How can I help my son with this narration issue?

[mrs.m]

My oldest son, 11, t is really having a hard time summarizing books that he reads. For example, he made a really cute bookmark for the county fair about Origami Yoda. He had to include a card that told a little bit about the story. He has read this book multiple times but was stuck on retelling it back to me. He said "I'm just not good at retelling stories." I asked him about the setting, characters, plot, conflict, resolution and it started to come together but he was still struggling. I don't think it is a comprehension issue as if we do shorter readings or chapter by chapter, he narrates easily.  

 

I dislike the idea of making him do a book report occasionally, but that is all I can come up with to get him to focus more on briefly retelling the story and why he enjoyed the story. Any other suggestions or ideas? 

[regentrude]

Informal conversations that are not "school"? Not as in " do a narration" or " what are the characters, plot, conflict resolution ?" - more along the lines of "hey, did you read anything interesting recently? want to tell me about it?". 

I found that my kids' narration (and general conversation) skills were developed through hours and hours of just... talking. We hike and walk a lot, and I will listen. They might explain the newest favorite video game, or a fanfiction story;  it does not have to be "literature" that they are narrating. The skills definitely transfer. We have the best literature discussions when the kids start the conversation: they noticed an issue or aspect they would like to share, and that sparks wonderful conversations, either while hiking, or over dinner. I could never get them to do this on cue during school time; they need to be ready to discuss the book.

[mrs.m]

Informal conversations that are not "school"? Not as in " do a narration" or " what are the characters, plot, conflict resolution ?" - more along the lines of "hey, did you read anything interesting recently? want to tell me about it?". 

I found that my kids' narration (and general conversation) skills were developed through hours and hours of just... talking. We hike and walk a lot, and I will listen. They might explain the newest favorite video game, or a fanfiction story;  it does not have to be "literature" that they are narrating. The skills definitely transfer. We have the best literature discussions when the kids start the conversation: they noticed an issue or aspect they would like to share, and that sparks wonderful conversations, either while hiking, or over dinner. I could never get them to do this on cue during school time; they need to be ready to discuss the book.

 

It's not like we don't talk all the time about things he enjoys. It's NOT transferring to literature for him, though. This was a project that he choose to do and those were the requirements. I don't normally approach literature in that manner. But it was clear a total book summary was an issue for him when it was needed.

 

 

I think I need something a little less abstract. I really do feel this is an issue.

[4peanuts]

Here's a strategy I've used to help mine with summaries, more from the standpoint of not including quite SO many details in their retellings.  On the whiteboard, we work together to fill in a basic outline (a bullet point list, basically) of the major elements (characters, setting, major events, conclusion, etc.)  It is during this discussion that I take their feedback and help "mold it" into what actually merits inclusion. (guiding discussion of why certain things should be added in or left out)  Then I take a few minutes to write a summary myself based on the outline we came up with.  We read the final summary together and then I assign it as copywork.  

[jessj]

Writing with Ease level 2 covers working on summary through narration.  If you want something to work with. 

 

I've also worked out summaries on a white board.  If I write down what she says (with way too many details) we can pare it down until it is in fact, a summary.  I think there is a tendency for some kids to get lost in the details and lose the narrative thread.  It takes some work for them to be able to pull that out. 

[AMJ]

You are not alone in this, OP -- my kids, like me when I was their age, are having similar difficulties.  It also doesn't help that at school they were usually given "outs" -- alternatives to writing book reports or summaries.  Therefore, we are switching over to homeschooling in middle grades (4th & 6th) with no good idea of how to summarize concisely.

 

When I was a kid and someone asked me what a book was about I had a horrible time determining what to tell them.  Invariably my answers were either too short and non-informative, or much too long and packed with detail.  I simply did not know what any given person wanted to hear, and it changed with each person.  Erring on the side of too much information was met with as much disapproval as erring on the side of brevity.  And I didn't have the outs my kids were offered -- just book reports that were marked down as too short or too long (even while being praised for detail and thoroughness).

 

Thanks for a concise way of asking the question!  I am looking forward to reading the replies.

[MerryAtHope]

Summarizing a whole book is a difficult skill! It's hard to choose what's most important and ONLY those details to include. Everything can seem important. With my kids, I started with shorter things (paragraphs, then pages, then chapters, then books) and gradually worked up.

 

For a needed project like your son had to do, I have asked things like, "list the 3 things you think someone should know about what happens in this book."  If that was too hard, I used an outline method--who was the main character? What does the main character want to do? Who or what is trying to stop the main character? and sometimes: What does the main character learn in the process?

 

Those questions usually help my kids get at the "heart" of the story. 

 

Merry :-)

[homeschoolkitty]

I am seeing a bit of trouble with my child of 6. thoug she can read a book in a day for it must be interesting, she cannot tell me much. so I tell he to draw me a picture. inevitably she draws a few and then I ask what's going on in her pictures so I get my narration. in your case try to ask for 3 or 4 detail well done pictures of his favorite parts. then ask for an explanation of each picture.

[Walking-Iris]

Using WWE has been a big help for my ds. The questions I could come up on my own would not have been as guided and directed toward learning this skill as the WWE questions. Also the book Deconstructing Penguins has been a big help.

 

I agree with pp. Don't read an entire book and then talk about it. Do it as you go along reading small passages. Scribe for him and take notes if a written narration is something you want him to do.

 

Allow him to give a book response in other ways. Summarizing is fine, but how about a project, a creative writing (write a new chapter, what happened then and so on), or illustrate  a section, act it out, research some part and connect it to science and history. 

 

Narrate other things as well...art, music, history, science etc.

 

But I don't see any reason that narration and summarizing be the majority of the writing process.