WWE2 narration, 8-year-old 3rd grader (and please help me understand narration!)

[melissel]

Today we read a passage from WWE about Alexander the Great that came from SOTW1. It talks about how he wants to conquer the Persian Empire so he meets the Persians with his cavalry and forces them back. Then he stops in a city and sees the Gordian knot, asks its purpose, and slices it in half. He goes on to fulfill the prophecy, conquering the rest of Asia Minor, traveling down to Egypt to conquer and become pharaoh, and sweeping back into Mesopotamia, and truly becoming Alexander the Great.

 

So here is DD8's narration:

 

"Alexander the Great conquered Persia. He cut the Gordian Knot in half and conquered Asia Minor. Then he conquered Egypt and was crowned pharaoh."

 

How does that sound?

 

IMO, it's a decent summary of important points in the story--that is, the successive conquests and one part of the Gordian Knot story. But here's where I get confused though. The three sample narrations given all focus on the Gordian Knot part of the story in varying degrees of detail. Why, with all the rest of the information given throughout the passage, should DD have focused so strongly on the Gordian Knot?

 

I'm not sure I know how to teach narration correctly :( I'm often confused by the examples that are given versus what I feel is a good summary of the passage we read. Am I wrong in thinking that a narration is just a summary by another name? Am I teaching DD incorrectly? I would love some guidance here if you can offer it.

 

TIA!

 

(ETA: I think I'm going to x-post in the main forum as well. I'd love to hear more about how people do narration in general.)

Edited May 17, 2011 by melissel

[Pata]

Maybe the narration in the WWE workbook's were focusing on having the student give more detail about one part of the passage, hence the reason for focusing on the Gordian Knot? I think she did a good job with the narration for WWE Level 2, she hit the major points. It's what my dd would have given me at this point last year. You may want to work on having her add a bit more detail by asking leading questions to get her to expand on things, such as why did he cut the Gordian Knot and so on.

 

Anyways, narration is a process, some kids get it quickly, so have to have their hand held through the whole process (ask me how I know that). Asking the leading questions and modeling what a good narration looks like has really helped my dd. Now, finally by the end of Level 3 she's giving me the type of narrations that are in the text, but we did pull a lot of teeth this year :D. Hope that helps!

[truebluexf]

It's because the main focus of that story, the whole point of it, was him untying the Gordian Knot. The background info was really the introduction to the main idea of the story. His greatness led him to be able to untie the knot and fulfill the prophecy. Here is my son's: "Alexander found the Gordian Knot and used his sword to cut it in half. Then the prophecy came true and he ruled all of Asia." Now, I do guide him in his narration when needed.