How to get started with narrations?

[diaperjoys]

When I ask my son about what we just read he still has a terrible time articulating what he just heard. He's 6yo, 1st grade, a strong reader. We're on week 4 of WWE, but I'm noticing that the narrations in this book are just questions and answers rather than a retelling. Specific questions he can do, retelling is terribly difficult.

 

Should I be content with the question/answer style narration at this point? How do we get beyond that level? Is that covered in the next WWE book, or perhaps in CW Aesop?

 

Please do advise!

[MeAndTheBoys]

We are workign on this too, so I'm hoping to get more help.

 

I will say, I am guiding my son a LOT right now. We go through the questions in WWE, and he comes up with scattered narrations--so I ask more questions to get him to one of their samples.

 

I think at age 6, if they can tell ANYTHING about what they heard, in a sentence format, it's good :) I go beyond the WWE text to pull something out of him and really direct him to an answer. When it's written down, we read through the WWE sample answers together.

 

I have been trying to elicit more narrations from both my boys (to head off some of these troubles with the 5 year old)--trying to do at least one subject per day outside of WWE to ask them, "Tell me what you learned about the pilgrims." "Tell me how they celebrated, and who they invited to share in their celebration.", etc

 

Betsy

When I ask my son about what we just read he still has a terrible time articulating what he just heard. He's 6yo, 1st grade, a strong reader. We're on week 4 of WWE, but I'm noticing that the narrations in this book are just questions and answers rather than a retelling. Specific questions he can do, retelling is terribly difficult.

 

Should I be content with the question/answer style narration at this point? How do we get beyond that level? Is that covered in the next WWE book, or perhaps in CW Aesop?

 

Please do advise!

[KrissiK]

I, too, am working on that with my first grade/ Kinder boys. But, I have just decided to continue to guide them and be consistent and patiently work on it and work on it and work on it. I feel a little at a loss because I was never taught to summarize and I still don't really know how. I know that sounds dumb, but it's true. I don't think this is something that comes naturally - it's a mental discipline and a great one to develop, so I don't want my boys to become frustrated.

[lionfamily1999]

The questions and answers help them prepare to, later, know how to summarize. IOW, all those questions are the kinds of questions they'll need to ask themselves later, when it comes time to narrate.

 

I had the opposite problem with ds. He wants to tell me the whole story. A four sentence narration, becomes a short novel. He can read two paragraphs and come up with a narrative twice as long as what he actually read.

[LindaOz]

This is what has worked with my kids:

 

After a short reading, we go back to the start of the story and *I* start narrating then I stop at a key word (something obvious) and let the child fill it in. Then I continue, stopping here and there for dc to fill in a word or a short phrase, but all done in narrative style (without really asking questions). My ds started narrating short stories at age 4 just as result of doing this. I would start my narration then he would jump in and just continue. It also worked for my youngest dd who had been a reluctant narrator to begin with. Now, at 7, she narrates really well.

 

Hope this helps.

[coralloyd]

Something that I learned from Sonya Shafer in the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar- at a young age you should only read, at the most, a few paragraphs then have the child narrate. Read the next couple paragraphs and have them narrate that ect,ect... If you read a whole story/lessson then have them narate, it is just plain too much for the child to handle. Doing it this way really works well with my 7 yr. old dd. I let her know that I will not read it more than once, so she must pay close attention, and she does wonderfully. Yes, it takes longer, but it's worth it.

Edited September 4, 2009 by coralloyd

[The Governess]

In level 1 of WWE, they aren't expected to be able summarize. I don't think they are asked to summarize or find the most important part of the story until level 2. At this stage, they are just learning how to answer specific questions about the story in complete sentences, and then to recall one general thing about the story. Eventually this "one thing" will turn into more of a summary, but for now it isn't expected. So if he is able to answer the questions then I think you are right on target!

[siloam]

The questions and answers help them prepare to, later, know how to summarize. IOW, all those questions are the kinds of questions they'll need to ask themselves later, when it comes time to narrate.

 

 

Exactly. Level 2 begins to have the child do narrations. With level 1 you are laying the foundation.

 

Heather

 

[Laura in STL]

I agree that full narrations are not required at this point in WWE. Using the questions will build the skills for narrations later in the series.

 

With that said, one thing that helped both of my kids with narrations in the very beginning was using stories that they knew VERY well. Some of these were Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Tortoise and the Hare, The Little Engine that Could, etc. After reading favorite stories I would ask them to tell me the story orally. They liked doing it, and it built confidence in them for later formal narrations.

 

Later I use the same familiar stories to help them learn to streamline summaries. I would say, "Tell me the Tortoise and the Hare in three sentences," for example. Eventually they learn to do this with unfamiliar material as well.

 

This is just our personal experience, but I hope it may help!

[Aletheia Academy]

I think I got this idea from AmblesideOnline:

 

Start with Aesop's Fables. They are very short. My son is very good at retelling the whole story. Now (I got this idea from WWE) I need to have him practice picking out the key points rather than re-telling every detail.

 

 

Just a thought.

[Mary in GA]

If he can't retell the whole story whatever the length, just have him tell one event in his own words.

 

Aesop's fables are a great place to start, but even then if he can't retell the whole story just focus on one event, for instance, when the crow dropped the pebbles in the pitcher: e.g. "The crow dropped pebbles into the pitcher. The water got higher so he could have a drink." That's excellent to start.

 

My oldest, now 19, struggled with narrations. His mind jumped around and he told events out of order. My last, 6.5, wants to tell every detail of every thing. So to spare myself writing her lengthy narrations of SOTW which she has practically memorized from the CD, I get her to focus on just one topic.

 

Narration has been a long learning process for me! Have fun. I really do have fun with these now!

 

Mary