I am LOVING WWE with ds7, but he his HORRIBLE at narrations

[Johanna]

...he cant remember hardly any details from the story! We are only on week 2 but everytime we do a narration he always gets the answers wrong or he cant remember. We are doing level one and using the workbook.

 

Should I be worried? Or will this get better with time?? I plan to keep pressing on with level 1, because I believe in WWE and where its going. I am just wondering if my ds7 is the only one out there aweful at narrations!

Any suggestions for making the details "stick" to their brains while reading the paragraph??

This ds has never been my detailed oriented child...quite the opposite! LOL:001_huh:

[Alana in Canada]

Stop more often and ask him what he thinks is going on. I'm not familiar with WWE...but my daughter went through this at that age, too.

 

I also started reading Milo Winter's Aesop to her for "practice." Just informally, at bedtime. The tales are very short (and she loved them, which helped!) and she could remember much better. Still there is a beginning, a middle and an end and she could "organize" her re-telling into that order!

 

She just turned eight and she's doing fine now--as long as she isn't tired, hungry or bored by the material!:tongue_smilie:

[Johanna]

That is really good advice!! He does much better when I stop and "review"...I guess for some reason that I thought i was breaking the rules or something!LOL!

[Alana in Canada]

x:D

 

Glad to help!

[Homemama2]

Also if he is new to doing narrations, I've heard it helps to kindof "prompt" them with questions for awhile until they get the hang of it. I do this with my ds, and he's really starting to get the hang of what I'm wanting from him. For example we were reading in Aesop, and I asked what the story was about...well he could tell me the last thing that happened. So I went to the beginning and said "Remember when the eagle flew down to the little lamb? What did he do to the lamb?" He was able to tell me, then I prompted, "Then what happened? Remember there was a jackdaw bird? What did he do?" Maybe this would help your ds:001_smile:

[sweetfeet]

My 6 yo is doing WWE1 and the first week she couldn't answer the questions or do the narration work. I would go back and read the part of the passage with the answer and then help her form a complete sentence for her answer. Now she is able to focus on the passage and to listen for content. She's really enjoying it now and is very good at making sure that she answers in complete sentences.

[annabanana1992]

I just started WWE with 7DD - narration is pathetic too! Sooo you are not alone. I, like you, think it is a great program and am fully confident that it will take us where we need to be if we stick with it.

[Tera]

Hi what is WWE? Sorry I didn't see it in the abrev. sticky.

THANKS

[TN Mama]

WWE is Writing With Ease, the new writing program from Susan Wise Bauer.

 

We're currently using workbook 1 and skipping through - this week we are working on week 10. My daughter's narrations have really improved since we first started 3 weeks ago. We are definitely looking forward to workbook 2.

[dcjlkplus3]

We will be starting 2nd grade in about a week and a half. Narrations will get better. We did them and will do them again for history all last year. It is a skill that gets better with time. My dd6 retains much better when she reads than when I do, so that helps too.

[LNC]

I'm so glad you posted this! My 7yos is doing terrible too! I guess they can only improve from here :).

 

I think when I've read SOTW aloud in the past, my older daughter has taken the lead for the narration and questions. I haven't really made sure my 7yo could do it because he was our tag a long. This will be his year to "get it".

[Kathleen in VA]

I haven't tried this irl, but you might want to tell your son what to listen for before you start. For instance, if you were reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you might start out by saying, "We are going to read a story about a little girl who does something wrong. There are three bears who don't like it very much. See if you can figure out what she does wrong and why the bears don't like it." That way he can do some active listening instead of just letting the words fly by, as it were. This is akin to reading the chapter questions before reading the chapter so you know what you are supposed to be looking for as you read. I would not consider this "cheating;" I would just think that he may need a bit more "hand holding" at the beginning and you can gradually let it go by the wayside as he improves at recalling the facts.

[Johanna]

I'm so glad you posted this! My 7yos is doing terrible too! I guess they can only improve from here :).

 

 

 

LOL! This exactly what I thought! I am going to take some of the advice and give him some better promts and review as we read! I guess that I need to focus less on "memorizing" part of the story and more on seeing if he can put his thoughts into complete sentences, KWIM??? And hope the retention will get better:)