. If the text was nonlinear in its chronological structure, have them relay
what they read, but this time in a linear form. Obviously, you may need to allow
them some preparation time in such instances. I find telling students they will
have to retell a story before they read it is a powerful tool to get them focused
on that reading - fear is a peerless motivator!

You can also further expand on this activity by having students rewrite what
they have been reading. This will challenge them to consider the importance of
sequencing, both from a reader’s point of view and from that of a writer.

Spot the Sequence

Sometimes it can be difficult to extract a coherent chronology of events or

steps from a convoluted text. It may be, for example, that in a fictional work the
narrative perspective shifts between different characters and time periods. A
good solution to this is to utilize the timeline as described above. Here,
students can often match events to dates or times and then reassemble them
in chronological order on a timeline.

But, what about nonfiction then? Or when there are no dates available? For
example, when a process is described rather than an event?

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8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas

In such instances it is good practice for students to use the following prompts
to help identify the underlying sequence.

Encourage your students to ask themselves:

●     What happened first, second, third etc?

●     What happened before or after a specific event or step?

●     What happened in the end?

Encourage students to look for context clues to help them extract the
sequence from the text if it seems somewhat vague initially. A good
understanding of story structure will help them to identify the exposition, rising
action, climax, and resolution and understand how these relate to the
sequence. It will further help signpost the chronology, even when the story is
told in a nonlinear way.

For nonfiction in particular, the transition words / sequencing words outlined

earlier in this article will often help immensely too.

SEQUENCING RECAP

The concepts that underlie sequence are normally not that difficult for
students to grasp, as they experience an order to events constantly in their
everyday life. In the context of reading comprehension skills they will usually be
specifically concerned with the time order of events, or the steps that are taken
in a text. For our students to become strong, active readers they must clearly
identify the order that things happen or are done in their reading. For full
comprehension of the most complex reading material, lots of practice will be
required.

To that end, support your students to ensure they are familiar with as many
variations of the sequencing / transitioning words as possible. Encourage
higher level students to familiarise themselves with more sophisticated
expressions of common phrases such as In the beginning like Initially or
Primarily. The more context clues they can recognize too, the more efficiently
they will perform this task.

There is no shortcut to the development of any of the key reading

comprehension skills - and sequencing is no exception. First, students must
understand what sequencing is. Then, they must understand how to identify it
in a variety of text genres. After that, they must gain lots of experience through
practice activities such as those outlined above. Finally, they will become
confident, active readers capable of getting the most out of everything they
read.

How to Introduce Students to Identifying Major …

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8/9/2020 Sequencing events in reading and writing — Literacy Ideas

Content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh.  A former
principal of an international school and university English lecturer with 15 years
teaching and administration experience.  Editing and support content has
been provided by the literacyideas team.

about literacyideas.com

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