1. Narrative Construction
Vartan Tamizian
Narrative Construction
Image taken from 2008 ed. of Gombrich ‘A Little History of the World’

2. Discussion
Definitions
Literature
Teaching
Next steps

3. Definitions Narrative can be: Just a story?
An ‘under-rated skill’ (Lang, 2003)
A form of text (Bruner, 1996)
A form of thinking (Bruner, 1996)

4. Definitions Beginning End Middle
SETTING: What is the background to the narrative? What is the place like that actions take place?
CHARACTERS: Who is involved? What are they like?
ACTIONS: What do the characters choose to do? What events do they cause?
HAPPENINGS: What happens to the characters that is not their doing? How does it affect them?
Drawn from Megill ‘Historical Knowledge, Historical Error’ (2007)
Beginning
End
Middle

5. (Academic)
Literature

6. (Popular) Literature

7. (Teacher Research) Literature

8. Teaching (KS3)

9. Teaching (KS3)

10. Teaching (KS4)
TASK 1: In order to construct a good narrative, you need to be confident with what events happened in your time range, and what characters were significant. This lesson you will get the opportunity to build that chronology in a timeline, so that when you write your narrative it is detailed and accurate. Don’t be afraid to add interesting details as well so your narrative is more than just a written list of events!
TASK 2: A good narrative also makes it clear which events are significant and how events cause one another. (a) Once you have your timeline complete, go through all the events and judge which are the most significant – that is, which had the greatest impact, are the most unique, and tell us the most about the period – as these should stand out in your written narrative. (b) Then, go through each event and try to link them together in a way that makes their causation clear – that is, which events help cause the next one – as you should try and explain this causation in your written narrative.

11. Teaching (KS5)

12. Teaching Uses for students Uses for teachers
Consolidation: In order to construct their narrative students need to re-read material and take a holistic view
Transformation: The process of selecting and arranging events, as well as writing, has a transformative effect on student knowledge
Revision: Following the successful completion of a narrative, students can return to it during their revision
Uses for teachers
Engagement: Students enjoy the variety of writing, and the sense of completion from having everything in one place
Access/Challenge: Narrative writing can be easily differentiated to provide a challenge at all levels
Evaluation: Reading narratives can help you diagnose levels of historical understanding across the room, and form the basis for intervention

13. Teaching ITERATIVE READING Methods of Analysis Max Van Manen (1990)
Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy
ITERATIVE READING
Methods of Analysis

14. Teaching Methods of Analysis Knowledge Language
Depth: The amount of knowledge can often reveal how much knowledge has been retained
Substantive concepts: Narratives are ideally suited for testing student understanding of substantive concepts due to their placement within the text
Language
Fluency: The challenge of writing a narrative can reveal issues with literacy and writing style
Use of Key Words: Narratives can also test whether students can understand and use key words
Analytic (Causal) Thinking
Implicit vs. Explicit: Student narratives can reveal the depth of their causal understanding, as well as their view of change & continuity over time

15. Discussion Potential Use Potential Problem Potential Solution
KS3: Conclusive task for a change & continuity or evidence enquiry
KS3: Establishing an overview ‘First and fast’ Nuttal (2013)
KS3/4/5: Consolidating a topic before a test
KS4/5: As a revision task to create a resource
KS4/5: Creating contradictory or challenging narratives
Potential Problem
Narrative writing may not stretch conceptual thinking
Students may simply emulate teacher delivered narrative
Waste of time, compared to explicit essay planning
Done well by the strong, done badly by the weak
Not related to exam specification
Potential Solution
Narrative writing CAN stretch conceptual thinking with explicit teaching
Provide extra context to incorporate
Set clear limits and expectations, explain the rationale, make it optional, offer plenty opportunities for students to stretch themselves
Not everything has to directly relate!

16. Discussion Constructing narrative more effectively:
Knowing enough: Students must know more than the core sequence of events to write a narrative that is more than just a list of facts
Selective skills: Choosing what to leave out can be just as important as knowing what to leave in, as events must be causally linked in sequence
Choosing the right beginning, middle, and end: Once it is acknowledged that any narrative is a subjective interpretation, then framing it to sell that interpretation becomes important
Writing narrative more effectively:
Fluency is crucial: Students must learn to write in a smooth, elegant fashion to weave together their narrative
Making analysis explicit: Narrative moves beyond simple description due to its inclusion of causal analysis, something that must be made clearer in the text
Powerful vocabulary: Increasing students vocabulary through exposure to language (in other narratives?) will allow the ‘linguistic to release the conceptual’ (Woodcock, 2005)

17. Discussion
Increasing importance at GCSE?

18. Next steps
For me:
Incorporating ‘low stakes’ narrative into KS3 to establish normalcy, linked to knowledge retention
Analysing narratives more effectively at KS4 to drive intervention, and using them for revision
Looking for more challenging uses of narrative at KS5, such as ‘narrative battles’, linked to interpretations