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WWE, STOW: Child not answering narration questions...help


Stellalarella
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We are using WWE1 and that same narration style with our SOTW history reading. I am finding that DD7 is unable to correctly answer questions about the narration. I do go back and reread the part of the narration that contains the answer, as SWB suggests in WWE. She can usually answer the question after the second go around, but not always. We are in week 8 of school.

I really could use some help.

Thoughts? Commiseration? Advice?

:bigear:

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We are using WWE1 and that same narration style with our SOTW history reading. I am finding that DD7 is unable to correctly answer questions about the narration. I do go back and reread the part of the narration that contains the answer, as SWB suggests in WWE. She can usually answer the question after the second go around, but not always. We are in week 8 of school.

I really could use some help.

Thoughts? Commiseration? Advice?

:bigear:

 

My 8 year old is just finishing up WWE1 from last year (we took a break over the summer) and is doing SotW Middle Ages this year and he has the exact same problem. I was just thinking about this this morning in fact.

 

Rereading can help, sometimes I give him prompts and have his older brother pitch ideas. At one point this morning I reworded what he was *kinda* saying and had him repeat it after me so I could write it down. I noted "assisted" in the margins of his narration to help me remember come evaluation time.

 

Hang in there, this is a skill that grows with practice. Giving good examples and having them repeat and copy helps them learn the skill too like most other skills.

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My DD8 is doing SOTW1 and WWE2 and cannot do the narrations very well, unless I let her read the passage. She is a visual learner. She listens to the audio CD of SOTW and I make her follow along in the book. She can do MUCH better that way.

I am making her do the narrations from my read a louds in WWE2 because I am trying to build her auditory skills. So it is frustrating, but I am going to keep at it. Dictation is slowly killing us, so i have decided to do studied dictations and also very short chunks for the WTM way of dictation. People have told me that she will get better with practice, so I am going to trudge through!!

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DS8 is the same way. He got mad today because he couldn't remember what the story was about, at least that's what he said. I feel like it's pulling teeth to get him to do this. We are doing WWE2 with him and ds10. We are in our 4th week of school but only on week 2 of WWE. Sometimes he just doesn't want to do it and I will tell him that it's up to him how long this takes. We sat here for 30min today while he did day 4 of week 1, which was combined narration/dictation. It's so frustrating because I know he can do this.

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My DD8 is doing SOTW1 and WWE2 and cannot do the narrations very well, unless I let her read the passage. She is a visual learner. She listens to the audio CD of SOTW and I make her follow along in the book. She can do MUCH better that way.

!!

 

This was our experience with dd1. Now, heading into SOTW3 & having completed wwe3, her retention & narration is much better. Practice really does help.

 

Another factor was that she improved a lot once we started doing the questions one to one, even though her sister is also doing SOTW. it's frustrating that it takes longer, but I have to view it as a good investment of my time.

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Phew, this thread is encouraging. My dc(8) are having the same problems.

Ditto! (except I have a DD, 6, doing SOTW 1) I'm hoping it's just a "practice makes perfect" issue and that she'll improve with time, but for now I have to read back and/or prompt her to answer nearly every question, and sometimes she'll even give the same answer for different questions, and I have to explain why the answer doesn't "fit" all of the questions.

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My son will be seven by the time we start SOTW 1 at the beginning of November but I am sure I will have this issue to a certain point also. What I keep in mind glancing through the text myself is not only do they have to focus on so... much information at such a young age, we are now asking them to tell us about it in their own words. I think back at myself at that age and I know that while in school in Canada this was not excepted of me so I will just be using it in the evening with Adrian (both he and I are night owls and retain information better at night) and helping him along with the answers if I need to. Two things I try to remember "Practice makes perfect" and "Repetition is the mother of skill". He will be going through all this information again anyway in the years to come ;) and I am considering using SOTW again when we cycle through History with TOG again when he is in the UG level (I am combining TOG with SOTW).

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After starting this thread, I sat down to do SOTW narrations with DD7 and DD9. Before we started, I told them to make pictures of the story in their imaginations as I was reading. I read the chapter very deliberately, and much slower than I have been.

I found that today, the DD7 WAS able to answer the questions better. DD9 did fine, as usual.

I think that I actually need to teach my girls "how" to listen and keep information.

Maybe I should have DD9 read ME the passages and ask ME the questions to see if I could actually do it.

I am not sure I could, not with toddlers running screaming through the house and the phone ringing.

 

Does anybody else have any more suggestions???

 

Thanks for your replies thus far. Glad I am not alone in this.

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After starting this thread, I sat down to do SOTW narrations with DD7 and DD9. Before we started, I told them to make pictures of the story in their imaginations as I was reading. I read the chapter very deliberately, and much slower than I have been.

I found that today, the DD7 WAS able to answer the questions better. DD9 did fine, as usual.

I think that I actually need to teach my girls "how" to listen and keep information.

Maybe I should have DD9 read ME the passages and ask ME the questions to see if I could actually do it.

I am not sure I could, not with toddlers running screaming through the house and the phone ringing.

 

Does anybody else have any more suggestions???

 

Thanks for your replies thus far. Glad I am not alone in this.

 

That's what I did also when I started reading my son chapter books with longer text and fewer pictures :). It was my reply to "mummy, where are the pictures ?" :lol:. I keep reminding him now that he needs to make pictures in his head and he has gotten quite good at it. This has also helped him with making up his own stories.

 

Oh, another thing I have been doing (with other books of course since we haven't started SOTW yet) is to look up words online (I try to read at our school table as much as possible now, except for pleasure reading). Adrian is a tactile/ visual learner so I try to find images and even videos when I can. A few months back for example, when he was reading one of Cynthia Rylant's Lighthouse Family books (The Octopus) we came across the word estuary. So we looked it up with pics and now whenever we come across a word he doesn't know all I hear is, "mummy, we have to google it :)". I got this idea when I read about helping our children build background knowledge in Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook. Many thoughts, tips and suggestions from that book helped me change my approach. I had picked up a library copy of the older edition and finally just purchased my own copy. Anyway, since we cannot always go in person to see what we want first hand and develop background knowledge, the internet I feel, is the next best thing ;).

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[ I got this idea when I read about helping our children build background knowledge in Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook. Many thoughts, tips and suggestions from that book helped me change my approach. I had picked up a library copy of the older edition and finally just purchased my own copy. Anyway, since we cannot always go in person to see what we want first hand and develop background knowledge, the internet I feel, is the next best thing ;).

I just saw that book at the library last week! I think I will read it. Thank you

Andrea

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I just saw that book at the library last week! I think I will read it. Thank you

Andrea

 

Here's a link to his website if you want to peruse it and read about him and his books:

 

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/default.html

 

When we were reading some of Beverly Cleary's books a few months ago I read the biography he has written about her (you can find it in his website). I really enjoyed reading about the person behind the Ralph S. Mouse stories and Ramona :).

Edited by Guest
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Here's a link to his website if you want to peruse it and read about him and his books:

 

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/default.html

 

When we were reading some of Beverly Cleary's books a few months ago I read the biography he has written about her (you can find it in his website). I really enjoyed reading about the person behind the Ralph S. Mouse stories and Ramona :).

Thank you, I will check it out!

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After starting this thread, I sat down to do SOTW narrations with DD7 and DD9. Before we started, I told them to make pictures of the story in their imaginations as I was reading. I read the chapter very deliberately, and much slower than I have been.

I found that today, the DD7 WAS able to answer the questions better. DD9 did fine, as usual.

I think that I actually need to teach my girls "how" to listen and keep information.

Maybe I should have DD9 read ME the passages and ask ME the questions to see if I could actually do it.

I am not sure I could, not with toddlers running screaming through the house and the phone ringing.

 

Does anybody else have any more suggestions???

 

Thanks for your replies thus far. Glad I am not alone in this.

If they are an auditory learner than what you are doing should work fine. If one or both are visual learners then you it is possible that they would do better reading it on their own.

 

My 2nd dd in particular started WWE in 4th grade, and did horrible remembering the answers to the questions. I had to re-read the section for her to get it. She did learn to pay more attention and now only occasionally has problems.

 

Keep up the good work and you will get there.

 

Heather

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