Free shipping on USA orders over $129!
Beginning Written Narrations, Help, Please
- This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 2 months ago by
.
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
- Posts
I am planning for the next school year, which we’ll most likely start in July since we school year round. Since dd will be 9 and in 4th grade, I want to begin introducing written narration. I’ve read through all of the old posts and still have the following questions.
- Should I choose the book she writes the narration about? History? Science? Literature? Does it matter?
- Should it be the same book each week?
- How much time should this take per session? 15m, 20m, 30m, what?
- Should the written narration occur immediately after she’s read the material? For example, if she’s writing a narration from ch. 1 of Gentle Ben, should she immediately go and write the narration before moving onto Math?
- I’m not too worried about the grammar/spelling/etc., but just want her to get the ideas on paper. However, I was reading in some old posts somewhere that you might work on the same narration daily for a week, polishing it as you go. Should I do this, or is it fine if she writes out her paragraph or whatever and we move on?
Listed below are the language components for her, what do you think? Too much, too little.
- Book of Mottoes or Commonplace Book – 10-15 minutes 2x week, transcribe 4 lines perfectly from reading of choice (poetry, literature, Shakespeare, science, history)
- Dictation – 15-20 minutes 2-3x week, Spelling Wisdom Book 1
- Grammar – 15 minutes 4x week, Junior Analytical Grammar (11 week program spread over 22 weeks)
- Latin – 30 minutes 4x week, Latin for Children Primer A (I originally planned on a different program, but I think this will be a better fit for her, especially the chanting cd.)
- Composition – 1x week, Written Narration (questions above); also introducing Story Starters (either oral or written) during term 2
OK, I think that’s it for now. This will be my first year fully going with CM methods for language skills and it helps me to get feedback.
Thanks,
Christie
Great questions. Here are my $0.02 worth, and I hope others will chime in too.
- Should I choose the book she writes the narration about? History? Science? Literature? Does it matter?
Yes, you can select which book she should narrate, just like you would for oral narrations. However, one tip to keep in mind is that you will have an advantage if it is a book/topic that your daughter is enjoying and is forming a relation with. One of the components of a formula-type traditional composition course that Charlotte bemoaned was having the child write about a subject that he doesn’t care about or know much about.
- Should it be the same book each week?
That’s up to you and, in light of the above guideline, which book(s) she is showing the most interest in.
- How much time should this take per session? 15m, 20m, 30m, what?
Time depends on a couple of factors: (1) How fluent she is in oral narration, (2) How quickly she writes, (3) How easily she can make the transition to getting her thoughts on paper. It would be good to try to gauge the written requirement to take no more than 15 minutes to start with, I think.
- Should the written narration occur immediately after she’s read the material? For example, if she’s writing a narration from ch. 1 of Gentle Ben, should she immediately go and write the narration before moving onto Math?
Yes, just like the oral narration, it’s best to do a written narration immediately after a reading.
- I’m not too worried about the grammar/spelling/etc., but just want her to get the ideas on paper. However, I was reading in some old posts somewhere that you might work on the same narration daily for a week, polishing it as you go. Should I do this, or is it fine if she writes out her paragraph or whatever and we move on?
For these beginning stages in the transition, I would focus on her getting comfortable with getting her thoughts down on paper. After she has mastered that skill, you can begin working on one aspect at a time to fine tune her compositions; but that might not happen for a year or two yet.
RE your schedule, it might help to look at how many LA skills you’re working on each day. For example, you probably don’t want to do “writing intense” skills on the same day. So I would do dictation and written narration on different days of the week, since both require more handwriting. If you cut back on dictation to just two days a week, you could have one “writing intense” skill each day: 2 dictation, 1 written narration, 2 Book of Mottoes.
Just some thoughts.
Thanks, Sonya. Your $0.02 is very helpful and worth at least $0.25.
I missed this section of the seminar in Jax (out with the baby) when I was out with the baby and I’ve lent my dvds out, so I was stuck.
I think we’ll choose something other than the Famous Men book, she likes listening to it, but it is the one she has the toughest time narrating. She narrates all of our other current readings well. I like the idea of spreading out the writing intensive things and will do that – 2 days Book of Mottoes, 2 days dictation, 1 day written narration and I won’t worry about polishing the written narrations unless she asks to do it.
I’m also guessing a bit on the time and spreading out JAG, as I’ve not received it yet.
This is why I love this forum, you, the SCM team, and all of the participants are so helpful when it comes to walking through decisions like this.
Blessings,
Christie
I wanted to bump this question back up in regards to the time issue. Sonya, you mentioned aiming for 15 minutes for the written narration. My daughter (almost 11) is transitioning to some written narrations and it takes FOREVER. She narrates orally very well. Her written narrations vascillate between hardly anything because she doesn’t know what to say, or too much because she’s very detailed. Bottom line is that we could easily spend the majority of a school day on a written narration/notebook page. How do I help this process not be so time-consuming?
-Tanya
You might try some of the alternate written narration ideas, like Write five questions covering the material you read. An assignment like that will still require her to think things through, but will limit the writing to a more manageable chunk. Sprinkle some of those ideas throughout her narration assignments to give her some ideas. Above all, be patient with her during this transition time. Just as her oral narration skills improved over time, so will her written narration skills. But use some of those more abbreviated narration ideas to keep your sanity in the meantime.
Bumping since this is good information on transitioning to written narrations. We will be starting this year.
I clicked on this not realizing it was an old post of my own. Having taken Sonya’s avice and read Charlotte’s words since then, I just want to post how well written narration is going in our home. DD13 has terrific insigts and DS10 blew me away with his first narrations. Not with insight, but length. Both are making great progress and I’ve relaxed into trusting the procss over the years. It works. Be encouraged.
Oh, and that list above – she was too young for a commonplace, we shelved that until 7th and its a joy now; we skipped Latin and are just this year adding in Latin/Greek roots as a family instead; and we made it up to adverbs in JAG before she was bogged down, we put grammar aside til 7th and she breezed through season 1 of AG. I am a planner, but am not afraid to change my plan. I share that to hopefully encourage others.
Warmly,
Christie
Can I ask an additional question here?
Should the initial narrations in the written format be “tell all” of what was read? Or is it ok to do more varied types of written narration – such as a discussion type question on what was read? Or something like “write of four things that you read or learned in this reading”?
Does that make sense?
I think I’m curious, Christie, how your oldest is showing “insight” in her written narrations? Maybe a better question is what is her prompt to narrate?
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
- The topic ‘Beginning Written Narrations, Help, Please’ is closed to new replies.