What does narration look like at your house?

[daijobu]

This is a little embarrassing, but I really don't know what narration is.  I would like to try it as an aid for reading comprehension for my 10 and 12 yo dd's, particularly in reading the History of US by Joy Hakim.  And I don't have time right now to read WTM.  

 

What does it look like when you do it with middle schoolers?  

[My3girls]

Hmmm... I am definitely no expert.  We use different methods.  dd11 will tell me about what she read.  Sometimes that is enough.  Sometimes, it leads to discussions about some topic that she mentions.  Other times her narration is lean, and I ask questions to prompt her to dig deeper.  Other times, she does a written narration with a prompt.  I still have her draw occasionally as well.  Last week, she drew a diagram about how she thought early man may have made a hand axe.  Kind of random, I guess, but it gave her a visual and a realization that this was no simple task with no tools or technology to assist.  In literature, I am trying to get her to think of the underlying moral or theme and include that in her book reports.  We are reading a fable from Aesop twice a week, and there I am trying to get her to relate that to her world. 

 

I know some do play acting, but that's just not us although I think it is a great idea.

[Goldilocks]

For my 6 year old it is, "Tell me something you remember about what we just read."  I will accept any answer, as long as it was in what we just read.

 

For my 8 year old it is, "Tell me two things you remember about what we just read."  For this age I require the information to be important. He will often retell the story.  I write down only the 4 - 5 sentences that are necessary so that someone else can read it and understand.  Then I show it to him and tell him how I shortened it and why. 

 

The 10 year old and 13 year old are required to do what the 8 year old does, but on their own.  After reading a passage they jot down important facts or a list of the events. They must only include details that are required to understand what has happened. They combine these events/details into 3 - 5 sentences.

 

This is the basic narration.  My daughter enjoys variety, so we have done other things in the past to liven up the narrations.  She has written imaginary diary entries, post cards, newspaper articles, used drama, etc.

[Kfamily]

Both of my girls have been narrating for many years now and they both use multiple forms of narration (such as written, oral, creative, etc.). I've created Book Notes for a number of books we use and the girls use these for their narration work. The Book Notes have charts with proper nouns for oral narrations as well as other narration suggestions (good for written, creative and other forms of narration work). As the girls grow, their requirements in narration work increases. Narration work gradually begins to incorporate the formal writing skills needed for essays. My older daughter writes at least one written narration per day. This does not include any written work needed for the longer, more formal papers per year. She actually prefers to write an informal creative narration, research something of interest from her readings and write a summary narration for this or another type or narration rather than completing worksheets or answering comprehension style questions.

 

Here is a link to my blog with a few entries on narration, in case this helps explain what we do and how we do it.

 

 

http://amindinthelight.blogspot.com/search/label/Narration

 

 

[redsquirrel]

Well, narration is more of a grammar stage skill, BUT I am only saying that because if you do find time to read TWTM or any other stuff, you are going to have to look at the grammar stage. There are plenty of parents with middle grade students who realize that they need to back it up to the foundational skills of narration, dictation etc. Plenty. Like someone whose name rhymes with Dusan Dise Dauer 

 

So just put that embarrassment away and save it for something worthwhile, like getting caught by your kids with your finger in the jam jar, ok? 

 

With kids of that age, I might approach it from the skill of outlining. In many ways the Hakim books are a good place to start, because the chapters are not long and they are focused on one topic.  What I would do (what I did when I had to teach outlining and realized I had messed it up and I had to restart) was I had my kid read me a paragraph and then I would say "what is the main idea of that paragraph?" I was pretty relaxed about the answer. If it made vague sense then I accepted it. Then I wrote it down and we moved to the next paragraph. This is one point outlining. They just need to grasp the topic of the paragraph. Don't do tons of this in one sitting, ok? We are talking 5 paragraphs, maybe 6 or 7 if they are short paragraphs. That said, with Hakim, it is possible that you could get through an entire chapter. SWB suggests a passage of 250 words for outlining. But do it often, like twice a week. I did the writing because I wanted him to really focus on the reading and figuring out the main point. If I asked him to write then he would have wilted and wilting was not allowed. I needed him to be able to focus on the outlining and not fight me. So, I wrote for him and he did whatever I asked happily.

 

When we did this, I did it with him until he could do it cold. Yes, it was tedious for me, but I believe it was worth it.

 

Another possibility, is to get your hands on WWE 3 & 4 and do the narration exercises with them. There are (I think) two per week. So, if you only do that you can get through the books pretty quickly. (But, if you have them, the dictation and copywork might not go amiss either. Those are also valuable skills. WWE 4 has HARD dictations. I wouldn't start with those. Work up to them with WWE 3.)

 

Narration is about learning what is important and what is extra detail. It is about remembering the main points of what you have read. The process of reading and then answering questions about what you just read has been found to be a tremendous aid to learning and to cementing what was just read. It is a skill that can be learned and made stronger.

 

If you want to have them do a sort of a standard narration you have to read the section yourself and figure out what the key points are. Then I generally divide up the section or chapter by topic and try to ask one question that relates roughly to each topic or transition. I ask a specific question that has a specific answer.

"What was Henry Ford's goal when he started the Ford Motor Company"

"Ford figured out a way to make the Model T cheaply enough so that middle class people could afford it. How did he do that?"

Those are questions that have specific answers in the text. If he doesn't know then he can find the answer by rereading the section.

 

So I ask specific questions and then I ask a general question about either the one topic of the chapter or about one part of the chapter. I ask for a summery of what he read. If the chapter has lots going on (and it often does) then I am fine with him telling me about the one thread that he found the most interesting. I might say something like, This chapter talked about a few things. You read about AAA and BBB and CCC. Pick one of those things and tell me the three important things you remember. Please answer me in complete sentences.

 

I want to add that I do not have him narrate the same section that he also outlines. These should be separate sections of the book. If you are going to be doing written outlining (even if your student is doing it orally) then don't have them answer questions etc about that same chapter. Pick one or alternate or something. One day do an outline and the next day do questions and discussion. If you try to do both then your heads will explode. This is not supposed to be torture. I am very anti-torture when it comes to homeschool.

 

If I had kids that age who hadn't done a lot of narration I would prob do both the individual work with one point outlining and WWE 3 &  4. It won't be wasted time. If I was only going to do the narrations in WWE, then I would aim for WWE 3 followed by WWE4. If it spills over into next year then fine. If you only do the narrations then you can do the book double time. Get through 4 narrations a week and the book will take you half the year.