How many sentences would an acceptable narration for 2nd gr?

[Pster]

Along this 20 min lesson idea - I have thought to do a history reading at least 2 days a week where we would read for 20 min - and then I would give her the next 20 min to do a narration of what we read. (While she works on that - the K'er would narrate to me - and I would write it - and my youngest could just draw or something)

 

Do you think that would work? How many sentences should a "2nd grader" be able to write during that time? I don't want to say to her write x number of sentences - I want her to just let it flow .....but I also don't want her to dawdle and maybe only get 2 written. Kwim? Maybe as we just do this it will become clear to me what to expect of her.....

 

Another ?.... if the narration doesn't get done in 20 min - should I just let her continue? come back to it? it becomes "homework"? we just pick up and start again the next day?

 

thanks....

[MelissaMinNC]

For a 2nd grader to write on her own. My dd will be in 2nd next year, and I fully plan on writing her narrations for her at least for the first half-3/4 of the year. Maybe after that, I'll have her write the last sentence or so, if she's ready and able.

 

My dd is youngish for grade (Oct birthday), so maybe that's why, but she's not overly eager as a writer. I think she'd be very resistant to doing a written narration all on her own.

 

Would it be possible to have your K and 2nd doing the narration together? They could take turns giving different details that you could write down for one group narration? Or one could narrate one day and the other the next day. Or switch from lesson to lesson? Or just let the 2nd grader do it and the Ker could just listen in?

 

FWIW, I usually read history/science for about 15 minutes or so, and then have dd narrate for about 5 minutes. I write her narrations, and we usually get 3-5 sentences in that amount of time. Works well for us. :)

 

Take care,

Melissa

[rafiki]

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[Aubrey]

I write ds7's narrations for him, then he copies them.

 

I'm pretty sure the progression outlined in WTM is

 

1st. Orally narrate, parent writes.

 

2nd. Orally narrate, parent writes, student copies.

 

3rd. Orally narrate, parent writes & then dictates back to student, who writes from dictation.

 

4th. Student writes independently.

 

So for 2nd, asking your dd to write it on her own sounds like it *might* be a lot, depending on her skill level.

[Nestof3]

20 minutes seems like a long time for a 2nd grader to work on writing narrations, but that's just me.

[yslek]

My 2nd grader dictates his narration to me as I type it using StartWrite. It's usually about 3 sentences long. I print this out, and then he copies it onto his own paper. (He used to copy onto lines printed directly under the typed narration.)

 

My 3rd grader prefers to write out his own narration.

 

Just sharing what works in our family. :)

 

Kelsy

[Sue G in PA]

and did very well with them. It took much prompting and too much time. Now, we do what WTM suggests and ds narrates, I write and he copies my writing. I usually ask him to tell me 3 things he remembers from our History lesson. For fables/stories and such, we do a First, Next (Middle), Last sort of thing. Usually 3 sentences to "sum up" the story. Maybe 4 if the story is long.

[Strawberry Queen]

I think that having your 2nd grader write out their own narration would depend on skill level and familiarity with narrations. If you have a very able child then it might work well. My dd in 2nd will narrate w/o writing some days, write the 1st sentence and then narrate the rest for me to write out, or copy out the first few sentences that she's narrated.

 

I find that it also depends on what the chapter is about. Some concepts are easier to narrate than others. When we did Henry VIII, we found that talking and working through the narration was enough. There were so many confusing details. Not that SWB made it confusing, but when a guy marries his dead brothers' wife, and then goes on to have 5 other wives with natural and unnatural deaths involved, it's a little complicated for my 7yo dd;)

 

I would also hold off on requiring your 5yo to do a narration each time. There is plenty of time to work on that skill in grade 1, imho. :001_smile:

Anyhow, you have to figure out what will work well for your children, and you know them best.

 

So have fun working out your routine.:)

[ArwenA]

My 2nd grader finds narrations to be "The best thing ever!" right now and will narrate about anything. She has looooong narrations which I write. I would like to have her start copying some but there is no interest right now and I don't want her to loose her enthusiasm so I'll wait a few months or until 3rd.