ISO reading comprehension aids

[daijobu]

I just had my daughters (11 and 12 yo) read from Hakim's History of US, the chapter about the Battle of Gettysburg.  It's probably 5 pages with several illustrations and sidebars.  I asked them to tell me about the battle, and their recall was less than impressive.  

 

"A lot of people died."

 

"Some people had to climb a hill."  

 

:glare:

 

My husband recalls using some sort of system that involves reading and re-reading and taking notes in a highly specific manner.  It was time-consuming, but very effective.  I would like to institute some sort of exercise like this with future history reading assignments, one which specifically prescribes what they should do during and after reading.  

 

ETA: my DH's system was called SQ3R: skim, question, read, wRite, re-read.  Does anyone still do this?  

 

I'm open to any ideas!  

[redsquirrel]

Have they done narration before? If they haven't then I would be very tempted to get WWE 4 and have them do the narration assignments. But, you can't to it with them together because they will hear each other. If you have used SOTW she has questions that then lead to a narration in the AG. Depending on what you are using for history, you could pull that in as well.  Really, the more narration the better.

 

Somewhere on the board is a wonderful thread by a mom writing to say that those grammar skills of narration, dictation etc are so important for so many reasons and you really see the value with older kids. Does anyone remember what I am talking about, lol. Am I making this up?

 

And I find that even my master narrator (my 8th grader) appreciated specific questions to start with, at that age.

 

Where was the battle?

Who fought there?

Why was it important?

Then you ask "what happened?"

And it helps if you have read it yourself so you can ask specific yet open ended questions, lol. Or for Hakim you could buy the discussion guides for each book. I bought a couple and found them useful. I do love a nice discussion guide.

 

I appreciate the SQ3R method, but I think that being able to narrate is much more useful and takes a lot less time. Not to mention, that if they can't narrate well, then they are going to have a more difficult time learning to present their ideas in writing. Your girls are young, I can't imagine SQ3R being anything other than miserable for them and you.

 

I would also suggest you consider doing history, at least occasionally, as suggested by SWB in TWTM. That requires reading a history encyclopedia and picking out three items of interest (at some age...7th? they are asked to pick out the three most important, but not until that age and lots of practice) and then do some reading. Then they narrate a section of their reading and then a third day they do an outline of the reading. However, it starts with a one point outline, meaning they read a paragraph and pick out the main idea and that is all. That progresses in complexity every year.  If you want to know more about that I can flesh it out a bit more.

 

Some kids just sit there with it is all in their heads, and they can't get it out. If you have done WWE then you know it is feast or famine. My kids were 'feast' they told me EVERYTHING in a passage. They needed help determining what was important and was could be left out. But some kids need help turning incoherent thoughts into words and getting those words out of their mouth. The process of guided questions and narration really works wonders.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Narration paired with Socratic questioning is the best comprehension tool, in my opinion. But it takes practice. Maybe read in short sections and alternate which kid narrates that section.

 

When you want them to read on their own (which I would recommend after they successfully narrate longer passages), Cornell notes are pretty straightforward. Also, maybe look at How to Read a Book.

 

The thread I think redsquirrel is referencing: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/255839-why-you-should-work-on-twtm-skills-copywork-narration-dictation-outlining-etc/ .

[redsquirrel]

yes, that is it!

 

Oh, I am so glad you could decode my vague rambling.

[daijobu]

Thank you.  I've been reading about narration on these boards for months now.  I think it's time I tried. it.