Term Two

Focus Question:

How can I support my students to respond to comprehension questions using more detailed and complete answers?

Student: AYV

Prompt: Was the child able to retell the parts of the story, and did their responses to the questions demonstrate understanding and comprehension?

Summary Answer

Yes. The student was able to retell key parts of the story and answered several comprehension questions, showing partial understanding of characters, events, and causal relationships. Responses were brief and sometimes incomplete, indicating emerging comprehension with room for prompting and expansion.

Evidence from the transcript

Retell of main events: Ayvah summarised core actions—“Catch the big fish” and “And then he went away. And then Father Bear had to go get him.” ( → – → ).

Identification of characters/number: When prompted “So there were how many,” Ayvah responded “3” ( → – showing recall of the three bears.

Location recall with partial accuracy: Asked “Where did the bears go fishing?” Ayvah answered “At that. Beach” ( → – → ), suggesting she located the event near water but used an imprecise label (the story states “river” at  → – →  and  → ).

Cause/reasoning attempts: When asked why Baby Bear said “Where is a fish for me?” Ayvah replied “because the dad, the father, and the mother only got fish for them” ( → – → ), which shows understanding of the motive (wanting a fish for himself).

Limited detail on how events occurred: When asked “How did baby bear catch the fish?” and “How did he catch the fish?” Ayvah was unable to provide a clear method ( → – → ), indicating gaps in procedural/detail recall.

Who saved Baby Bear: Prompt “Who saved baby B” received an unclear fragment “Um, thought of it” ( → – → ), suggesting she either hesitated or did not produce a full answer; earlier she had stated “Father Bear came back with Baby Bear and the fish” when retelling ( → – → ), which implies she could identify the rescuer during free retell but did not consistently answer direct questions about it.

Interpretation

Strengths: Ayvah recalled main characters, the central event (catching a big fish), the sequence (fish pulled baby bear away, father rescued him), and a motive for Baby Bear’s question (wanting a fish). These are evidence of narrative comprehension and basic sequencing ( → – → ;  → – → ;  → – → ).

Areas for improvement: She provided few details about how the fish was caught and sometimes gave imprecise vocabulary (saying “beach” instead of “river”) and hesitated on direct wh-questions. Responses were terse and benefited from adult prompts; encouraging more complete sentences and prompting for specific details would strengthen comprehension checks ( → – → ).

Next Steps to Support the Student’s Learning:

The teacher will use targeted, scaffolded strategies to build the student’s narrative detail, vocabulary precision, and ability to answer wh-questions. Steps will be brief, measurable, and easily embedded in daily activities.

Short-term (within 1–2 weeks)

Prompted retell practice: After a shared reading, ask the student to retell the story using three scaffolds—"Who," "What happened," and "Where/How"—and model one brief example before asking. Provide sentence starters (e.g., “First…, Then…, Finally…”) to encourage fuller responses.

Focused wh-question practice: During or after the story, ask one specific wh-question at a time (Where did they go? How did baby bear catch the fish?) and wait longer for responses. Reinforce correct answers with praise and brief expansion (child’s answer + teacher add one detail).

Vocabulary clarification: Introduce and reinforce precise location words used in the story (river, stream, lake, beach). Use pictures and simple comparisons (river vs. beach) to correct the “beach”/“river” confusion.

Mid-term (2–6 weeks)

Repeated story exposure with role-play: Read the story multiple times and incorporate role-play or puppets so the student can act out how events happened (e.g., how the fish pulled Baby Bear). This supports procedural/detail memory and expressive language.

Story maps and sequencing activities: Use a simple 3–4 frame picture sequence for the student to place and then verbally describe each frame. Gradually remove visual supports as the student becomes more accurate.

Targeted language goals: Set a short goal (e.g., student will answer wh-questions about a familiar story with 80% accuracy across three sessions) and track progress with brief notes after each session.

Longer-term (6–12 weeks)

Generalize skills across texts: Use other short stories and nonfiction picture supports to practice the same three scaffolds and wh-question routines, increasing complexity gradually (more characters, more causal steps).

Parent/caregiver coaching: Share simple home strategies—ask the child to retell parts of bedtime stories, use “First/Next/Last” prompts, and encourage descriptive language—to reinforce learning outside the classroom.

Progress monitoring and adjustment: Review the student’s responses every 2–3 weeks. If limited improvement is seen, increase modeling, reduce question complexity, or consult a speech-language pathologist for a language screening if concerns persist.

Instructional Tips for Implementation

Use short, clear prompts and allow wait time (5–10 seconds) for responses.

Model expansions: Repeat the child’s brief answer and add one detail to show a fuller response (e.g., Child: “He went away.” Teacher: “He went into the river and the father had to get him.”).

Use multimodal supports (pictures, gestures, puppets) to help the child connect words to events and actions.

Record a short example of the student’s retell at the start and after 4–6 weeks to document growth and inform next steps.

Student:ALN

Prompt: Was the child able to retell the parts of the story, and did their responses to the questions demonstrate understanding

and comprehension?

Answer

Yes. The child was able to retell key parts of the story and demonstrated partial comprehension, but some responses were brief and imprecise.

Evidence from the transcript

Retelling: The child recalled main characters and a key event—“the baby found the big fish” ( → – → ;  → – → ). The child also described

Baby Bear pulling the fish and being taken “to the ocean” ( → – → ), showing memory for sequence and outcome.

Comprehension of causality and rescue: The child correctly identified who saved Baby Bear—“Daddy bear” ( → – → )—matching the teacher’s description of Father Bear coming back ( → – → ).

Reasoning about motives: When asked why Baby Bear wanted a fish, the child explained that the parents had fish and Baby Bear wanted one too ( → – → ), showing understanding of desire/motivation.

Understanding of why Baby Bear was pulled into the water: The child offered plausible explanations. Initially the child described the action sequence ( → – → ). When pressed about why

the fish pulled Baby Bear in, the child ultimately answered “Because so he can eat him” ( → – → ;  → – → ), which attributes

an intent consistent with predator behavior in the story image shown by the teacher ( → – → ).

Limitations in detail and precision: Several answers were short or unclear (e.g., when asked where the bears went fishing the child responded “The fish” and “The be” rather than “the river” — see  → – → ). Some sequencing/location words were imprecise ( → – → ,  → – → ).

Conclusion:

The child demonstrated core story retell skills (characters, major event, sequence, rescuer) and showed basic comprehension of motives and causality, but responses were sometimes brief, imprecise, or linguistically unclear, indicating an area for improvement in expressive detail and precise vocabulary.

Next Steps for Teacher Support

Targeted vocabulary instruction

Teach and review specific story-related words (e.g., river, ocean, rescue, predator, motive) using visuals and gestures.

Pre-teach key vocabulary before reading and revisit words after the story with quick matching or labeling activities.

Guided retelling practice

Use visual story maps or sequencing cards (beginning, middle, end) and have the child place or order events while narrating each step.

Model detailed retells and use sentence frames (e.g., “First _____, then _____, finally _____”) to scaffold longer responses.

Comprehension question scaffolds

Teach types of questions (who, what, where, why, how) and practice with explicit prompts; start with literal questions then progress to inferential “why” and “how” prompts.

Provide think-alouds for inferential questions to show how to use story clues to answer (e.g., “The fish grabbed him, so maybe it wanted to eat him.”).

Frequent, brief practice opportunities

Incorporate short daily retell or question sessions (2–5 minutes) using familiar and new stories to build stamina and expressive detail.

Use small-group activities so the child receives immediate feedback and modeling from the teacher.

Use multimodal supports

Combine pictures, gestures, and simple drawings to support recall and expression.

Allow the child to act out scenes or use props (toy bears, fish) to reinforce sequence and causality.

Explicit feedback and reinforcement

Give specific praise for accurate retell elements (e.g., “Great— you remembered who saved Baby Bear!”) and corrective feedback that models a fuller response.

Expand short child responses by repeating and adding detail (expansion technique): child says “The fish,” teacher responds “Yes—the fish pulled him into the river because it wanted to eat him.”

Progress monitoring

Collect brief samples of retells and responses to inferential questions every 2–4 weeks to track improvements in detail, vocabulary use, and accuracy.

Adjust supports based on observed gains (e.g., reduce scaffolds as the child uses more precise language and longer retells).

Implementation priorities (first 4 weeks)

Week 1: Pre-teach vocabulary and introduce sequencing cards; model one full retell using sentence frames.

Week 2: Provide guided retell practice in small group with visuals and props; practice literal questions.

Week 3: Introduce inferential question strategies with think-alouds and practice “why” questions.

Week 4: Monitor progress with a short retell sample; provide expanded feedback and adjust scaffolds.

Term One

My Inquiry focus for this year is:

How can I support my students to respond to comprehension questions using more detailed and complete answers?

I have identified four students as my focus group. Working closely with these students will enable me to monitor their progress and implement targeted strategies to further develop their oral language and comprehension skills.

To gather baseline data for these students, I did the BSLA Oral Language Assessment. I used Vosaic to record the assessments, which allowed me to review the recordings and analyse the students responses more carefully to inform my teaching and next steps.

Student AN

Teacher talk time was high (64.9%), and most questions focused on factual recall, which limited opportunities for the student to provide extended responses. Student responses were often brief, partially inaccurate, or off-task, indicating a need for further support with oral language development. The teacher used effective scaffolding strategies such as picture prompts, audio modelling, sequential retell prompts, and positive praise, while increasing wait time and maintaining focus would further support deeper responses.

Student AP

The teacher led the activity with clear instructions, structured sequencing, and visual supports to guide student learning. Student's were supported to retell the story and answer comprehension questions through prompts and vocabulary modelling. While the lesson was highly teacher-directed, positive reinforcement and scaffolding supported student engagement and developing comprehension.

Student F

The transcript shows some evidence of student understanding during the story retelling activity. The teacher modelled the story clearly and used questions and prompts to support comprehension, although students’ verbal responses were limited or not consistently recorded. This suggests that some students required additional scaffolding, making it difficult to confirm consistent comprehension across the group.

Student I

The student shows emerging comprehension of the story and was able to identify the main character, Tama, and recall key events, such as going to the park, falling, and Nana coming to help. The explanation of some events was vague and included minor inaccuracies. When prompted, the student found it difficult to add detail or explain events clearly and in sequence, indicating a need for continued support with expressive language and narrative skills.

Looking across the four students, two main areas of focus that are common to all of them are:

1. Strengthening Oral Retelling Skills:

-All students benefit from structured opportunities to verbally retell stories using prompts, sequencing words (e.g., first, next, then, last), visual supports like story maps or picture cards, and scaffolding to organise their ideas.

-The goal is to help them produce longer, more complete sentences and confidently explain events in order.

2.Developing Vocabulary and Comprehension Strategies:

-Each student needs explicit teaching of key story vocabulary, modeling of sentence structures, and support to use new words in context.

-Comprehension is strengthened through open-ended, higher-order questions (who, what, where, why, how), prompts for reasoning, and making connections between story events and personal experiences.

These two focus areas overlap across the students and will support both expressive language and deeper understanding of stories.

Mid Year Reflection

 After completing the BSLA Week 10 Testing and analysing the data, I changed the students in my focus group. This term, I will focus on supporting Student A, Student MT, Student M and Student F. I made this change to better support the learning needs shown in the assessment.

As a result, I have adjusted my planning to ensure that each lesson is targeted to these students' next steps. To support oral language development and comprehension, I regularly use ChatGPT to generate story-specific prompts including retelling, inferencing and open-ended questions.I have streamlined my planning and this has increased the effectiveness of my teaching. I have observed noticeable growth in my students’ confidence, their ability to engage in meaningful conversations about the story and their ability to make connections with their own experiences. These improvements show that the students are getting better at understanding stories and talking about them.

Next Steps

Next Steps for Strengthening Comprehension Skills:

Foster Active Listening Skills:

Continue to reinforce the importance of listening to peers before responding, supporting peer turn- talking

and discussion.

Use of Visual Support:

Incorporate pictures and illustrations from the reader/story to ehlp students make connections between

text and visuals.

Ask open-ended questions:

Use more open -ended prompts to encourage deeper thinking.

Promote predictive Thinking: 

Encourage students to make predictions to support engagement and inference-making.

Encourage Peer Sharing: 

Provide opportunities for group discussions, students can share personal responses and justify their

thinking.

Integrate Movement: 

Use drama, gestures and physical expression to help students show understanding and maintain

engagement.

Vosaic with AI Prompt

To support my inquiry into oral language comprehension, I used Vosaic to record and review a guided reading lesson.

AI Prompt: Is it evident that the children understood the story.

Info it gave me:

Understanding of the Story by Children

Yes, it is evident that the children understood the story. Throughout the transcript, several instances demonstrate their

comprehension and engagement with the narrative.

When the teacher asks, "What happened in the story?" multiple children respond, indicating they are recalling details from the text (00:35).

Aya mentions that "Becca was hungry," and the teacher builds on this by asking for more details about the beginning of the

story (01:10). This shows that the children are not only recalling facts but also engaging in a discussion about the character's

feelings.

As the teacher guides them through the story, children like Abela and Lucas contribute observations about the pictures

and events, such as noticing the spider webs and discussing the farmer's potential reactions (05:01, 06:06).

At the end of the session, when asked about their favorite parts, children express their thoughts clearly, with Abela mentioning her favourite part was when Becca was thinking about food (09:37), which reflects their connection to the story's themes.

Overall, the children's ability to recall details, discuss character emotions, and share their favorite parts indicates a solid

understanding of the story.

Research:

Research supports the idea that children's engagement in discussions about stories enhances their comprehension. According

to studies, when children are encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings about a narrative, it fosters deeper

understanding and retention of the material (Duke & Pearson, 2002).

Next Steps for Developing Comprehension with 5-Year-Old Students:

To enhance comprehension skills among the 5-year-old students, the teacher can implement the following strategies based on

the transcript:

Encourage Active Listening: The teacher should continue to emphasize the importance of listening when others are speaking.

This was highlighted when the teacher reminded students to "listen to them" before adding their thoughts (00:40).

Use Visual Aids: The teacher can incorporate more visual aids, such as pictures from the story, to help students connect the text

with imagery. For instance, the teacher referred to the first page and asked students to describe what they saw (01:15).

Ask Open-Ended Questions: The teacher can ask more open-ended questions that require students to think critically about the

story. For example, when discussing the farmer's actions, the teacher prompted students to consider what the farmer might do

(06:30).

Encourage Predictions: The teacher can ask students to predict what might happen next in the story, fostering engagement and

critical thinking. This was evident when the teacher asked, "What happens next?" (04:36).

Facilitate Group Discussions: The teacher can create opportunities for group discussions where students can share their favorite

parts of the story and explain why, as seen when the teacher asked students to share their favorite parts (09:09).

Incorporate Movement: Integrating movement into the learning process can help maintain engagement. The teacher could have

students act out parts of the story or use gestures to express their understanding (e.g., when discussing the character's emotions).

By implementing these strategies, the teacher can create a more interactive and engaging learning environment that supports the

development of comprehension skills in young learners.

Research:

Research indicates that active listening and engagement strategies significantly enhance comprehension skills in early

childhood education. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), interactive

read-alouds and discussions promote language development and comprehension in young children.

Term 1 2025 - Inquiry Focus

 This year, my professional inquiry is focused on Literacy, with a particular emphasis on supporting the development of oral language comprehension. 

As part of this focus, I am working closely with a small target group of four students—two boys and two girls. Three of these students started school last year and have had some exposure to the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA), while one student started at the beginning of this year and is still new to this approach.

Evidence Gathering and Problem Clarification:

Through a combination of classroom observations, group reading sessions, and analysis of BSLA data, I have identified oral language comprehension as an area of need for these students. Some students are finding it challenging to retain and process information from texts. They often struggle to recall key details or ideas from a story and have difficulty answering comprehension questions or participating in discussions. In many cases, students tend to remain silent when prompted, which can be attributed to limited vocabulary, lack of confidence, and underdeveloped listening skills.

BSLA assessments—particularly the oral narrative component.

These have provided valuable insight into these needs. Two students have completed this assessment, revealing difficulties with sequencing, retelling and answering questions related to the story. One student has not yet completed the oral narrative assessment due to a recent school start, and another is not yet due for testing.

This inquiry is aimed at deepening my understanding of how to effectively support oral language development within a structured literacy framework. I will continue to monitor progress through targeted teaching, ongoing observation, and the use of BSLA tools to inform and adapt my teaching practise.

End of Year Reflection-Better Structured Literacy Approach (BSLA)

After 20 weeks of receiving BSLA instruction, students are once again assessed to evaluate their progress and identify areas for further development. This assessment will provide valuable insights into their phonological awareness, blending skills, and overall literacy growth.

 

The following provides an overview of the progress and achievements of each student after 20 weeks of instruction and completion of Taumata 2.

Student Summary: Student MH shows strong proficiency in identifying and manipulating individual sounds in words, with solid skills in decoding unfamiliar words, as reflected in their Early Tupu score.

Student Summary: Student LA shows strong phonological awareness in phoneme identity, but improvement is needed in non-word reading and spelling, as indicated by scores of 40% and 57%, requiring further practice and support.

Student Summary: NWA has shown excellent progress in Early Tupu non-word reading and spelling, achieving scores of 100% and 92%. However, there is decline in her performance in Late Tupu, in both reading and spelling, showing a need for additional support to enhance her skills at this level.

Student Summary: JJ demonstrates strong foundational skills in non-word reading and spelling up to the Early Tupu level, achieving high accuracy rates of 97% in reading and 89% in spelling. However, performance declines at the Late Tupu level, suggesting a need for support to improve confidence and skills with more complex word structures and spelling patterns.

In summary, while all students are making good progress in some areas, targeted interventions are necessary to address specific gaps in skills, particularly at the Late Tupu level, to ensure continued development.