Overview of learning 15

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 15

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories

Related Early Learning Goals

Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences (CLL)
Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group (PSED)

Possible contexts

Use books, story boards and puppetry.
Provide collections of favourite books for rereading.
Engage in imaginative and role-play.
Use music, songs and rhymes.
Provide story and rhyme sacks with objects, books, tapes and CD-ROMs.
Make listening stations with microphones and story/song props.
Exploit areas of children's experience within the setting, for example 'small world' play, construction, malleable materials and the creative area.
Provide story cards (pictures/clip art from storybooks that can be arranged and rearranged on a story board).
Scan pictures into interactive whiteboard software or a computer to be made into talking books.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Book (Mr Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham)

Scan in pictures of the main objects and characters from Mr Gumpy's Outing, for example house, river, boat, animals. Or use these on a story board. Print/photocopy and cut out the main characters and objects, laminate them and prepare them for a felt or magnetic board.

Take photographs of the children and do the same with them (taking photographs of the whole of each child works best).

Model telling the story using the children's photographs. Put the children in the boat with or instead of the animals. Model the language patterns in the story.

Add to a collection for story-boarding. Encourage the children to retell the story using themselves or friends in the story. Add a microphone and tape recorder for the children to tell their stories into and share together.

Adult role

Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play, retelling stories, songs and rhymes through puppetry or objects, listening to tapes together.
Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Model using the language of books in play.
Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and videos.
Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc.
Record children's own storytelling.
Use puppets to sequence stories and model using the language of books.
Make collections of favourite stories, songs and rhymes with the children for regularly returning to.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

Extend stories into role-play and puppetry. Make a stage inside or outside. Help children to identify the main events in a story and to enact stories as the basis for further imaginative play. Encourage children's planning in small groups. Record the process with photographs and/or video. Look back at these with the children.
Provide story boards and props that encourage children to talk about the sequence of events and characters in a story.
Provide story sacks and boxes for use in the setting and at home.
Share books, rhymes and songs, and encourage children to remember while playing, for example use familiar rhymes and parts of stories during play.
Regularly make books that involve sequencing, for example instructions for washing hands, planting bulbs, recipes.

Adult role

Give opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books.
Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play, retelling stories, songs and rhymes through puppetry or objects, listening to tapes together.
Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Model using the language of books in play.
Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and videos.
Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc.
Use puppets to sequence stories and model using the language of books.
Provide familiar texts with short sentences that are enjoyable and can be committed to memory.
Make collections of favourite stories, songs and rhymes with the children for regularly returning to.
Provide plenty of opportunities for rereading and sequencing stories through listening stations, story boards, etc.

Look, listen and note

Do children understand the elements of stories? For example: Mehmet refers to the 'beginning' and 'end' of a story. He says, 'I don't like that ending; I think he should've run away and been happy ever after.'
Do they return to favourite books, songs and rhymes to be reread and enjoyed?

Assessment opportunities

Observe children recreating familiar roles in play.
Observe children retelling stories and see if they are able to sequence, for example in a story board, and if they pick out main features, for example what happened in the beginning, who the main characters are, etc.
Are children returning to or asking for familiar texts?