Ds 10 struggling a bit with narrations in SOTW 4

[ELaurie]

Because the chapters in SOTW 4 are longer and more complex than in previous volumes, DS 10 is finding history narrations more challenging than in the past. When I ask him to tell me about the most important events in each section, he has difficulty identifying what's most important in the narrative. For a couple of the chapters, I've attempted to use the outlines in the AG to assist him in identifying the underlying structure of the passage, while also recognizing that he's really not cognitively ready for this step.

 

There was some discussion about this at the convention in Cincinnati this summer, and SWB indicated that the outlines are really more appropriate for use by older students.

 

He is using WWE 3 this year, and doing very well at that level, but there is a big jump, between the narrations required in WWE 3 and those required by SOTW 4.

 

I also realize his skills will develop over the course of this year, and the narrations will get easier for him to do over time.

 

Any suggestions about how to help him with this transition would be appreciated :001_smile:

[ELaurie]

:lurk5:

[Lori in MS]

I don't require my 10 yr old do to narrations or outlines in SOTW 4. He is doing WWE 3 which is on his level. I believe the WWE series will adequately progress him to where he needs to be (and at the correct pace). For history he listens to SOTW 4, does the mapwork, orally answers the review questions, and tells me what he remembers in an informal way. His WWE practice is helping him to do this. He also reads extra books on some of the topics.

[Susie in CA]

Well, we had a hard time with it, too. My suggestion is to allow him to pick a part of the chapter and let him write about that. If I remember correctly, SWB does have them break down the narrations into parts sometimes as well. I think I noticed this in SOTW 3. We just did the same thing in SOTW 4.

 

Susie

[MIch elle]

Use the chapter title as the beginning of the sentence and then complete the sentence. Do this with the book open. Read the title and fill in the sentence using the book. Underline with pencil in the book if needed.

 

Chapter 1:

Ex: Victoria's England was an empire that contained many separate countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa (and together they were all called the British Empire). The Sepoy Mutiny was ....

 

Help your dc at first until he gets the hang of it. Once he gets a simple sentence from the title and sub-titles then prompt him to add a little bit more detail - when, why, how, etc.

[ELaurie]

for these helpful suggestions!

[Rhondabee]

I circled the part of the story that I wanted either narrated or outlined. (I did not use the outlines provided in the AG after crashing and burning a few times - LOL!). Usually, that was 5-6 paragraphs - sometimes more, sometimes less.

 

I was constantly having to remind DS that I didn't *want* him to re-tell everything - so I didn't even call them "narrations", but "reports" or even just "a paragraph". I wanted a topic sentence (that had to be pre-approved before the paragraph was written), and 3-4 supporting sentences (if I could manage it, I tried to get these out of him when I approved his topic sentence). These supporting sentences had to be in the order of time or the order of importance, per his writing program that year (R&S-5).

 

Best wishes!