Narrative Reports

For our Curriculum and Methods Seminar, we were assigned to reflect and
write 5 Narrative Reports. I enjoyed reflecting about individual students'
personalities, strengths, and needs as a learner in our classroom. I feel that
the skill of writing these narrative reports will greatly aid me as a future
teacher. Here, I have included 3 representative Narrative Reports. The first is
a learner narrative, the second is a sample parent letter, and the third is a
sample recommedation for an award.
* Please note that pseudonyms were used for all student names.
Elises Learner Narrative: I like reading, but I dont
like chatter.
School/Classroom/ Background
Elise attends the fourth grade at Wallingford Elementary School, which is located in the
Pennsylvania town of Wallingford, a predominantly upper-middle class community.
According to the schools website, Just the facts does not cut it here. Students are
actively engaged in meaningful learning experiences. As a result they gain a wealth of skills,
vast amounts of knowledge, and a genuine life-long love for learning. There are
opportunities for students to pursue their interests through before and after school activities
such as French or Spanish Club, and numerous in-school enrichment activities such as the
Global Warming Group, instrument lessons, Student Council, or Math Olympiad. Children
participate in these activities based on personal interest, and are expected to balance both
extracurricular activities and academic curriculum. Some activities involve parent support,
and parents are usually actively engaged with the students either through the home or
school, or both. The school also seems to strive to provide an environment where individual
attention is given to all those who need it, especially through their enrichment, IST, and IEP
programs.
The most striking sign in Elises classroom is a banner in the back of the classroom that
states What will you learn today? What will you teach today? This particular classroom
seemed to encourage an atmosphere where students were invited to share their learning
and bring in personal interests. The desks were grouped in clusters, with about 4 to 5 desks
in each group. Student-crafted, paper-mach globes hung from the ceilings, and carefully
made snowflakes spotted the windows. On the board, the Do Now was placed at the far
left and the daily schedule was placed at the far right. In the back of the room, charts of
contractions lined the blackboard, remnants of when students performed grammar surgery
on words with the contractionitis disease. Several poster size board games were propped
up on the blackboard, which served as visual aids for students Book Share projects.

According to the fourth grade teachers in the school, fourth grade was as an academic leap
for many students. Fourth grade was when school became more academic, meaning
students started to be held more accountable to their learning by taking tests, students
responsibility for homework increased relative to earlier grades, and paragraph and essay
writing became an important part of their success in all content areas.
According to previous teachers, Elise had thrived in earlier classrooms, because of her
independence; desire to do well in school, and her general love of reading.

Physical presence and gesture

Upon entering the classroom for the first time, I did not notice Elise right away. She seemed
quietly engaged at her desk. She was not talking to other students, but she was moving her
pencil across a piece of paper.
During discussions of literature, picture books, and reading, Elise often raised her hand to
provide her insight on whatever was being read. She seemed to have a keen sense for
drawing themes and trends in literature, and often made personal connections to text. While
her voice was often soft in volume, Elise often raised her hand during class discussions.
In age, she was younger than most the students in the classroom, and she was physically
petite relative to other fourth grade girls in the classroom. She had curly brown hair and
braces. While her actions sometimes reflected her petite physique, she was more often
enthusiastically engaged in dancing, playing four square during recess, or excitedly talking
to a friend about a variety of topics such as her new stuffed animal, or the literature club she
participated in.

Disposition and temperament

During most classroom activities, Elise strived to listen and engage in learning. Sometimes
when she did not understand a concept and would repeatedly ask questions, she became
physically pink in the face. On several occasions, she raised her hand during math, to
comment that she could not hear the teacher because of other students talking, and also
seemed pink in the face. She would also take the initiative to close the classroom door
when there was some distractions in the hallway. In her perception, she seemed to work
best in a quiet environment, evidenced by her disposition to be uncomfortable in a chatty
instructional environment.
Her temperament often seemed mild, but as with most people, she was upset when things
she cared about did go to her advantage. For example, she was upset when she did not win
the class vote to be the Student Council representative, and when she was not picked to be
the princess in the play, after auditioning, and practicing independently for several recesses.
This was seen through her deflated affect during math, as in she did not talk much,
participate, and she also told the teacher that she was eager to go home and take a nap

before doing her homework. Her parents had also mentioned that Elise had seemed upset
at home when she was not selected for participation on these two occasions. Elise had a
strong desire to participate in several public speaking related activities, but became upset
when she was not selected.

Connections and interactions with others

At least verbally, Elise insightfully articulated her self awareness, and the existence of a
theory of mind, the awareness that others have different ways of thinking from ones own,
which enabled her to internalize the perspectives of other people. Similar to her ability to
draw themes from and across text, she deftly drew inferences about social situations as
well. When the class was having a discussion about the new lunch program, some of the
students began to talk about the supposed inefficiency of the lunch ladies. Elise raised her
hand to say that the lunch ladies worked hard all day to prepare and serve the food. She
took on another perspective. Also, Elise would usually be the first person to volunteer to
include another individual in their group, or to help another student clean the floor. She
would often seek ways to positively interact with other people.

Strong interests and preferences

One of interests, which showed through her school work and her life outside the classroom,
is her interest in animals. She would often bring webkins to school, which are a brand of
stuffed animal collectibles. She claimed that she had a very large collection of these
webkins stuffed animals at home. She would usually bring in a different one everyday, and
take it out to recess. Sometimes, other girls would bring their webkins too, and they would
all go out to recess to play with their webkins. This was a way of socially interacting with
other girls in the class, another activity Elise enjoyed.
Her interest in animals extended to her reading selection as well. Towards the beginning of
the year, she began to read a book series having to do with a animal main character named
pee wee. She mentioned that the groundhogs were cute and adorable, and that book
was so good I read it in one day. Her enthusiasm about the book sparked the interest of
another girl in the classroom to read the Pee wee series as well. On subsequent trips to the
library, she borrowed informational books about ground hogs, because she wanted to know
more about Pee wee. Furthermore, for her Book Share project, she chose to use the Pee
wee chapter book.
As noted, Elise displayed a love for reading. She actively sought out books she took interest
in, as she did with the Pee wee series. She also seemed to enjoy listening to the read
alouds of Cripsin and Bunnicula, and often made thoughtful predictions, although she
enjoyed coloring during the read aloud time as well. Because of her explicit love of reading
and ability to verbally discuss and interpret text she read, the teacher selected Elise to be
the class representative to eat and talk with Jame Howe (author of Bunnicula), the visiting

author to the school. The teacher believed she would appreciate the experience, which,
afterwards, she said she thoroughly enjoyed.
As an extracurricular activity, Elise also plays violin. She misses some class time every
week in order to participate in violin lessons. She also enjoys most types of performancerelated arts. She often mentions that she loves dancing and acting, which is why she
wanted the princess role in the play. When the class would practice for their play in Music
class, she would eagerly practice the dance and song in recess and show the teacher.
Although she didnt seem to project her voice during presentations and play auditions, she
enunciated and created an engaging tape recording of a fable. Working in groups, student
each took on a role in a fable, and she performed well in this situation. Her interests seem
to span, but her emphasis on acting, reading, and animals, surfaced often in the classroom
environment.

Modes of thinking and learning

Elise seemed to thrive in many types of learning situations and environments. She also
articulated what type of situations worked well for her, and which situations she struggled
with. Evidenced by her willingness to participate in discussion and interest in reading, Elise
enjoyed literature and most activities that involved literature. She would be eager to start an
activity, and would usually be ones of the first to finish. For instance, for the fairy tale finale
project, she expressed immediate interest in choosing a book, and came up to the teacher
to discuss her book selection. She subsequently wrote the paragraph, finished first in the
class, and asked the teacher to look over her work. She said she wanted to get to the
finished product, a 3D triorama.
She also shows the ability to think across content areas and apply concepts to different
areas of learning. For the fairy tale project, all students created a triorama as their final
product. Elise took the idea one step further, and was inspired to create a large, poster size,
triorama as the visual aid in her Book Share project. Although the Book Share project was
entirely a home based project, she brought in ideas from inside the classroom to work on
projects at home. Once she initiated her idea, the teacher supported her in making the
triorama.
Her ability to draw themes in literature and connect them to other activities in class also
remains as one of her strengths. When discussing themes about Crispin, she pointed out
the theme about friendship that no other student had mentioned yet. During a separate
discussion about the book Everybody Needs A Rock, she interpreted the same theme about
friendship and mentioned that it was similar to the theme of Crispin. Then, she connected
this to her life by saying that no matter how big or small someone is, everybody needs a
friend. Likewise, she would mention connections in Social Studies about how geometry
concepts were present in castle formations.
She also thrives in hands-on activities (as do most fourth graders). She enjoyed doing role
plays during a lesson by the counselor about bullying, and mentioned that her favorite
language arts lesson was the interactive contractions lesson, in which students actively cut

slips of paper to create contractions. Her interest in dancing and acting also helped her to
represent her learning, often being the first to volunteer for acting roles.
Elise also advocates for working environments that will help her to learn her best. She has
raised her hand to say that the class is too loud or that she cannot hear the teacher during
math. When she is absent, she often becomes worried that she does not understand the
lesson, and expresses her concern to the teacher. It is then that she receives the extra help
she needs. When the classroom becomes inaccessible because of the noise level, which
she voices more often than other students, she will close the door, or even show physical
signs of discomfort (i.e. flushed face, or putting her hands against her ears). She also
strives to keep herself organized, but often caught up in volunteering to help the teacher
pass out papers, completing each and every assignment, and starting various drawing
project on her desk, she mentions that has trouble keeping her desk organized. She also
has claimed that she has trouble remembering to bring homework in. This awareness has
helped her improved her organization, but sometimes she is still reminded to clear her desk,
before copying homework. It is a skill in progress.

Recommendations
Academically, Elise is at the top of the class, and continues to contribute great things to the
class. She seems to work well in quieter environments and when given explicit instructions,
but with room for her creativity (such as the triorama in her Book Share project). Perhaps
she should be given permission to work in quieter environments if she finds the classroom
to be too loud for her. She should also be guided to look for ways to cope with louder
environments, such as quietly asking neighbors to quiet down, or mentally concentrating on
her work, rather than the loudness, or even to partake in the chatter, to see where her
threshold could change
Her confidence and love for reading should continue to be engendered. She should be
encouraged to continue to make connections across literature, content areas, and in her
life. Thereby, she will deepen her critical thinking skills and expand perspectives in many
areas. The ability to draw insightful themes and perspective-take will only prove to be a
useful skill for her future.
Developing organizational skills is always a process, which Elise will eventually accomplish.
Elise is at proximal zone of development where she seems to be able to successfully
organize her belongings, and homework, when she is reminded. She seems to internalize
these reminders, and apply them to her work. It might help to integrate her interest in
reading to increase her organization skills. For example, she could create a chart of her
reading choices, in which she must remember to record her book ors her amount of time
she has read. It would help her to keep track of one thing in her life, which could have an
incentive at the end such as a free book. This is merely an idea. Overall, her awareness
should be the stepping stone to make great leaps in her learning throughout the year and
beyond.

Narrative Reports Reflections Home

Parent Letter
Dear Mrs. Annis,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing this letter to share my observations and
thoughts about Karens progress this year. Overall, I have been enjoying Karen a lot this
year. I appreciate her vivid imagination and ability to enjoy literature. For example, I have
been reading Bunnicula out loud to the class, and she constantly makes relevant
connections to and accurate predictions about the story. She seems to thrive on reading
literature that she is interested in such as when we read fables in class. I observed her
reading these fables even during recess, and she initiated a discussion with me about her
favorite fable. Afterwards, she wrote an amazing fable for the writing assignment. We did an
oral pre-writing one on one, and I also know that she received support from home. She
seems to benefit from verbalizing her creative, witty ideas. On this end, I would love to hear
how and what she reads at home, so that I can try to integrate more of her interest in
literature to help her to grow in other areas.
I know you have mentioned to me that you have been concerned about Karens motivation
and her attitude about schoolwork. From my observations, her attitude seems to prevent her
from accomplishing her best work in certain situations. For example, in math, she seems to
grasp the concepts but seems to get stuck when the class is assigned to do things she
considers school work. During writing, she follows a similar trend. She is a creative thinker
that verbally develops detailed and in-depth ideas, but seems to withdraw when she is given
the task to formally write it down. I usually talk to her individually, affirm her ability,
encourage her to finish her work, and then provide one on one instructional time.
Sometimes, she replies that she just wants to go home and that school is torture. I find this
language inconsistent with her enthusiasm for many school activities she often flourishes in
such as reading or her flute lessons. The reading specialist has also mentioned that during
their Word Study group, her unengaged attitude seems to distract her concentration and
willingness to learn. I have also given her extra time for science and math tests, even when
she verbally and facially expresses that she does not want to take the test, because I feel

that she understands the materials and should have the opportunity to show that. I verbalize
my faith in her ability; it is then that she finishes the test.
I am hoping to collaborate with you about other ways to maximize Karens potential. I
believe she has a lot of room to grow, because I have seen her potential through her fable
writing piece and enthusiasm in certain areas of school. I am confident that Karen is an
intelligent and creative girl that is seeking ways to express herself in the classroom. I would
like to her help her to channel her motivation to many areas of school, and encourage her to
see the integration of the social activities she enjoys with the academic school work she
sometimes withdraws from. Likewise, I have encouraged her to present her Spanish word of
the day, because she seems to love learning Spanish and sharing with the class.
As her teacher, I believe it is important to engage students in meaningful curriculum. If
Karen does not seem engaged in certain circumstances, I feel I have room to learn and
grow with her. As her parents, I believe that you are her first teachers. You know her best. I
would be very interested in your ideas to help Karen enjoy and excel in her 4 th grade
experience.
Thanks for all your time and support. Please feel free to contact me through email or phone,
and I look forward to our future conversations.
Sincerely,
Elisha Ann
eann1@swarthmore.edu

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