Narrations

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  • Sara B.
    Participant

    OK, so my 5th grader this year is doing nearly everything on her own, just coming to me for narrations and math and a couple odds and ends.  How much time are we going to spend doing narrations this year?  Last year I could spend an hour with her and get all the narrations done, check over written work, do a half hour of math with her, and still have time to read a few things with her.  This year, if I listen to narrations, I’m looking at around 90 min or more every day to include math with me and a couple of small things (like dictation and such).  I don’t want to spend that much time with her every school day in addition to our family work and her own independent stuff.  It adds up to just too much time each day for her.  Suggestions?  How long do narrations take for your 5th graders?

    Angelina
    Participant

    Listening to narrations for my 5th and 4th graders would be HOURS every day for me. My boys love to read, love to give details, and are chatty and love to narrate — and yet we’re not doing more than one written per week as their writing is only just coming along (lots of struggles with handwriting and spelling so I’m not rushing it). So ORAL is it! I found the solution here on the forum. Someone mentioned that they’d recently begun having their kids record narrations into a little recording device. We started that and it’s been brilliant. They never feel rushed, they love the independence and I’m freed up and can listen at the end of the day when I’m making dinner or folding laundry. Best of all – when you have multiple kids – this method allows you to avoid the problem on group readings/narrations where each child has to wait their turn to narrate – and by the time you get to the last child they have “nothing to add, Mama…it’s all been covered”. We still do one “group narration” per day, and another reading each day where one child gets a chance to narrate “directly” to me…but using the recorder for the other narrations has saved a ton of time and truthfully I think the variety has really helped my boys tweak their narration skills as well.

    Hope this helps some; it’s worked very well for us. Blessings, Angie

    Sara B.
    Participant

    That’s an interesting idea, Angie.  I would have to talk to my dh about that.  I know nothing about computer recording, I am from the stone age and only know how to do one of those little tape recorders!  (Which we don’t have.)  My 5th grader is going to do 3 written narrations a week this year (she likes to write), and my 4th grader is doing 2.  Otherwise it’s all oral here, too.

    Anyone else have ideas in case the recorded narrations wouldn’t work out?

    jmac17
    Participant

    I was going to suggest the recorder idea as well.  If that doesn’t work, what if you set a limited time for narrations, and then just randomly choose which books to narrate that day?  In CM’s schools, each student had to be prepared to narrate, but then only some children were chosen.  You could do the reverse.  Each student spends 30 minutes narrating (or whatever reasonable amount of time you set), but they will not know in advance which books will be chosen, so they will have to be prepared to narrate all of them. 

    If someone really wanted to tell about a book that wasn’t chosen that day, they could do it more informally over supper or while doing dishes or driving to sports or whenever, just as a publicly schooled child might come home and tell about what they learned that day.

    We are only beginning year 3, so I can’t speak from experience, but it might be worth a try.

    Joanne

    Angelina
    Participant

    Hi Sara, if you can believe it, our recorder is a $20 recorder from Staples! Just like an old fashioned tape recorder but I guess it has a digital card instead of the “tape” of a cassette tape… I am just like you with respect to the stone age, but this thing is super easy 🙂 It’s about the size of my palm or maybe a little bigger, easy to carry around…I just delete the recordings after I listen, or occasionally I will type up a good narration and surprise my son with it the next day.

    Good luck, hopefully you will get some additional ideas! (I’d love to hear some too…)

    Blessings, Angie

    Sara B.
    Participant

    Angie, they still sell stuff like that (only updated)?  Very cool!  I will talk to my hubby tonight.  I think the kids would actually really like that!

     

    Joanne, that’s also a good idea.  “Surprise! Today you have to narrate Subject A and Subject D, not B like you thought….”  LOL

    Angelina
    Participant

    Sara, yes, I couldn’t get over how much my kids began to enjoy narrating. Something really changed when they realized there was no rush, no eyes on them, etc. They’ll go into a separate room, cozy up onto a couch, and just close their eyes and recall the reading. Sometimes they will even leave me a cute little goodbye at the end. (well, Mama, hope you liked this narration, I just can’t wait for the next chapter…luv ya!)

    Re. the device – if you go on Staples (or even Walmart) and you will hopefully find something. Now, it’s possible you may come across the ‘higher end’ – in the $50 range… (some of them allow you to download music onto them…I didn’t need/want that so I kept searching until I found one that ONLY did simple recording…and in the end I actually found it in the discount bin of clearance stuff!)

    If you can’t find a bare bones one, you can always get the lowest cost mp3 player out there — it will do the same thing as the basic recorder that I managed to find. Although everyone else out there would use an MP3 player to download and listen to music, such devices do also have (usually) a little record button on them and would do the trick for narration purposes just fine.

    Good luck! Angie

    missceegee
    Participant

    I was the one who suggested the recorder. I found them on clearance for less than $20 I believe. Very worthwhile investment for us.

    Angelina
    Participant

    Well then I guess I need to thank you, Christie – this has been just an amazing lifesaver here with us! Once we got through some initial protocol (no waving around the recorder, no pacing around the room or shifting endlessly as you sit) this method began working brilliantly for us. You have the greatest ideas!

    I can’t help but share the funniest story… when I first got onto the recorder idea, we were in the midst of moving and we had to stay for a few short months in a furnished rental – among the furnishings: BEAN BAG chairs! What a hoot! The kids LOVED those bean bags, but you can imagine what the recorded narrations sounded like as they “sat” and “shifted” throughout their talk!! After a few times, we developed a protocol: sitting STILL and concentrating on TALKING; it’s worked just wonderfully ever since. Thanks again, Christie…

    Angie

    PS – Sara, if you end up doing this, just keep in mind you’ll want to give your kids a few pointers on how to stay quiet and focused whilst the recorder is on.

    ServingwithJoy
    Participant

    Just a question…

    Why are we doing narrations on every subject with each child? Is that what Charlotte or SCM recommends?

    I am not being a smart-aleck! I am serious :). Are we supposed to have them narrate that much?

    Sara B.
    Participant

    ServingwithJoy, yes, I believe CM said that a reading without a narration was wasted?  Because they only know it if they can tell it back to you.  And through narrations they make connections.  So yes, everything they read should also be narrated.

    (At least, that’s how I’ve been doing it for the past few years of doing CM.  Smile)

    missceegee
    Participant

    Sara is right. We narrate most all of our readings and that is our goal. The exception, family literature read alouds. 

    Angelina
    Participant

    ServingwithJoy – Well, that’s a great question, isn’t it? I’ve gone back and forth on this. There were times I had my kids narrating upwards of 4x per day, which to be honest I found a bit taxing (on me…and on them – I found they were pretty darn tired by the 4th narration). I’ve put a cap on it now and have them narrating 2x narrations one day and 3x per day the next…and then, I try to mix it up -one from a silent read, one from a group read and one is either/or.

    The impression I got from the readings I’ve seen on CM is that ALL subjects are narrated and the kids in gr 2 -4/5’ish are orally narrating pretty much everything. Now, I suppose the difference is that in a CM school — it was a SCHOOL – and not every kid was called on every time. Maybe others could comment on this. I’ve basically been just following the lead my boys are giving me. When I see they’ve got it in them to narrate 3x per day, we do it. When I see they are “baked” after 2 narrations, I don’t force it for the subject we have left later in the day…

    Would really love to hear what others have to say!

    marmiemama
    Participant

    I agree with Angie…Christie does have the most interesting suggestions!  Wink  Christie, have you ever thought of writing it all into a book someday?  

    missceegee
    Participant

    Angie and Marmiemama – You’re sweet. A book, no. I’d rather read than write. Glad to share ideas though. Mostly I pass on others’ ideas that have worked for me. 

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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