Narration & Difficult Classical Texts

[Sameera]

Why am I, as a mother, who, in my own childhood has been to school & college & passed exams etc, yet finding it so difficult to narrate and read classical texts?

 

I was trying to teach my kids narration, but gave up, in the first pages in FLL!I came to mental block :smash: and could not motivate myself for weeks to pick up the book till now.... I can barely call that a burnout! :banghead:

 

I suppose the fact that I have been unwell during the last couple of years and had personal issues, doesn't help, either!

 

The FLL book itself is very useful & interesting, it's just that I find it hard getting used to writing. I think the fact that I have not written a structured piece for a long time, does not help, (exam essays were the last thing I remember writing).

 

Not only do I find it difficult to narrate, but I also find information difficult to remember such as on the importance of narration, dictation etc. :confused1: I find myself having to constantly remind myself, by re-reading TWTM texts etc and although it is slowly sinking in, I feel overwhelmed about how much I need to teach my children, especially when I don't recall doing any of this at school. :confused1:

 

I find it really amazing that Patrick Moore who recently died, was known to have spent much of his childhood educated at home (is he home educated?). His mother gave him a copy of GF Chambers' book called: The Story of the Solar System, which sparked his interest in astronomy. I don't know at what age he read this book and although I am interested in Science and studied science, I just took one look at this book online and I felt intimidated by the difficult, classical language. I could not grasp a single sentence or understand hardly anything about what the author was talking about.

 

What kind knowledge & skill is needed to get to that level of reading?

[SunnyDays]

It's something I struggle with as well. I have a college degree and clearly had to do a lot of difficult reading in those years, so what happened? I think for much of my adult life, I was used to reading work documents and such, but not *literature* such that we're trying to introduce to our children. I just downloaded a couple older books for my Kindle, and I'm planning to incorporate a bit more of that type of reading... both to set the example and to stretch the brain a bit! :)

[Sameera]

Sunnydays,

 

Yes you are right! I mostly concentrated on science, so had modern science books, rather than literature. In the mean time, the children have been concentrating on maths, science, foreign language & art - their science narrations seem okay. However it's those type of books that worry me and the archaic language used, it seems to be testing my brain cells to the limit!

 

Anyway, while narrating a section from FLL I found myself asking questions about sentence formation,- I can't believe I have forgotten my grammar! I should have known that the questions are supposed to help the in forming sentences, but I was still asking why they were there for.

 

So, now Mummy also has a folder along with the kids. :) I am going to have to make more time to read & write up these narrations, before I set the lessons to the children

 

BW

[Kalmia]

I took a look at the book you linked to, The Story of the Solar System. The first sentence is 9 lines long! So I am guessing that the older style of writing which includes many dependent clauses and phrases is what is tripping you up. Where today we would break that long, convoluted sentence into many shorter sentences, this was not the convention at the time. If you truly want to understand this sentence you need to have a handle on the advanced grammar, types of phrases and clauses and their uses. I would suggest treating a long sentence such as this as a puzzle. Diagramming is one method of solving this kind of grammatical puzzle. Rex Barks by Phyllis Davenport is an excellent diagramming resource, but there are others.

 

As a quick method, you can also "cross out" the stylistic non-essentials that were often used in older writings leaving the simple subject and predicate. For example this is the first sentence of The Story of the Solar System:

 

"By the term "Solar System" it is to be understood that an Astronomer, speaking from the standpoint of an inhabitant of the Earth, wishes to refer to that object, the Sun, which is to him the material and visible center of life and heat and control, and also to those bodies dependent on the sun which circulate round it at various distances deriving their light and heat from the Sun, and known as planets and comets." G. F. Chambers

 

Basically this sentence says: Astronomers define the solar system as the sun and the planets and comets dependent on the sun.

 

Now G. F. Chambers certainly took a roundabout route to get this information across. It is almost as if he were writing the same way he would speak in front of a classroom. When we are speaking, we use the tone and pace of our voice to separate out information so that the listener can understand what parts of the sentence go with the other parts. You have probably heard a person do this when defining a word. They say the word clearly, then use a slightly different tone of voice and regular pauses before and after the definition. In complex writing, the writer often uses the commas as an indicator of subordinate clauses and phrases to help you understand them. Usually these clauses and phrases are close to the words in the subject or predicate that they modify, but not always! That is where the detective work and the puzzle piecing of diagramming comes in handy. Once you have learned diagramming well, you will be able to sort out the pieces of the puzzling sentence in your mind and will not have to draw out a picture for every one.

 

I believe it will be rewarding to you, considering your interest in classic texts to go through a diagramming book for adults that includes complex grammatical constructs. Then you will have the tools at your disposal to sort through the often long and complex sentience style common in classic writings.

[Sameera]

I think it does take practice and it could be a vocabulary issue. Since I've been working through MCT's vocab (he focuses on a lot of words found in classics) I am finding it so much easier and more enjoyable to read the older stuff. I have been doing this for 6 years now too. If you stick with it, I thin does get easier.

 

I never thought about about the vocabulary issue. I don't know much about MCT, (Michael Clay Thompson) before, but will check it out.

 

Thanks

[Sameera]

I took a look at the book you linked to, The Story of the Solar System. The first sentence is 9 lines long! So I am guessing that the older style of writing which includes many dependent clauses and phrases is what is tripping you up.

 

I am okay about the first part and know how to break long sentences. Take a look at the figure on page 9, G.F Chambers hasn't suggested how they found the various inclinations of the orbits of the different planets to the plane of the 'ecliptic'. I assume then this is not the first text in astronomy. I also don't understand why they would call Venus & Mercury as 'inferior' planets - just because they are smaller or hotter, doesn't mean they are inferior. Imagine our solar system running, without one of them - planets will be thrown off-course the solar system running into a havoc.

[Sameera]

Where today we would break that long, convoluted sentence into many shorter sentences, this was not the convention at the time. If you truly want to understand this sentence you need to have a handle on the advanced grammar, types of phrases and clauses and their uses.

 

Yes, I think the key is to learn advanced grammar skills for this type of reading & writing.

 

Thank you Kalmia for the time you spent on your post. You are very adept at narrating classical texts :)