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WWE 1 and a child who is not an auditory learner


plain jane
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My dd6 struggles with the narration portions of WWE1. She can remember a fact or two and can do that portion of the expected narration- even writing it herself, but she struggles with answering the comprehension questions.

 

I *think* it's because she's not much of an auditory learner- she does great when working through VP's First Favorites or the Logos School's comprehension questions.- She can read the books herself and answer all the questions correctly. In fact, she does reading daily where she must answer comprehension questions and she does well.

 

I'm not sure if it's the reading difficulty of the WWE passages or the fact that she's not reading it herself. She can't quite read them herself- they're too hard for her but I have to read some of the passages 3-4 times for her to be able to answer one question, which gets frustrating for both of us.

 

I find that when I read aloud to the girls, she's not as quick to pick up details if I stop and ask questions of her. I think that while she tries to pay attention, her mind wanders when she's being read to.

 

WWYD about getting through WWE1? Is it maybe the wrong program for us?

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Well, I recall SWB saying in the writing lectures that the harder it is for a child to do narration & dictation, the more they really need this kind of training because it is not a child who will pick up these skills on their own.

 

Can you make some modifications with WWE? Can you have her follow along with you while you read aloud? That way even if she can't read the more difficult passages, she can track with you. I would maybe even put it away and pick it back up when she is 7 (we won't even start it with ds until he is 7), but personally I feel strongly that narration/dictation are essential to future writing skills and I wouldn't give up on it - rather I would try to work through the difficulty.

Edited by FairProspects
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We had the same struggles when dd11 began WWE2. She is not a strong auditory learner at all. I almost gave up, but instead we have pushed through. I read slowly with alot of emotion. Sometimes I will stop after each paragraph and let her tell me about that paragraph. When we are finished reading I ask her the questions. If she can not remember a detail I will go back and read a few sentences where the answer is. I have to say that over this year she has really improved. She can answer almost all the questions the first time around and her dictation and narration has improved greatly. It can be a struggle for a child who is not auditory but keep it up and you will see it pay off.

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I agree, it sounds like it's something she needs if she's having trouble doing it.

 

We just started last week, so we're only on week 2 and this is very new to my son. He definitely doesn't remember as much as he remembers if he reads something himself, but I have already seen improvement (in the 4 narrations we've done) in how well he is listening. Sometimes I have to go back and read the section where the answer is if he can't remember. I don't read the whole passage - just the section that has the answer (I try to not just read the answer though... maybe one or two sentences around it, or just the general short paragraph it's in, even if the answer is at the end of the paragraph). So that gives him a smaller chunk to remember and help him along.

 

Also, I'm doing more read-alouds and books on tape/CD, to get my son used to listening to stories instead of just reading them himself. I think this is also helping a lot.

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I agree that it sounds like she *needs* this practice -- and that it would not be helpful to her if you just dropped it.

 

My suggestion would be to read the story as usual, then read the questions aloud to her. Don't worry about whether or not she can answer the questions. Have her repeat the question back to you. Talk about it. Does she understand what it's asking? If she remembers any details, great. If not, don't worry about it. Then go back and read the story again. Pause at the answers to questions. Catch her eye. Did she notice? Keep going. Finish the story. Then ask the questions again. If she gets them, great. The ones she didn't get, just wait. Then go back and let her sit and look at the story with you, and the two of you identify the answers to the questions there in the story.

 

Yes, it will take a little longer. But the idea is to help train her to listen for the important parts. It may take most of the year for her to make significant strides. (Or you may suddenly realize that you haven't had to reread a story in weeks...) Either way, that's okay. What she can do *today* doesn't matter all that much. What matters is how the things you work on today impact what she can do in the future.

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I would agree about persisting because she is having a hard time with this skill. My youngest is similar. He actually loves doing the copywork and I have him copy both sentences, but has a very hard time with the passages and questions. I am considering trying some easier passages and working on the comprehension with those, and then moving onto those in WWE. But I do think it is important to work on the auditory skills.

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We are in WWE1 and there have been times that I have been SOOOOO frustrated because my son can't answer the most obvious questions. Some of that is because he just plain is not paying attention. It also depends a lot on how interested he is in the topic. If he's into it, he knows all the answers, if he doesn't care, then he doesn't remember anything. However, the last couple of weeks he has sat next to me and followed along, and I think that has really helped.

 

I also have that problem getting him to do his narrations for SOTW. I wish I had bought the audio CD. Then I could let him listen to it in his room at his leisure as many times as he needs to. I am definately buying the CD for next year.

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With one of my kids, I needed to stop after one paragraph and ask the related questions, then continue in that fashion. I did this for quite some time (most of one year) until he learned the skill of keeping the main information in his head until the end of the passage when the questions were asked. That is what I would do with your dd. This is a skill which takes time for some kids to learn. My other son picked it up quickly and naturally, but all kids are different.

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