notebooking vs narration

[caedmyn]

Is notebooking a decent substitute for oral narration?  Or pros and cons of notebooking?  We lean toward Charlotte Mason homeschooling but oral narration just doesn't happen as often as it should (last year it was one narration 2-3x/week for both my 2nd and 5th graders), and I'm wondering if we could use notebooking instead.  I wouldn't drop oral narration entirely, but having a substitute would remove the pressure I feel to get to oral narration several times a day (not that feeling the pressure actually makes it happen...).

[winterbaby]

Well, oral is kind of a stepping stone to written (on an ongoing basis at each level), so if you are having trouble getting oral done I wonder if you won't have similar problems getting writing done. What exactly will they be writing if they can't even just say something, you know? I wonder if you aren't making "narration" too much of a formal big deal, if writing seems easier by comparison. Try seeking their feedback on a more holistic, informal basis rather than a big deal "now we will do our narrations." On the other hand, if you have kids who are eager to write and draw but struggle to express themselves orally you should obviously give them a chance to show their strengths while continuing to work on oral skills. Maybe select smaller chunks of content to narrate, and maybe be more Socratic about it like "what did you think of....?" rather than a demand for straight recall. Is Charlotte Mason the one who insists on perfect recall after one hearing/reading? I don't agree with that.

[nixpix5]

Narration is more of a pre-cursor to writing. Sometimes I will have my child do some of their narration by recording it on my phone. This can be fun for them and change things up. Later, when we have time, we would listen to it together and I will write some of it down for them to copy.

 

I wouldn't put pressure on yourself about it. Even doing it a couple times a week is still good practice.

[coastalfam]

In our Charlotte Mason/Classical inspired curriculum plan we use, in the daily narration part it says younger children may color or draw for their narration if they like, and at least once a week the narration gets really creative, like acting out a story from History, or pretending to interview a character, rather than straight oral narration. I think narration has a couple purposes: One is re-living the material through your own expression to help deepen learning and meaning. In this case, I think you could add notebooking as a valid alternative in that case. Another purpose of narration, specifically of oral narration, is that expressing thoughts orally in a coherent way is helpful in the development of writing original thoughts. Oral narration has been an immense help for my 9 year old with writing, so I nearly always have him do a proper oral narration when we are working on language arts (and it is scheduled into our LA program, which makes it easy to remember to do). One way I "sneak in" oral narration is just to have them describe our history or science book reading for the day to their dad at dinner time.

[LMD]

Well, narration is the processing and expressing of what they've heard. Note booking can certainly be an 'expression.'

 

If they're struggling with narration, I'd do a guided narration by asking leading questions - like in WWE.

[HS Mom in NC]

I don't think there's a substitute for narration.  It is it's own thing.  Notebooking is great and a worthwhile activity, but no, I don't think it can fill the narration gap.