Adeeba_Field Report

RUNNINGHEAD: FOSTERINGCOMPREHENSION IN PRIMARY CLASSROOM 1
Field Report
On
Fostering Comprehension in Primary Classroom
Mount Litera Zee School, Saharanpur, UP
Submitted by- Adeeba Rao
Master’s in Education, Specialization in curriculum and pedagogy
Azim Premji University

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who provided me the possibility
to complete this report. A special gratitude I give to my mentors Shailaja Menon and Nisha
Butoliya, whose contribution in stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me to
carry out my project and writing my report.
Furthermore I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role of Mr
Aayush Agarwal, owner of Mount Litera Zee School for giving permission to do my project
and take 20 classes in their esteem organisation.
Last but not least, I have to appreciate the suggestion given by my mentor as well as the
panels in my project presentation that has helped me in improving my presentational skills
and make my report more nuanced and clear, thanks to their comment and advices.
I perceive this opportunity as a milestone in my career development. I will strive to use
gained skills and knowledge in the best possible way, and I will continue to work in this field,
in order to attain desired career objectives. Hope to continue cooperation with all of you in
the future.
Sincerely,
Adeeba Rao

Content
S. N Headings Page number
Section 1
1. Introduction 4
2. Literature review 5
3. Rationale 7
4. Objectives 8
5. Research questions 9
Section 2 – Method
6. Research Method 10
7. Research tool 13
8. Implementation: context 14
9. Data collection 16
Section 3- Results
10. Reflections from classroom observations 17
11. Field insights 17
12. Limitation of study 25
13. Validity of the study 26
14. Ethical issues 26
15. Conclusion 26
16. References 28
17. Appendices 29
.

Introduction
According to Annual Status of Education Report the level of Numeracy and Literacy is
falling down every year (ASER, 2014). One of the reasons for poor reading and writing
skills is the lack of meaning making skill. This skill development is very crucial in early
years. Moreover comprehension is central to literacy model and a bridge between what is
known and what is new (Refer figure 1). Thus a balanced comprehension instruction would
require explicit instructions in class on the application of comprehension strategy and an
opportunity to apply these strategies on actual reading, writing and discussion. According to
Duck and Pearson explicit instructional model include 5 components
- An explicit description of strategy and when and how it should be use.
- Teacher modelling of the strategy in action
- Collaborative use of the strategy in action
- Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility
- Independent use of strategy
For young learners, engagement with the text, best happens through talk as they are
beginning to learn formal reading and writing skills. Therefore in my project I focused on the
development of skill in applying comprehension strategies and literary element for meaning
making among 2nd Standard English language learners by using discussion based classroom
on story book. Story book is used only as a tool to achieve the overall aim of making learners,
meaning maker and text user (Freebody and Luke, 1990).
Figure 1 showing comprehension is a bridge between a known and a new – Pearson and
Johnson, 1978
Literature review
 Thought and language relation.
Vygotsky (1962), who is a social constructivist, was the first psychologist to acknowledge the
role of talk in organising understanding of the world. I am grounding my project on the work
of Lev Vygotsky. He suggested that thinking develops into words in a number of phases,
moving from imaging to inner speech to inner speaking to speech. According to him
intellectual development happens in dynamic process where thought and language interplay,
one impacting the other. He defines thinking as internalised speech- mediated action or
internal speech and what is internalised is some form of action and activity. (Chapter 6 of
PhD thesis Incipient Action, Vygotsky on thinking, 2005). Tracing this idea, speech and talk
New
known

is the representation of thinking. Therefore it seems reasonable to suggest that classrooms
should be filled with talk, given that we want them filled with thinking. Moreover he also
suggest that ability to think is the ability to rehearse inner speech, Language is thus a medium
of scaffolding through which children acquire more than information and build their
understanding about the world they live in.
 Children's literature & read aloud
Read Aloud leads to think aloud, both on the part of learner as well as on the part of
facilitator. I would like to link this to my above mentioned point where Vygotsky argue that
thoughts and language are interlinked. Literature is one of the ways to develop language in
children. Language is a medium through which children acquire more than information
because learners are social being; they are inducted to the cultural practices and ways of
understanding the world the way enacted by the group to which they belong. According to
Vygotsky the acquisition of language by the child modifies its higher mental function; it gives
a definite shape to thought. Which enable the emergence of imagination (Thought comes
before language or thought and language are interdependent processes?). Reading aloud
thus helps in build imagination in children.
Read aloud is one of the most important aspects of literacy acquisition. It helps young
learners to talk and think about text critically (calkins). Read aloud is at the heart of reading
instruction. It also foster discussion on various themes where the learner become an active
part of the process rather than a passive listener, moreover it help children in creating
meaning of the text. Meaning making becomes important during read aloud. Dialogue and
discussions happen during read aloud helps children to make deep meaning, through the
interplay between story and their personal experience. (Barrentine, 1996)
Reading aloud is a chance to introduce children to different genres of books and theme and
develop their interest in reading books in order to make them lifelong readers. Reading
aloud also helps in building vocabulary. Children learn new words and their meaning
through scoffing provided from the adult. Books contain many words, especially the more
sophisticated words that children are unlikely to encounter frequently in spoken language.
In addition read aloud help children to make comparisons, connections, recognize contrasts
and build conclusions which help in building literacy proficiency and comprehension about
the text that is at the heart goal of literacy instruction.
 5 nation study
Robin Alexander and his colleagues in the Five Nations Study in 2005 found out 5 common
strategies for fostering children’s learning-
 Rote: the drilling of facts, ideas and routines by repetition
 Recitation: the accumulation of knowledge and understanding through questions
designed to test or stimulate recall

 Instruction/exposition: imparting information, explaining facts, principles and
procedures, issuing instructions
Less frequently encountered were:
 Discussion: Exchange of ideas with a view to sharing information and solving
problems
 Scaffold dialogue/dialogic teaching: Achieving common understanding through
structured, cumulative questioning and discussion, which guide, prompt, reduce
choices, minimize risk and error and facilitate the internalising by students of
concepts and principles (Alexander, 2005)
Research suggests that these two techniques (discussion and dialogue) can be powerful tools
for developing and extending students’ understanding and schemas. The aim of using
dialogue in teaching is always to move the child’s thinking from his or her own conceptions
towards well-formed and mature understanding of and ways of thinking and talking about
issues and ideas. As the research shows that these 2 learning strategies found less in Indian
classrooms, I would like to use them in my project as a pedagogical strategy in teaching
English language.
Data from the Five Nations Study also showed that teachers in whose classrooms dialogue
was a noticeable feature tended to also emphasise a number of important aspects of student
talk, such as expressiveness, volume and clarity; precision in vocabulary, grammar and
syntax, and the development of the distinctive terminology of each subject area. Children also
had many opportunities to observe, learn and practise different and often more formal styles
of talk. (scott, 2009)
 Effective practices for developing reading comprehension (Duke and Pearson)
Building comprehension among learners will require direct instruction in class on modelling
the following strategies by using gradual release of responsibility model
Prediction – This strategy involves reader to make prediction in beginning and then read to
see how they turned out. This helps in activating prior knowledge to facilitate their
understanding of new ideas in the text. Prediction is high in case when themes and topics are
familiar
Summarising – According to Dole, Duffy, Roehler and Pearson (1991) ability to summarize
information require sift through large unit of text, differentiate important from unimportant
ideas and then synthesize those ideas and then create a new coherent text that stand for
substantive criteria. There are 2 types of summarizing- Oral summarizing and written
summarizing. Summarizing text helps kids to improve their comprehension about the text and
improve their recall.
Think aloud – Think aloud will involve making one’s thought audible and public, by saying
what one think while reading. It can happen both at the part of teacher and learner. By
thinking aloud teacher demonstrate how to model the strategy. Student thinking aloud help in
summarizing the text and hence comprehension

Text structure: Text structure helps to organise, recall and understand important ideas.
Knowledge of text structure will help learner to apply the strategy on new text and make
meaning of it for example story grammar which include categories like setting, problem,
goal, action, outcome, resolution and theme.
Questioning – Questioning on text can happen before, during and after text. To begin with I
will focus on factual detail question to recall of factual details. Then I will focus on the
question that will require them to connect information in the text to their prior knowledge
Visual representation: Teaching graphic organizer helps kids in meaning making. Rationale
of teaching graphic organizer is that, the strategies used to visually represent the text help
learners to explore characteristics and relationship within text. These strategies help in
organising the thoughts and make meaning from the text. Analytic graphic organizers have
helped kids in note taking, learning, recall of text, synthesis information from different
location in the text. Visual representation help kids to understand organise and remember
text.
 Elements of story (Calkins )
A balanced reading comprehension curriculum will also require one to facilitate the
knowledge of various elements of story. One should encourage learners to read and write
stories with the knowledge of these elements. First is knowledge of characters that is people
or animal in the story, sometimes they change as the story progress. Another is setting, that is
a time and place of the story, the overall context of the story. It could be a country, state or a
town, not just the scene of the action. At last, Plot, that is a sequence of events in the story
which may not be chronological in order. There might be suspense, tension, conflict and
resolution.
 Instructional Conversation (Goldenberg)
Instructional conversation is a pedagogical for effective learning process, which propose to
use discussions in class, build on each other opinions, challenged it and extend on previous
point. One present an idea and other respond to it. Discussion should happen in an
appropriate pace, neither too fast to prohibit the development of ideas and nor too slow to
maintain interest.
Rationale of the study
According to Vygotsky, thinking is a learned action and one of the components of thinking is
communicative abilities along with practical activity. (Chapter 6 of PhD thesis Incipient
Action, Vygotsky on thinking, 2005) He emphasised on the communicative and social
interactive side for intellectual development. When speech gets incorporated into activity, it
gets organised and structured. Thus discussion and talks in classroom are important for
comprehension building.
The progressive education philosophy thus embraces on the idea that children should be
taught “how to think” and make meaning of the text. The term ‘text’ here does not only refer
to printed materials, it may also include electronic text, student notes, lesson plans or school
textbooks and many other types of educational material, which are ‘inspected, dissected, and
analysed in various ways’ (Barton, 1994 p. 58) (Talk, Texts and Meaning-Making in

Classroom Contexts). Classroom interaction has been studied by Alexander and his
colleagues in 5 nations study and India is one of the subject nations. According to the study,
the two types of classroom talk - discussion and dialogue – were considerably more common
in classrooms in France and Russia than in India, the USA and England. Alexander, 2005
argues that the evidence supports that dialogic teaching is most effective for the development
of thinking skills and comprehension building. His argument is justified by research evidence
from psychological, neurological, pedagogical, and linguistic - which shows that talk of a
genuinely dialogic kind is indispensable to the development of thinking and understanding.
(scott, 2009). Therefore my rationale to do this project is to see if incorporation of talk,
explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, literary elements improve comprehension in
2nd standard, English language classroom.
The aim of using dialogue in teaching is to move the child’s thinking from his or her own
conceptions towards well-formed and mature understanding of and ways of thinking and
talking about issues and ideas. Learners will thus become independent thinkers and meaning
makers. According to (Barnes, 2008) school learning is largely determined by the access to
the process of learning and communication system that the teacher sets up, which ultimately
leads to the kind and the depth of learning, children engage in school.
Objectives of the study
Figure 2 showing objectives of the study
My overall objective of doing this was to encourage children to talk and discuss about
literature in class, as dialogue and discussions are powerful tool for meaning making.
Moreover to build confidence among learners in oracy by introducing book from different
genres, as thoughts and language are interdependent. As a facilitator my objective was also to
model shared responsibility of learning for classroom by teaching comprehension strategies
and literary elements. Knowledge presented by the students during discussions contributed to
overall meaning making in classroom and it is a valid knowledge (Refer figure 2)
Literature- based curriculum
Apply literary elements and
comprehension strategies
Genres
Opportunity for
accountable talk
Vocabulary
Develop oracy

Research question
The broad research topic that is being addressed here is: fostering comprehension in primary
classroom. In order to address this question, I will attempt to explore it from 2 lenses:
Classroom observation and talk as a pedagogical practice. Here talk refers to accountable
talks (dialogue and discussions) and not noises that are made in class. I will propose to study
classroom talk if teacher is using IRE (initiation, response and elaborate) model- how much
opportunity of talk is given to children in classroom teaching? What is the quality and
quantity of talk? Who talk and how much in classroom? What is the nature of talk? What
kind of questions teacher ask from students? Do children ask question? What kind of
question? How children questions are linked to the overall talk in the class.
Another set of questions that I was interested in is that does exposure to following helps in
building comprehension, Exposure to authentic children literature, Comprehension strategies,
literary elements and Bilingual talks.
Figure 3 showing the comprehension model for my research question
Comprehension
Read
Aloud
Literary
elements
Analytic
graphic
organiser
Response
to literature
- Draw
Role play
Vocabulary building
Prediction
Questioning Summarizing

Section 2
Research method
It is qualitative research, where I have used a combination of participant observation and
teacher research to gather data and analyse it. Participant observation is a type of data
collection method done in qualitative research paradigm to gain a close and intimate
familiarity with a group of individual and their practices through an intensive involvement
with people in their cultural environment, usually over an extended period of time.
(Participant Observation ) Participant observation has helped me to be the part of the
classroom environment and understand the classroom culture. Moreover it helped me to build
rapport with the learner before I start my actual teaching.
While teaching I used teacher research as a method of collecting data. Teacher research
movement was started in United States to reunite two complementary sides of teaching-
Reflection (Thinking) and Action (Doing). The teacher research movement has
helped teachers reclaim inquiry as a legitimate means of gaining knowledge and
insights about teaching and learning. It is a form of action research, a
research designed by practitioners to seek practical solutions to issues and
problems in their professional and community lives (Corey 1953; Stringer
2007). The ultimate goal is change or the improvement of the problematic
situation. Teaching is more than a technique. It is an uncertain process which involves
continual inquiry and renewal, and a teacher, among other things, is first and
foremost a questioner and not a technician (Ayers 1993; Hansen 1997). The primary
aim of teacher research is understanding teaching and learning in context and
from the perspectives of those who live and interact daily in the classroom
(Zeichner 1999; Meier & Henderson 2007).
Teacher research stems from teachers own questions about and reflections on
their everyday classroom practice. Although these questions and reflections are
context-specific, they enable the teacher to relate particular issues to theories of
teaching and learning by documentation and analysis of such issues; hence,
teacher research links theory with practice (Bullough & Gitlin 2001).
Teaching is seen as reflection, speculation, questioning, and theorizing and Teacher as
protagonist, who generates new knowledge and understanding of children and
teaching. It involves 2 kinds of methods,
 The daily observations of children and written reflections on what
happens in the classroom
 The purposeful and solution-oriented investigation of particular
classroom issues or problems
Teacher research stems from questions and reflections on everyday practice
and a desire to improve teaching and learning (Hansen 1997). Thus teacher
inquiry allows teachers to simultaneously study their teaching, their students,
and themselves and as a result, allows the possibility of transformation and
renewal. (Stremmel) (Refer figure 4)

Figure 4 showing the cycle of teacher research
An important component of this project was implementing the teaching plans based on the
research questions. My teaching was guided by some teaching principles like learners must
construct the model of the world and this model is built on the talks. Central to this learning
is speech- not just the words and sentences that we use, but the meaning and purpose that
they represent and in the social relations in which they are embedded. (Barnes, 2008)
The process of mediating of text is particularly evident in bilingual classrooms where
bilingual talk often unfolds around monolingual texts. Story books are also mediators of
experience. They represent the social world in particular ways (Barton, 1994). (Talk, Texts
and Meaning-Making in Classroom Contexts). Thus use of bilingual talks in classroom while
discussions. I also encouraged scaffolding of text in bilingual classrooms through bilingual
conversations around monolingual text. I am making this argument based on socio- cultural
literacy model. If I want everyone to participate and express then I have to encourage
bilingual talks in class.
Create a positive ethos of talk in classroom, convince children that they are free to talk, to
ensure that every child feels that they are being heard when they talks, and that the teacher
wants them to talk as talk that draws on the prior knowledge and experience of the learners
should be encouraged by teachers. (scott, 2009)
In spirit of post method pedagogy my teaching principal is based on context specific,
classroom oriented strategies based on principled pragmatism, classroom learning is shaped,
reshaped as a result of teacher research. Some of the Macro strategies that guided my
teaching plan were to promote learners autonomy, facilitating learners how to learn, teaching
them strategies that will help them to self- monitor their own leaning. Another macro-strategy
will be activating intuitive heuristics by providing exposure to rich literature for grammatical
The Cycle of
Teacher Inquiry
1-
Identify pro
blem
of meaning 2-
Develop que
stions and
examine ass
umptions
3-
Gather data
4-Analyze
data
5-
Interpret dat
a
6-Take action

usage and communicative use. Other strategy would be integrated language skills listening,
speaking and writing and in addition raising cultural consciousness, treating learners as
cultural informant who takes part in classroom learning (Kumaravadivelu, 2001) ( Refer
figure 5)
Figure 5 showing teaching principles based on post method pedagogy by Kumaravadivelu
My guiding principles for teaching plans were based on literature review. Oracy is foundation
for literacy; therefore I provided opportunity and space to learners for dialogue and
discussions during learning process. This helped them to develop their language skills and
their ability to think critically about the text. Ultimately helps learner to be text user and text
critique.
I used story books as a medium for read aloud, as story books are good mediators of
experience that represent the social world in particular context (Barton, 1994). (Talk, Texts
and Meaning-Making in Classroom Contexts). I took care of the context before selecting
literature for my teaching as central to learning is speech- not just the words and sentences
that one use, but the meaning and purpose that they represent and in the social relations in
which they are embedded (Barnes, 2008) . Learners should be able to relate to the text and it
should be embedded in the context in order to encourage a rich discussion.
Provide five kinds of opportunities in the classroom to talk- Opportunities to talk about
oneself, objects and experiences at school, pictures, stories and at last acting out stories.
Oracy defines role of language in literacy, the ability to express oneself coherently and to
communicate freely with others by word of mouth. Development of oracy would lead to
increased skills in reading and writing language and ultimately child will became increasingly
proficient in language. Thus I incorporate reading and writing into a task that is relevant to
learner’s life.
Story books are used as a tool to build imagination in children. Read aloud helps young
learners to talk and think about text critically. Dialogue happen during read aloud will help
children to make deep meaning, through the interplay between story and their personal
Comprehension
strategies
Promote learners
autonomy
Activating intuitive
heuristics
Raising cultural
consciousness
Macrostrategies

experience, introduce children to different genres of books and theme through read aloud and
develop their interest in reading books in order to make them lifelong reader, build their
Vocabulary through read aloud and encourage expression of students own ideas, builds upon
information students provide and experiences they have had, and guides students to
increasingly sophisticated levels of understanding.
Teaching plans Number of
classes
Number of
read aloud
To facilitating literary elements of ‘Character’
and comprehension strategy of Prediction and
summarizing
9 4
To facilitate the understanding of ‘Plot’ ‘Setting’
and comprehension strategy of ‘Summarizing’
5 2
To teach analytic graphic organizers 5 2
Figure 6 showing teaching plans for 20 sessions to facilitate comprehension strategies and
literary elements.
In order to implement these teaching plans I used instructional conversation as a pedagogical
tool where I have used dialogue and discussions to facilitate my teaching plans.
Research Tools
Based on the insights required on comprehension and the time available to conduct this study,
I used a checklist of assessing the comprehension environment and instruction in the
classroom, developed by Duke and Pearson (Appendices 1)
Read aloud of 8 story books was yet another tool that I used to carry out my teaching plans.
Story books are used as a tool to achieve the overall aim of making learners, meaning maker
and text user (Appendices 2)
I used Visual graphic organiser – Main Idea and Cause and Effect as yet another tool that I
used for comprehension building as this strategy instruction is used to visually represent the
text to help learners explore characteristics and relationship within text. These strategies help
in organising the thoughts and make meaning from the text and have helped learners in note
taking, learning, recall of text, synthesis information from different location in the text.
3 kinds of talk is another research tool that I used for comprehension building. Talk is used in
the following 3 ways which is different from the way it is used traditionally (I-R- E)

Dialogue and discussion: This method involves most students in class, build on, elaborate,
connect, question on each other’s ideas. Researchers have identified these types of talk
helpful in building comprehension for example, Durkin's (1978/1979) seminal research on
comprehension instruction confirmed that teachers rely primarily on questioning to check for
understanding. Questioning is an important tool that teachers have, but students also need
opportunities for dialogue if they are to learn. However unfortunately most questioning in
class uses an initiate–respond–evaluate cycle (Cazden, 1988) in which teachers initiate a
question, a student responds, and then the teacher evaluates the answer
Exploratory talk in bilingual language: This type of talk happens in an early stage of
exploring new ideas; it is hesitant and incomplete because speaker is more into arranging
his/her thoughts.
Accountable talks: This type of talk is not just any dialogue or discussion, but dialogue or
discussion that is pertinent to the text/topic going on in class.
.
Implementation of project: Context
This project is carried out in Mount Litera Zee School; it is an elite chain of private school
that runs under the franchise of Zee Learn Limited. It is a CBSE school started in 2012;
currently it is second batch of the school. There are 215 students in total and 18 teachers;
school is currently running till 7th standard, single section each. Students come from higher
socio economic background as the Fee structure is highest among all the school in the city-
2400 Rs per month and 1000 Rs per month for van. Students come from both rural as well as
from urban background; however both come from elite section of society. Parents are
financially very rich, however they lacks in providing academic support to their kids.
The language background of the learners is Hindi (Home language) and English (School
language). However English is use only for permissions and sometimes for conversations. I
observed that most of times students use Hindi language while they are having conversation
with each other and with teacher. English language is used when they want permissions to
drink water and washrooms and for their academics.
I taught in second standard with total strength of 30 students, 10 girls and 20 boys. Classroom
lacks print rich environment. There was a smart board in class, however teachers never use it.
The arrangement of the class is very traditional in nature, 3 rows. I could also see gender
differences where girls sit only with girls and boys sit only with boys. School follow
Cambridge curriculum, which is followed in all the Mount Litera Zee School spread across
the country (Refer picture1)

Picture 1 showing English curriculum followed in class.
The aim of the Schools is to establish social spaces for providing quality educational
experiences and to create quality manpower for a knowledgeable society. These aims of
education are extrinsic in nature. According to Christopher Winch extrinsic aims prepare
learners for various roles in society like-Economic, Political and Social role.
Figure 6 showing the aims of education of the school
According to school philosophy, each child is unique. One way of teaching does not work for
every child. In Mount Litera Zee School, lot of focus is given on understanding, as
understanding is different from acquiring information. Thus the school philosophy is in line
Economic role-
Education should
provide a job
Politicalrole- Education
should teach individual
to be a goodcitizen.
Social role – Education
should teach individual
to preserve society
culture

with my project topic, moreover the philosophy also caters to progressive education
philosophy, that focus on thinking and understanding which greatly relies on conceptual
clarity. School believes that real understanding comes from an integrated approach, therefore
School have a vision of the child in building pedagogical design, curriculum content,
activities and examinations – all are integrated. School believe that school space is an eco-
system where different factors have an effect on the child, be it teachers, curriculum,
assessments, infrastructure, activities all come together to nurture the unique potential of the
child (About us).
Data Collection
I collected data by observing classrooms, taking detailed notes, reflective notes on teaching
through teacher research cycle. Teacher research cycle starts with the problem identified and
then developing certain questions and assumptions for enquiry to gather data and analyse and
interpret it for further action (Refer figure 7). In addition these data sets are analysed for
trends.
Figure 7 Showing teacher research cycle
The Cycle of
Teacher
Inquiry
Lack of meaning
making in Indian
classroom Q- Does exposure to
following helps in building
comprehension
- Exposure to authentic
children literature
-Comprehensionstrategies
- literaryelement s
-Bilingual talks
Gather data through
– Teacher research
document
- Children writing
sample
- Drawing
Analyse Data
through
- Use of V.R
-Writing sample
- Children
response
Interpret data
through children
sample
-Immersed in
literature
- Facilitate
comprehension
strategy
- Facilitate literary
element

Section 3
Results
Reflection from observation
During classroom observations I have observed that kids need more exposure to English
language in term of their cultural need they and need to be encourage to use the language in
their daily conversations. The aim of English language teaching in India is that learner should
get basic proficiency in the language and later use this language as a tool of acquire
knowledge in other subject (Position Paper on English language)
Children need more exposure to good literature apart from their regular English textbooks.
English is taught like a subject and not like a language, where the focus of the teacher is to
complete the syllabus and do the textbook exercise. She has not used any teaching learning
materials. While teaching she dominates the conversation, where she read, explains, translate
and summarize. There was lack of space for independent reading and writing in class.
Teacher doesn’t encourage children to read and write on their own. While doing class work,
teacher writes on the board and all the children copy it from the board. Translation method
was use for vocabulary building
Discussion and dialogues were absent in the classroom, that enables one to think and analyse
text and construct knowledge. Teacher was busy completing the course target, without any
consideration of comprehension and pragmatic use of language.
Field insights and learning
1- Strategy instructions in classroom helps in building comprehension of the
learners
- Prediction helps in improving comprehension
Picture 2 showing the cover of the book based on which learners made their prediction about
the story

Predictions are done in beginning of every read aloud I have done in class and then I read it
so see how it turned out. This helped the learners to activate their prior knowledge to
facilitate their understanding of new ideas in the text. Learners are familiar with the themes
so they looked at the cover and responded that story is about House, Earth, Space, Planet,
Moon, Star, Universe, black -hole, Air, Sand and Water (Refer picture 2). All most all the
predictions made by the learner’s turner out to be true. This made it easier for them to
understand the story and structure their thoughts accordingly.
Illustrations played an important role in making prediction about the story. Illustrations
helped the learners to activate their prior knowledge by giving visual stimulus to activate and
build their schema.
- Summarizing helps in improving comprehension
Picture 3 showing summary written by Fuzaila of the story book – Nabiya
Summarizing strategy which is taught to the learners have helped them to improve their
understanding of the text by differentiating important from unimportant ideas and then

synthesize those ideas and then create a new coherent text. I encouraged 2 types of
summarizing- Oral summarizing and written summarizing. This helped them to recall and
organised their thoughts for understanding of the given text.
Fuzaila tried to write about the important ideas of the story like the puppet activity done by
Nabiya in the story, about her favourite story and teacher, about her best friend, about her
favourite game and in addition she also wrote about the author (Refer picture 3)
- Visual representation of the text helps in improving comprehension
Picture 4 showing child using Main Idea to visually represent the text in the story
Teaching graphic organizer during my teaching helped kids in meaning making. I taught 2
graphic organizer- main idea and cause and effect. Using these 2 strategies helped the
learners to explore characteristics and relationship within text. Analytic graphic organizers
have helped kids in note taking, learning, recall of text, synthesis information from different
location in the text, understand, organise and remember text.
Child used main idea to take note and synthesis the story which I read in class, he is
identified the main idea (Stories written on the sand) and divided this main idea into 2 sub
ideas (who wrote the story and secret garden) later he is giving details of each of the sub idea.
This has helped him to organise the information and find connection with the information and
synthesis it. This strategy has certainly helped him to organise his thought and make meaning
from the story to be able to recall it and write it into framework of main idea (Refer picture 4)

Picture 5 showing child using cause and effect visual represent the text the story.
Another graphic organizer that I facilitated in class is cause and effect. In the above picture
child is using to visually representation to represent her understanding of the story. Little is
said because nobody in the family spends time with the girl. They are busy doing their work-
mummy is busy cooking in the kitchen, brother is busy doing his homework and father is
busy reading newspaper. The effect is that little girl is upset and she is crying.
Later colourful pencil comes and little girl draw the pictures of mummy, brother and father
the effect was that they become happy and spend time with the little girl (Refer picture 5)
This shows that how the child is organising her thoughts to understand the text and be able to
recall it. This helps in better comprehension as well as to summarize the text visually.
I would also like to share the drawback of analytic graphic organizer. When children use
them to organise their thoughts, they are not able to synthesis the idea and connect with each
other. They lack the skill of how information is linked and say it coherently.

2- Literary elements helps in building comprehension
- Understanding character improve comprehension
Picture 6 showing children using drawing to represent the character of little Laali
Picture 7 showing children writing about the character of Nabiya.

Characters are the people or animal in the story. Understanding of the character helps
children to build comprehension. Sometimes they change as the story progress. Therefore
awareness of the literary elements is necessary for understanding and comprehension
building (Calkins)
Some children represented the character in the form of drawing (Refer picture 6) and some by
writing it (Refer picture 7). As seen in picture 6, child represented Laali drawing small as
compare to the drawing of the mother and it is interesting to see that Laali facial expression is
sad because she is not allowed to do things as she is small on the other hand mother is
smiling.
In the write up child is using his voice to express the liking towards the character. Although
the child is not giving details of the character, he is not able to elaborate.
- Understanding of setting improve comprehension
Picture 8 showing child using house chat to represent the setting of his house

Picture 9 showing the setting in the written form
Setting is a time and place of the story, the overall context of the story. In the picture 8 child
show the place and the context of her house, she has visually represented the setting of her
house, where it is located within the universe. The understanding of the text (Sameer house)
has helped the child to make her own house chat by using the knowledge which the child has
gained during the read aloud of Sameer house. This house chat shows that child has
understood the concept of state, country, continent, planet, solar system and at last the
universe. Thus awareness about the setting has helped in recall and comprehension building.

- Understanding of plot improve comprehension
Picture 10 showing child showing the plot of the story
Plot is a sequence of events in the story which may not be chronological in order. In the
above picture child is showing how the events in the story is changing from one to another.
Plot1- Putul lives in a fishing village, near Ganga River
Plot 2- She lives in a hut with her mother and father.
Plot3- One day flood come into their village
Plot4- They don’t have fish to eat as well as to sell
Plot5- Putul was kind to safe the dolphin, while mother was greedy to sell the dolphin
Plot 6- River current come in the sea, and Putul got caught in it
Plot 7- Dolphins come and saved her
This shows how well child has represented her understanding of plot and represented it
visually. Child is able to recall the events and understood the meaning in the story Putul and
the dolphins.

3- Discussion on the text helps in building comprehension
Talk has an enormous resource for learning in classroom (Kumar, 2000). This is true for all
stages of learning especially for young children of pre or primary school age talk is a basic
means of learning. During oral summary of the text I have observed that children remember
those parts of the story well, where I have planned discussions. I have created five kinds of
opportunities in the classroom to talk- Opportunities to talk about one, objects and
experiences, pictures, stories and at last acting out stories.
Talk, or oracy, is the foundation of literacy (Wilkinson, 1965). Discussions also helped in
building oracy in classroom, it is defined as a role of language in literacy, the ability to
express oneself coherently and to communicate freely with others by word of mouth.
My Classroom discourse had rich dialogues and discussions about text and I maximised
student engagement and control over the conversations; careful scaffolding to achieve that
engagement for meaning making. However I have not recorded the classroom discussions,
which is one of the drawbacks of my study.
Limitations in my study
During teacher research I identified there are few limitations to my study. To begin with, I
planned my teaching based on certain assumptions about the background of the students; I
did not consider the language background of students which impacted my planning on oracy
development in class. During my teaching I was not able to draw the line, when I should
allow them to talk in their mother tongue and when should I encourage them for the learning
of school language for oracy development. I went to the school assuming that it is an elite
private school so children will be comfortable in using English language during discussions.
However this assumption failed and I had to allow them to talk in their home language in
which they are comfortable. I had not read literature on the relation between translation and
comprehension. Does translation help in comprehension building? I still don’t have any
answer to that question.
Another limitation of my study is that I did not allow discussion in small group. My teaching
always encouraged whole class discussion which gave opportunity to some kids who were
vocal and who like to speak in front of the class. I might have lost some voices that are not
comfortable in speaking as I also struggled with the idea of giving autonomy to children in
terms of their learning. Sometimes I was so into completing the lesson and managing the
class that I did not include all the voices. Matching teaching plan with the time constraint was
a big challenge for me.
Another limitation I see in my study is that I have spent more time in building some strategies
and less time in building others. I have not given equal importance to all. I have not given
enough time to facilitate explicit description of strategy and when and how it should be use to
other texts due to time constraints and Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release
of responsibility could not happen as a result I had to give them home task to use these
strategies without me giving them guidance and individual attention to all.
Another limitation in my teaching was the classroom and time management issue. As this
was my first experience as a teacher, I find it very difficult to manage the class and at the

same time complete my teaching plans. I just got 35 minutes every day to do my teaching. It
broke the flow of read aloud sessions. I took 2- 3 sessions to complete one read aloud and do
vocabulary activities with kids. I found it very difficult to motivate the kids to listen the story
after break time, especially I when I took their games period.
Validity
It is possible that given that I am an outsider studying the situation I might have slipped into
biasness, where I selected data that fits into my project topic. My access to the field as an
azim premji university student might encourage teachers to structure or perhaps, colour their
response during their teaching.
In addressing the above concerns, I recorded responses in verbatim. My method will be
helpful in preserving the descriptive nature of my project and inherent school cultural
connotations in recorded responses.
Given the exploratory nature of my study, I present participant data as they present it during
my teaching, restating what I understood of their response for reconfirming and recording
their response to it.
Ethical issues
Given the detailed nature of my research tools, my aim was to assure participants that their
names will be kept anonymous. Also, my aim was to take all the necessary steps to keep data
safe and would emphasize full informed consent before recording any interaction. This is
important because researcher have an obligation to go to extra lengths to protect participant
anonymity and also, to help construct research with regard to trustworthiness and authenticity
Conclusion
To conclude my report I would like to say that it was learning and enriching experience for me.
The entire process, starting from making the proposal to the final report has nuanced my
understanding on the central idea of literacy education that is comprehension. Thus I tried to
inculcate balanced comprehension programme through my project, where I embedded few
comprehension strategies and few literary elements along with vocabulary building to make
customised comprehension model for my teaching plan.
I succeed in implementing my project and found that direct strategy instruction along with
discussions improve comprehension in children which can be seen in their written work as well
as oral presentations. However it is interesting to ask if all the 30 kids in my class have
understood these strategies the way I want them to understand. There were individual
differences in classroom discourse in term of learning. I cannot claim to generalise or say that
all the kids in my class have become meaning makers and text users. Although kids showed
strengths like they were able to activate their prior knowledge, apply strategy on the text, had
concept of print awareness and were able to read, able to retell the story using visual
representation, able to comment on illustrations and able to make connection between stories
There is need that strategy instruction should become an important part of literacy curriculum
and teacher should be encourage and trained to use these strategies to improve the
comprehension level of the children. As a step forward in the direction I would like to make
teacher module for comprehension instruction that can be used by the teacher in classroom to
model the self- study skills in children for the development of effective reading and writing
skills.

References
Aboutus.(n.d.).Retrievedseptember6,2014, fromMount LliteraZee school:
http://www.mountlitera.com/
Barnes,D. (2008). Exploratorytalkinschool.InD. Barnes, Exploratory Talk forLearning (p.2). New
Delhi:SAGA publication.
Barrentine,S.(1996). Engagingwithreadingthroughinteractive read-alouds. TheReading Teacher,
43.
(n.d.).ReadingAloud.InL. M. calkins, Theart of teaching reading (p.60).
Chapter6 of PhDthesis IncipientAction,Vygotsky on thinking. (2005,November).Retrieved1011,
2014, fromDerekMelserphilosophysite:
http://www.derekmelser.org/essays/essayvygotsky.html
ParticipantObservation .(n.d.).RetrievedFebuary7,2015, fromWikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participant_observation
scott. (2009). Talkingto learn:Dialogue inthe classroom. TheDigest,6.
Stremmel,A.J.(n.d.).The Value of TeacherResearch:NurturingProfessional andPersonal Growth
throughInquiry. voicesof practitioners.
Talk, Textsand Meaning-Making in ClassroomContexts.(n.d.).Retrievedseptember8,2014, from
springerlink:http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-30424-
3_77#CR43_77
Thoughtcomesbeforelanguageorthoughtand languageareinterdependentprocesses? (n.d.).
Retrievedseptembar11th,2014, fromResearchGate:
http://www.researchgate.net/post/Thought_comes_before_language_or_thought_and_lan
guage_are_interdependent_processes

Appendices
1- Observation tool
The following table has been taken from the Duke and Pearson comprehension assessment
guidelines and is based on my classroom observation for 1 week.
Checklist of assessing the comprehension environment and instruction in the classroom
-
About the overall reading program
• How much time do students spend actually reading? No time spend.
Teacher read and
student listen to her
passively.
• How much reading do students routinely do in texts other than
those written solely for reading or content area instruction?
2 periods of 35
minutes each in library
• Do students have clear and compelling purposes in mind when
reading?
Yes, however they
read for leisure
purpose.
• How many different genres are available to students within your
classroom? How many students read across genres?
Fiction
• Do students have multiple opportunities to develop vocabulary
and concept knowledge through texts?
Teacher do translation
of the difficult word
from English to Hindi
-Through discussion of new ideas? No, teacher was in
hurry to complete the
syllabus.
-Through direct instruction in vocabulary and concepts? Direct instruction
(translation) in
vocabulary building.
• Are students given substantial instruction in the accurate and
automatic decoding of words?
No opportunity of
reading, therefore no
instruction in decoding
• How much time do students spend writing texts for others to
comprehend? With reading-writing connections emphasized?
Students copy from the
black board. No space
for personal voice
• Are students afforded an environment rich in high-quality talk
about text?
No at all
About comprehension strategy instruction
• Are students taught to
_ identify their purpose for reading? No
_ preview texts before reading? No
_ make predictions before and during reading? No
_ activate relevant background knowledge for reading? No
_ think aloud while reading? No
_ use text structure to support comprehension? No
_ create visual representations to aid comprehension and recall? No
_ determine the important ideas in what they read? Not really
_ summarize what they read? No, they are not able to

summarize the chapter
– teacher read and she
only summarize the
text for students
_ generate questions for text? No
_ handle unfamiliar words during reading? Yes through translation
_ monitor their comprehension during reading? No
• Does instruction about these strategies include
_ An explicit description of the strategy and when it should be
used?
No
_ Modelling of the strategy in action? No
_ Collaborative use of the strategy in action? No
_ Guided practice using the strategy, with gradual release of
responsibility?
No
_ Independent practice using the strategy? No
About other teaching considerations
• Are students helped to orchestrate multiple strategies, rather than
using only one at a time?
No
• Are the texts used for instruction carefully chosen to match the
strategy and students being taught?
No
• Is there concern with student motivation to engage in literacy
activities and apply strategies learned?
Students are not taught
any strategies
• Are students’ comprehension skills assessed on an ongoing basis? No
2- Read aloud planning guide
Read aloud guide for Nabiya: The format of the planning guide is adapted from the North shore
Read Aloud Planning Form and from Combs, Martha (1996). To develop Competent Readers and
Writers in the Primary Grades
Purpose:
 The Why
To invite children in the world of story books and introduce
story book as a part of their curriculum to be taught in
classroom rather than independent free reading done in library.
Text:
 The big picture
 Support
As it is a language class so I want children to develop oracy,
vocabulary, listening skills, prediction and knowledge of
character.
To visually represent the character and write characteristics on
board to help children comprehend it better and improve their
reading skills

 Challenges
 Match to
students/focus
Children will face problem in terms of vocabulary
Children will be aware about the importance of story books in
their life. And this will encourage them to read more and more
story books.
Introduction:
 Building background
 Vocabulary
Building Background: I would initiate the discussion by
asking them about
- By looking at the cover what do you think story is about?
- By looking at the house what do you think Nabiya belongs to
rich family or a poor family?
- Have they seen any girl who loves to play football?
- How many of you love to play football?
Vocabulary: There are many 2 tier vocabulary words that I can
teach my students.
- Showers
- Yelled
- Shivering
- Giggling
- Trooped
- Timidly
- Jolted
- Confided

Reading the Text
 Invite discussion
 Expect accountable
talk
Invite discussion
- How much does this book cost to buy?
- “Bookstore.” Nabiya repeated. She had not been to one.
- Nabiya told her story in Hindi
- People who live in big building don’t visit our homes
- How much will this cost to buy
- What if she brought a story every week to read to
Nabiya and her friends
After you read:
Discussion/Response
I will use instructional conversation as a pedagogical tool to
build on each other opinions and build on discussion for better
comprehension.
- I would expect kids to response on the class of Nabiya
- I would expect kids to talk about books which they have
bought from bookstore and recently read
- Poor people don’t speak in English language

Assessment:
 Group
Divide the class into group and each group will make a puppet
and tell the class why they made that character and what is the
story of that character

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