SOTW AG narrations - a question

[greenmamato3]

i just had a thought and wondered if any of you have done this:

instead of handing my child a themed narration page for our history chapter of the week, asking the review questions, then asking him to tell me his favorite thing to narrate and record on his narration page, i'm thinking i might try writing down the questions from the AG chapter, letting him fill in the answers in complete sentences, since he's a very visual kind of kid.

 

he's only in first grade, and this has the potential to be too much writing certain days, but i could always step in and assist with the handwriting portion .... i just was thinking that the ORAL component of the review questions and the ORAL answer he tries to give sort of stands in our way .... if i were to do more of a "workbook" page approach and then wean him down from that into oral narrations, i might make it easier for him to focus and not get so distracted and lost during narration times for history.

 

anyone follow my train of thought? hmmmmm .... :bigear:

[jenL]

I *think* I'm following you, but if I'm not doing very well at it, I'm sorry!

 

I think you're thinking your son should see the review questions. So, typing them out would be a great idea. Since he's only in first, answering them may be too much writing like you said. What if he read the sentence and then answered orally in complete sentences? You could write the answer out for him if you wanted it on paper & maybe he could do it as copywork then? Is he very advanced at spelling and such so that he could correctly write out the answer in a complete sentence on his own? I ask only because I would avoid him taking the chance to do inventive spelling if he can't spell something since that can backfire later when it comes to correct spelling.

 

As for the narration part, at first grade, it's okay if he can only tell you one or two things that he remembers. Narration is important though as it teaches a child to see the story in pictures in their minds, to put it in order, pull out key events/facts, and then organize it logically from start to finish. Of course, this isn't all expected to be perfect in 1st grade, but the early practice now allows the brain to work out information in such a way to be fluent at it during the latter 2 stages (logic & rhetoric). I'm a huge believer in narration, but you may not be. If you are not sold on it, then you may want to pass on it.

[greenmamato3]

yes ... you're following me.

i don't want to overdue the copywork {we have plenty going on in other subjects so i would only occasionally have him do history copywork instead} but i think he needs the visual cue of seeing the question. so if i type the questions out with a few lines after each one for recording his sentence, then he can answer orally in complete sentences and i can write down his answers.

 

i *am* a huge believer in narration, even though i have no proof that it works from personal experience yet. i'm only going on what others say :) i trust in the system, if you will.

 

i guess what i'm doublechecking about is whether, if i type up the questions, i need to also ask a "what's one thing you remember" type of question to make his actualy narration entry in his history notebook, or whether i could just let the process of answering the review questions with me *be* his narration .....

 

clear as mud? i think i'm on the brink of a breakthrough but i just need help fleshing out this idea and tweaking it. i'm a little braindead currently.

:tongue_smilie:

[jenL]

 

i guess what i'm doublechecking about is whether, if i type up the questions, i need to also ask a "what's one thing you remember" type of question to make his actualy narration entry in his history notebook, or whether i could just let the process of answering the review questions with me *be* his narration .....

 

clear as mud? i think i'm on the brink of a breakthrough but i just need help fleshing out this idea and tweaking it. i'm a little braindead currently.

:tongue_smilie:

 

I understand braindead, and I was actually concerned I wasn't going to get my response to you to be coherent! :lol:

 

Your question about the review questions being the narration is something I've often questioned since ds will sometimes answer my "What is one thing you remember" question with info from the review questions. I often tell him he has to give me one piece of info that was not part of a review question or to give me more information about one of his review question answers. He sometimes struggles with this since the review answers are now freshest in his mind, kwim?

 

Honestly, we don't narrate for every chapter like we're supposed to; however, we do answer all the review questions, and some days I'll add my own questions in there on top of the review questions. It is one of my goals to get us to narrate for every chapter (and ultimately, every section within each chapter). Sometimes we just run out of time though, especially if the 2yo is around to distract us. My "justification" of this neglect is we're narrating in FLL, science, and after reading (either independently or aloud). :)

[greenmamato3]

I

 

Your question about the review questions being the narration is something I've often questioned since ds will sometimes answer my "What is one thing you remember" question with info from the review questions. I often tell him he has to give me one piece of info that was not part of a review question or to give me more information about one of his review question answers. He sometimes struggles with this since the review answers are now freshest in his mind, kwim?

 

Honestly, we don't narrate for every chapter like we're supposed to; however, we do answer all the review questions, and some days I'll add my own questions in there on top of the review questions. It is one of my goals to get us to narrate for every chapter (and ultimately, every section within each chapter). Sometimes we just run out of time though, especially if the 2yo is around to distract us. My "justification" of this neglect is we're narrating in FLL, science, and after reading (either independently or aloud). :)

 

it's like you took a leaf out of my mind's book! :) LOL.