How to Teach About Narrative & Expository Text in a Reading Comprehension Class
Narrative text is words-in-a-row that tell a story. It includes fiction and non-fiction, but excludes most poetry. Expository text tells a factual story. Newspapers, some magazines and text books are examples of expository text. Reading narrative text is a somewhat different skill from reading expository text, but both hinge around one major component: practice, coupled with a second component: enjoyment. Most readers gravitate toward material they like to read. They are more likely to retain information from subject matter they like.
Instructions
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Bring a wide variety of reading material to class. Some of it should be below the expected reading level of your class; some of it should be higher. Explain that a narrative is a story that can be true or made up.
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Read an example of a very short story, such as an Aesop's fable or one of Isaac Asimov's short-shorts, or even a modern flash fiction, depending upon your audience. Explain that this is an example of a narrative, or a story.
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Explain that factual stories are called expository. For younger students, let them try out the word and roll it around on their tongue. Read aloud a newspaper article that is of interest to your class. Point out that it contains facts, and that it is an example of expository text.
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Give the students time to select books or periodicals from the stack. Allow time to read for them to read some selections on their own. Provide paper and pencils in case anyone wants to take notes, but don't make it a requirement.
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Pull the class back together. Ask them how many of them read a narration. Let them tell you why it was a narration. Then ask them how many of them read an exposition. Only part of them should have read an exposition. Let them identify the expository items, and tell why it is expository.
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References
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