withgrace Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Hi I would love some guidence in building my daughters confidnce with narration and recall. She's a bright kid, has a great memory for facts. She has perfectionistic qualities and is highly sensitive and reserved. We are working with WWE 1 and she does really well with the copy work. Handwritting is lovely and from a copywork perspective is probably ready to move into WWE2. With the narrations, she struggles with recall for 1 paragraph. We cant seem to get this happening comfortably or without distress on her part. I dont want to give up on this as I think it is proving there is a lot of value here for her, we just need to find out how to strengthen this skill and help her organise her thoughts. We start lessons again next week and for our narrations I am thinking to go back to some simply written fairy tales and kids stroies she knows well and have her narrate from those to build confidence. Im not sure if this is the best approach though as she is using her long term memory rather than short. Maybe it doesnt matter? Can anyone shed some light on what might be a helpful approach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiara.I Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I'm not sure where she's running into difficulty. You've said she has a great memory for facts, but is struggling with narration. So, is she not remembering the facts from the passage? Is she not hearing the details in the first place? It's the detailed questions in the narration that she can't answer, is it? If that's it, maybe start asking one or two of the questions immediately after the information which answers them is given. Then ask them again at the end. That will help her to *notice* the details as they're happening, and then perhaps to remember them for longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsRobinson Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 We ran into this at the begining of the school year. I concluded that my dd was simply tuning me out. She could rattle off a great narration if she read the passage herself. Now she loves me reading aloud chapter book because she's invested in the story. So I dropped the WWE narration and just have her practice narration when we do our read aloud. Its worked like a charm. Hope you figure it out, GL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withgrace Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 She is fantastic with facts, information that is interesting to her. She remembers stories we read together very well and I'm amazed sometimes at her detail. Which is why I am at a loss with her struggle with narration :) How do I work out if she is having trouble remembering the facts or if she doesnt hear them in the first place? Yes its the detailed questions in the narration. Then the summary at the end as well. We (finally) get through 5 or 6 questions and then I ask "can you tell me one thing you remember about what we read?" and more often than not she will say " I don't knooooooooooooooooooooooow!" lol. So I will remind her of the questions she just answered, repeating Q and A to her and then ask her again to tell me one thing she remebers (then I will ask her to make this a complete sentence, or help her develop it into a complete sentence and I write it down in our journal). We may need to do that once, sometimes more. To be honest I think she understands. Maybe she is still getting used to applying herself and learning how to think? It is frustrating for me because we have been doing this for 6 months now (lol probably not very long?) and it feels like we are going backwards instead and going forwards and getting stronger. She dislikes direct questions in all aspects of her life and has trouble even answering her fathers questions in daily life or telling him about what she has been up to through the day. Is mute with most other people. Maybe the problem is me and I need to accept where we are and that it will take as long as it takes? I just want to be sure I am offering everything I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withgrace Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 We ran into this at the begining of the school year. I concluded that my dd was simply tuning me out. She could rattle off a great narration if she read the passage herself. Now she loves me reading aloud chapter book because she's invested in the story. So I dropped the WWE narration and just have her practice narration when we do our read aloud. Its worked like a charm. Hope you figure it out, GL! Thanks for your reply. Maybe this is what is happening with us. I will give this approach a try and see if that helps :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I'd drop it and pick it back up next year. Or read her the questions and ask her to find the answers while you read. My 7yo had issues like this last year and rather than beating ourselves over it, we dropped it and picked it up this year and there's been marked improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I wonder if the perfectionistic traits are not causing her problems. As far as the detailed questions go - I agree, read a shorter piece before asking a couple of questions and then carry on with the next section of the reading. Praise a lot when she gives an answer and do not read the answers in the answer key to her at all even if she leaves out a small piece of the detail - just say: good, you remembered. Then when it comes to the bit you remembered you could start and give her two options: "I remember....", "I also remember..." did you remember those too? Do you remember anything else? Great. She may just need to learn that there is no one correct answer. Switching to stories she knows well is a good idea - then you can see if there are still problems and narrow down what the real issue is. Like others have said, visual learnings can sometimes have a hard time with purely auditory information and then it is better if the child reads it by herself or even if there are pictures of the story, or using lego people to act the story. Obviously this is not so easy with WWE1, but you could try different things just to see what works for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withgrace Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 I hadn't thought of it being about learning style. Its not something I had been able to put on my finger on before but I now that I reflect upon it again, she does seem to very much lean towards visual learning. Interetsing! I will keep this in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withgrace Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Oh wow, the penny just dropped so to speak! Of course she is a visual learner :) She has said many times, she takes a picture with her mind and this is how she remembers things. How funny I haven't put this togther before! This is the piece of the "puzzle" i have been unable to articulate! I know that she understands because, well...Im her mother and I just know these things ;) I can see the words getting stuck in her head as she struggles to find a way to express herself. Now, I am coming to an understanding that she can probably see images from the story or text in her head but doesnt know how to translate that into words. Her perfectionistic tendancy says "this is too hard I cant do it" and she gives up. Oh! this happens so often in other areas of her life too. Fantastic! Im a visual learner too as I can now "see" the path ahead and how we can navigate the next phase of this crazy adventure :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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