First Grade question - narrations

[ScoutTN]

I am thinking about our coming year - we'll begin 1st in July.

 

I am thinking two narrations a week - one from literature/reading and one from history. I'll write them down and she can copy them into her notebook.

 

Is this reasonable for a young 1st grade girl? At least for the first half of the year. She reads on a 3rd grade level.

 

We'll probably add narrations for any special events or field trips.

[sleepymommy]

That's about the same amount that ds6 does using WWE, so seems like a good amount to me.

[Critterfixer]

Start with Aesop's for narration. It has really helped my ds7 boys to learn how narration works. If she does very well with narration on a simple story like Aesop's you can go to more advanced plots and characters.

We narrate from Aesop's in the morning, and in the afternoon we narrate either history, another piece of literature that we are reading, or from science.

[boscopup]

That's about what we started with, except he didn't copy it. We now do 2 narrations in WWE, one of those copied, 2 in history, 1-2 in science, and 5 in Bible. I hadn't counted them until now! :lol: Anyway, he only copies one narration per week right now. I write the rest. We'll work up to copying a little more. We started in January, so this is what we've worked up to in 5 months. The physical act of writing is still difficult, but he's improving. He does copywork every day, plus dictation in spelling.

 

One thing to note... You may get better narrations if copying isn't involved. Now my son knows that I'll only have him copy part of it if it's a decent length. When I first started having him copy one, it was the shortest narration ever. :tongue_smilie:

 

In WWE, the narrations are oral for the first 3 weeks, then starting in week 4, they copy one per week. We're on week 18, and it's still that way so far.

[ScoutTN]

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One thing to note... You may get better narrations if copying isn't involved. Now my son knows that I'll only have him copy part of it if it's a decent length. When I first started having him copy one, it was the shortest narration ever. :tongue_smilie:

 

Ha! That is great. I guess I'll just decide on the spur of the moment whether that particular narration is one to be copied. No advance notice!

Thanks for the tip!

[ScoutTN]

Start with Aesop's for narration. It has really helped my ds7 boys to learn how narration works. If she does very well with narration on a simple story like Aesop's you can go to more advanced plots and characters.

 

Great idea. Thanks! I got the Milo Winter version of Aesop at a Thrift store for 50 cents not long ago. :)

[~Kirsten~]

It sounds like a very reasonable plan.

 

FWIW, we do 2 science, 2 history, and 2 literature (from WWE) narrations per week. For 1st, none of those included copying. WWE does have copywork, so she did copy sentences twice per week, but not for the 1st grade level.

 

Now that we're moving into WWE2, she's doing one copied narration per week, and that's from WWE. Probably soon we'll add a second, most likely from history. But I totally agree: you'll get better narrations without the copying. :D

 

Also, I've seen a definite progression in the quality of narrations. For most of 1st, I simply had my daughter tell me her favorite part, and I wrote it down. That's what WWE and WTM both suggested, and it made it fun. We also covered the review questions in both history and writing, so I knew she got the details as well. As we transitioned into WWE2, the emphasis shifted from "what's your favorite part?" to an actual summary of the main idea. That's what she then copies, one time per week. I think if I had tried to get a main idea much earlier, she really would have balked. As it is, we've managed to keep history and science "fun" while she still really enjoys WWE.

 

So I guess what I'm saying is, for 1st, especially a young 1st, try to keep the narrating pressure pretty low. With practice, you can hone those over time, and you'll also be able to build up the handwriting/copying aspect as she grows, too. You can do more repetitions reasonably (so more than 2x week if you want) as long as it stays fun, and I can attest that you won't ruin her or future narrations in the process. :tongue_smilie:

[Critterfixer]

Ditto on the better narrations without copying. Once the boys are told, no copying, boy do they get long-winded. Wears me out keeping up sometimes.:lol:

[Little Nyssa]

We do a narration page with a labelled illustration each day that we school (4 or 5 days a week), from any subject we happen to do that day.