Narrative Know-How: A Fresh Approach to Support Comprehension and Craft in the K–6 Classroom(Corwin Literacy)

Teach your students to grasp the structure of narratives with this simple, yet powerful approach!  Teaching text structure has never been easier or more engaging. Narrative Know-How: A Fresh Approach to Support Comprehension and Craft in the K–6 Classroom equips educators with innovative tools to help students understand the structure of stories, improving both their reading comprehension and their ability to craft compelling narratives. Through his unique Mood Structures strategy, Trevor Bryan offers a simple yet powerful way for students to connect with fiction and nonfiction texts alike. Whether you′re aiming to boost engagement, make complex ideas more accessible, or bring joy back to your literacy lessons, this book delivers. Designed to help young readers and writers thrive, this resource focuses on actionable strategies and practical lessons tested in real classrooms. Teachers will gain the tools they need to develop students’ narrative comprehension, improve written expression, and foster critical thinking skills. Offering a fresh approach to comprehension and narrative writing, this research-backed book Provides a proven instructional sequence that connects reading and writing to enable students to seamlessly build comprehension and composition skills Addresses key narrative elements such as mood, symbolism, and themes in both reading and writing through 20 classroom-tested lessons Helps students understand narrative principles with more than 20 extensive mentor texts examples and accompanying deconstructions Includes original illustrations from the award-winning author-illustrator, Jarrett Lerner, visual tools, graphic organizers and guided response sheets that enhance engagement and make the approach easy to access for every learner Trevor Bryan’s groundbreaking instructional strategies make literacy instruction purposeful, practical, and fun. With Narrative Know-How, educators will inspire their students to think critically, write skillfully, and read with deeper insight.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments About the Author PART 1: Small Steps into Story Introduction Foundations of This Approach Chapter One: Teach Text Structure with Mood Structure Traditional Text Structure Teaching A Bottom-Up Approach The Solution: The Mood Structures Mood Structure: A Closer Look Chapter Two: Determining Mood as a Critical Reading Skill How Moods Show Up in Stories The Access Lenses in Action Chapter Three: Using Mood and Mood Structure to Bolster Comprehension During Reading What Do We Want Students to Pay Attention To? Using the Three Key Questions to Set a Purpose for Reading Chapter Four: Using the Mood Structures for Summarizing and Identifying Themes After Reading Using Moods and Mood Structures to Lean Into Symbolism Using the Terms Helpers and Harmers to Simplify Symbolism Chapter Five: An Instructional Sequence that Connects Reading and Writing Our Instructional Sequence Clearly Connecting the Reading and Writing Connection Research on Integrating Reading and Writing Instruction PART 2: Lessons Introduction Lesson Layout The Reading Lessons The Very First Lesson: Checking for the Understanding of Negative and Positive Moods Reading Lesson 1: Noticing Mood Structures When Reading Reading Lesson 2: Look for the Helpers Reading Lesson 3: Noticing Moods When They Are Directly Stated Reading Lesson 4: Using the Access Lenses to Infer Moods When Moods Are Shown Reading Lesson 5: Introducing the Concept of Harmers Reading Lesson 6: Three Key Questions That Readers Should Always Be Asking Reading Lesson 7: Making Predictions Reading Lesson 8: Making Text-to-Text Connections Based on Mood or Mood Structure Reading Lesson 9: Harmers Turned Helpers Reading Lesson 10: Generating Themes Through Moods and the Reasons for Those Moods Reading Lesson 11: Helpers and Harmers as Symbols Reading Lesson 12: The Three Ingredients of Story Reading Lesson 13: Using the Three Ingredients of Story to Summarize Reading Lesson 14: Using the Three Ingredients of Story and the Mood Structures to Summarize The Writing Lessons Writing Lesson 1: Generating Workable Story Ideas Writing Lesson 2: A Reading and Writing Lesson to Help Students Generate Story Ideas Writing Lesson 3: Showing the Mood With the Access Lenses Writing Lesson 4: Including Inner Thoughts Writing Lesson 5: Using Dialogue to Help Present Moods, Reasons for the Moods, and Events Four Versions of a Story Teaching the Opening of “The Catch”: Version 1–4 PART 3: Starter Texts and Full-Text Deconstructions Introduction Starter Texts Full-Text Deconstructions Finding Your Own Resources THE STARTER TEXTS “Playing Outside” “Reading Time” “Cooper” (Five-Panel Comic) “Cooper” (Six-Panel Comic) The Kissing Hand Mercy Watson to the Rescue “One Sad Simba” Henry’s Freedom Box Thank You, Mr. Falker Mr. Wayne’s Masterpiece Stone Angel Each Kindness Frindle “The First Day” FULL-TEXT DECONSTRUCTIONS The Rain Came Down The Dot Ish “Taco Head” The Great Penguin Rescue “A Howlin’ Success” Blank Deconstruction Form References Index

About the Author :
Trevor Bryan loves stories. He has been exploring them for decades. Through this exploration, Trevor has forged some unique insights that help students to read and write. These insights have led to collaborations with the Princeton University Art Museum, author and illustrator Jarrett Lerner, and best-selling author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds and his education company FableVision Learning. Trevor has been an art teacher in New Jersey for over 25 years. His first book, The Art of Comprehension: Exploring Visual Texts to Foster Comprehension, Conversation and Confidence, was published in 2019 by Stenhouse Publishers. Trevor enthusiastically presents and shares his work with teachers and schools throughout the country whenever he gets the chance.