Narration for 6yo: answering questions or summarizing??

[diaperjoys]

I'm a bit confused about narration. We have WWE 1, and we're on week 11. My son can successfully answer nearly all the questions presented in the text. But should I be orally encouraging him to retell the story to me? Isn't that what narration is? Or does that come later? Should I be content to stick with the question/answer ritual for now??

 

Thanks!

[Penelope]

We use WWE. I also have ds7 narrate other things during our school day. I ask him to narrate first. I only ask him the questions that he didn't mention in his narration. The goal of WWE is, eventually, to summarize, which he is learning to do with WWE2. I still have him narrate first, however, and then sometimes it's necessary to ask him the questions and pare down his narration to a few sentences.

[Haiku]

I did WWE 1 with my dd last year, and I am doing it with my ds this year. I read the selection, ask the questions, and ask ds to tell me one thing he remembers from the passage. Later in year 1, your child will make the transition to giving you short summaries. There's no need to rush to this. WWE builds up to it.

 

My dd is in WWE 2. This year I ask her comprehension questions and then ask two or three questions that focus her attention on the progression of the passage. Then I ask her to tell me, in two or three sentences, what the story is about.

 

Tara

[Jumping In Puddles]

I think its a good idea to stick to WWE as written but I'm sure that many change the program up to fit their children.

 

My ds6 can also answer all the questions (and it was kind of funny how he answers with EXACTLY the same answer in the book!) and so I thought maybe it was moving too slowly. But then I looked ahead at WWE (after posting here of course! :lol:) and I could see where this question/answer was taking him and SWB has designed the program carefully to lead up to narration summaries.

 

I don't think the question/answer stuff is suppose to stump the kids (for example keep working week after week on question/answer until they finally get it) but rather to train them and lead them to summaries then writing. Same with the question "tell me one thing you remember about the passage". This way the child is not struggling at any of the stages.

 

I also think the early WWE (maybe first 22 weeks) is easy purposely, and not to teach to the lowest ability but to build up to writing with ease. :D

Edited December 2, 2009 by Jumping In Puddles

[Caribbean Queen]

We do Charlotte Mason style narration. My son retells the story. He does not summarize it or answer questions. Susuan Wise Bauer's version of narration is a bit different.

[Penelope]

We do Charlotte Mason style narration. My son retells the story. He does not summarize it or answer questions. Susuan Wise Bauer's version of narration is a bit different.

 

Yes, definitely different. WWE goal is to get then to summarize so that they can eventually write a coherent, well-organized paragraph about something they read. I think CM help with writing, too, but the goal is not brevity. :)

 

I think both types are valuable. When we do our WWE2, I tell my son ahead of time that it will be a summary narration. The goal is building a specific skill set. For other narrations, the goal is more for processing and retention of the information we read, not only for putting thoughts into complete sentences.