Narration and my six year old.

[JMDRAD]

We are currently using FLL and WWE along with Sonlight's Core 1. My dd struggles with narration. She pays attention to the story. This I know because she and her sister will act out the story later in the day. But when I asked her to tell me the most important thing from the passage she freezes up. It's like her mind goes blank and she has no clue what to say. How do I go about teaching her how to summarize? Do I just tell her the narration then explain why I said what I said? She is 6 1/2 and is in first grade. Am I expecting too much too soon?

[Verity]

We are currently using FLL and WWE along with Sonlight's Core 1. My dd struggles with narration. She pays attention to the story. This I know because she and her sister will act out the story later in the day. But when I asked her to tell me the most important thing from the passage she freezes up. It's like her mind goes blank and she has no clue what to say. How do I go about teaching her how to summarize? Do I just tell her the narration then explain why I said what I said? She is 6 1/2 and is in first grade. Am I expecting too much too soon?

 

My children have both demonstrated exactly those kinds of behaviors, I don't think it's uncommon. After you read the story do you ask any discussion questions? The point of the questions is to not spoonfed them the answers but to help provide a framework for what happened first, next, and last in their brains. This is a learned skill for most young children.

 

If you are doing the discussion/recall questions after the reading and she still can't repeat back to you any narration (in the case of my 7 year old with history and with his WWE I ask him to tell me *one* thing he can remember, sometimes I get one sometimes three or more depending on his interest level in the story) then I would consider adding in some kind of hands on (drawing, coloring, playdoh) to go along with the story - she may be a very visual/tactile learner and need more stimulation. The point of the narration as I understand it is to expand the student's working memory/recall and grasp of verbal instruction.

[happyWImom]

My dd is the same. Ds has no problem, because he is a total ham and is never shy or introverted with anyone. Ds can be a ham, but she also gets very embarrassed about everything lately.:001_huh:

 

What I've done, and had some success with, is read different Aesop's Fables, especially real short ones, and they both do well with that narration. It seems like if it's something fun and that she likes, she does better. So, I do that for practice, and hope it'll get better with the actual "have to" stuff. We use WWE also, and she is slowly coming along with the narration.

[Brooketopia]

Mine's 5 1/2 and just gives one word answers. I then ask questions about her answers, hoping it will encourage bigger responses.

 

She is NOT an auditory-type of person; most of her answers are spurred by remembering the pictures in the story. It's hard for her, so I'm expecting it to take a long time to become comfortable with this.

[Guest Cindie2dds]

We are currently using FLL and WWE along with Sonlight's Core 1. My dd struggles with narration. She pays attention to the story. This I know because she and her sister will act out the story later in the day. But when I asked her to tell me the most important thing from the passage she freezes up. It's like her mind goes blank and she has no clue what to say. How do I go about teaching her how to summarize? Do I just tell her the narration then explain why I said what I said? She is 6 1/2 and is in first grade. Am I expecting too much too soon?

 

I think you are expecting a narration from a 6 year old too quickly afterward. Of course, I could be wrong. ;)

 

My .02. I would try to do things she likes. I give my dd a blank book and have her draw the story I read, then describe it to me. If you give her some time to even absorb it first, she might be able to process it better. It works best for me if I read the story to her in the morning, then she draws about it and narrates it in the afternoon. I also tell her before each story that I am going to read this once and she needs to listen the first time. :)

 

HTH!

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We are currently using FLL and WWE along with Sonlight's Core 1. My dd struggles with narration. She pays attention to the story. This I know because she and her sister will act out the story later in the day. But when I asked her to tell me the most important thing from the passage she freezes up. It's like her mind goes blank and she has no clue what to say. How do I go about teaching her how to summarize? Do I just tell her the narration then explain why I said what I said? She is 6 1/2 and is in first grade. Am I expecting too much too soon?

 

I think you are expecting to much to soon. Asking what's the most important thing reminds me of logic stage outlining where you read a paragraph and then write one sentence with the most important info. Then, there's also the pressure of the student trying to figure out which part the teacher thinks is the most important so they can give the correct answer.

 

I've found with both my DD's so far that it's better to let them simply retell the story to me in their own words at that age with as many details as they choose to include. To me the goal of narration in the 1st grade is to show that the student has comprehended the material. For reading material that not's a story like science or some history reading, I generally ask them to tell me what they found the most interesting. If they don't mention something that to me is important, I would just discuss the info and why I think it's important. Somewhere in the 3rd to 5th grade range when they shift from oral to written narration, the length will invariably decrease if only so they don't have so much to write. HTH

[shukriyya]

Before I learned about narration I was already doing a form of it with my dc for kindy and it worked really well. I'm not sure what kinds of stories are in FLL and WWE but we were working on simple fairy tales at the time (Elves and the Shoemaker, Three Billy Goats Gruff etc) and I would read the story first and let it sit for a day. Then the next day we'd read it again and then each of us would narrate it using either beeswax figures or wooden figures or else we'd act it out with simple playsilks for costumes and furniture for props. It engaged my dc and allowed for the story to be drawn out in a very natural way. It sounds as tho this is happening already with her sister later in the day.

[alpidarkomama]

Doesn't WWE ask the student to say "something" about the passage, and not the most "important" thing. Your daughter may be getting hung up on the word "important." If my DD (1st grade) responds with "There was a dog." I just ask her to tell me more about the dog, or something the dog did, then to put that into a complete sentence.

[Haiku]

With my six year olds, I just had them tell me one thing they could remember about the passage. I think, honestly, that most six year olds have no idea what the most important things in a passage are. Now my dd is in second grade, and we started the year with the "most important" thing. She didn't get it at all. To her, the most important part is the part that interested her most, even if it was the color scarf the bird was wearing (for example). I have switched my instructions to "Tell me, in three sentences, what happened in this story," and if she starts with "There was a bird who was wearing a purple scarf," I say, "You've used up one sentence on that, and you've only made it this far in the story" (showing her in the text what she covered and how far she's got to go). She is on week 10 of year 2 and is finally starting to understand what types of things to include.

 

Tara

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

SWB has a great description of how to coax beginning narrations out of kids. The biggest benefit of the description she provides is that you get a clear idea of what to expect a beginner to say and how to deal with it. (I think it might have been on the Writing Without Fear audio I got from Peace Hill Press.)

 

Basically, her example went about the same as DS6's narration today from one page about Christopher Columbus (reading from The Real Book of Explorers), so here's how that went.

 

Me: So, what can you tell me about Christopher Columbus?

DS: (blank stare followed by...) I don't know.

Me: Was he a happy boy? (This is a joke, based on the reading.)

DS: No, sad.

Me: OK, repeat after me. Christopher Columbus was sad because...

DS: Christopher Columbus was sad because...(me giving raised eyebrows for him to continue) he had to work even though he was only a little boy.

Me: And he dreamed of...

DS: becoming a great sea captain.

Me: OK, repeat after me. He dreamed of becoming a great sea captain.

DS: He dreamed of becoming a great sea captain.

Me: So, now you say it all together.

DS: Christopher Columbus was sad because he had to work even though he was only a little boy. He dreamed of becoming a great sea captain.

Me: Lovely. Go play.

 

:001_smile:

 

Being that I'm 37 and know how to write complete sentences, it is a tad hilarious to observe the amount of pride DS gets out of coached narrations but such is the case. He's a beginner, and that's OK.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Alte Veste Academy

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

My dd struggles with narration.

 

She pays attention to the story. This I know because she and her sister will act out the story later in the day.

 

I do encourage you to get the Writing Without Fear cd and re-read the portion of WWE that talks about the skill of writing. Putting thoughts into words and playing are two vastly different skill sets. Never mind the fact that I never actually command them, "OK, now go play Christopher Columbus." That might make them not play Christopher Columbus, you know with all the pressure of mom actually paying attention to see/hear if they're doing it right! :lol:

 

ETA: I was thinking about this a bit more and wanted to say that doing narrations is even completely different creative writing. DS6 actually has no problems making up stories and seems to enjoy it a great deal, even as he struggles to get past the I dunno stage with narrations. I have a lot of stories that I've typed up for him after he's drawn a picture and wants to tell me the story (long and complicated, usually) to go along with it.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Alte Veste Academy

[lulubelle]

WWE and/or FLL 1 only has you ask your child what they "remember" about the passage, not what is the "most important part". There is a huge difference in understanding with these two questions. Sometimes I will ask my ds 7 what he remembered, liked, or didn't like about the passsage. Very simple.

[JMDRAD]

Thanks all for your help. You gave me some great ideas. I am using WWE but I just got the book and read through it once. I thought I had it figured out but maybe not. I'll be studying it more tonight . LOL

 

 

 

 

WWE and/or FLL 1 only has you ask your child what they "remember" about the passage, not what is the "most important part". There is a huge difference in understanding with these two questions. Sometimes I will ask my ds 7 what he remembered, liked, or didn't like about the passsage. Very simple.

 

I thought this was what I was suppose to do at first then I saw on Year 1 Week 1 Day 2 about teaching them to recognize central facts. I just reread that paragraph and realized I misunderstood it. It's something to learn to recognize but not fully master till level 5-8.

 

Thanks to everybody again!!!!:001_smile:

[sarawatsonim]

My daughter who doesn't seem to ever stop talking does this as well when she is asked to narrate back. I had an epiphany when I took her to the eye doctor (she goes monthly to check patching progress). Anyway, when the eye doctor asks her to read the chart it's like a wall goes up and she won't answer. I finally realized it was because she didn't want to give the wrong answer. We had a talk to explain that it was okay as long as she tried. Since then the narrations have improved and she reads more lines on the eye chart. ;)