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A ? about how many and length of narrations……
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Hi! This is my first post. We have just finished our sixth year of homeschooling. We have six children ranging in age from 3-14. I have always wondered about length of written narrations and how many a week they should write, and is it ok if most of their written narrations are coming from history?
What would you expect out of a 6th, 7th, and 8th grader?
Blessings,
Missy
I always ask this question every year too. 🙂 My oldest is only in 6th, but I never now how much is enough. Hopefully Sonya or other mom of olders will pop in and guide us.
I expect one written narration each week, the length of which should be longer as they get older. For a sixth grader it is more along the lines (no pun intended!) of almost a page, with the eighth grader 2-3 pages. The narration is worked on daily and by the end of the week is perfected, so there is plenty of work going on; it’s just not scattered about in different subjects. I typically ask the child what they want to write a narration from, but sometimes I push a little to add some variety if they get stuck on one subject. Now, stuck meaning, they are doing that one because it’s easy, not because they are really, really, interested in it! It doesn’t sound like much, but over the course of a regular school year, it adds up to a very nice portfolio, if that is a concern you have.
Blessings,
Cindy
OK. That is very similar to what we are doing. 8) The difference would be that our narrations are done about 2-3x’s a week on just history readings. (We do narrations for science in the younger grades and switch to apologia.) I feel much better knowing the length of someone else’s narrations.
Cindy S (or anyone else), can you elaborate more on your weekly narration for a 6th grader? My oldest child is just starting written narrations and I’d like to hear more about your process.
If the child picks history, for example, for her written narration and works on it throughout the week, do you read history every day and the child adds to the narration each day? Or do you read history on Monday only and the child works on the writing all week from that one reading? Do you go over drafts with the child and make corrections that are then re-copied? Or does your child work on the computer?
And there is no other written narration for that week?
I’m interested in any details as we enter this new phase of narration! Thanks.
Well Esby, I’m not sure if this is the best way, but this is what we tend toward (and this is for elementary/jr. high; high school students do more and varied stuff):
Monday: Child reads their lesson and younger ones (4th-5th grade) dictate a narration to me as I type. Older ones type up their own. It can be from that day or it can encompass the readings since the previous Monday.
Tuesday – Wednesday: With my guidance, child works to elaborate on details, choose ‘best’ words, punctuate correctly, that sort of thing. The 4th/5th graders and I work on this together at the computer, the older ones bring me their paper and we go over it. The younger ones continue to read and give oral narrations throughout the week, the older ones not so much (maybe a failing here). The point of this activity is learning to develop their writing skills in communicating their narration. As such, it is not necessary to have it ‘all’ on paper.
Thursday: Child gives me what they consider to be their final. Again, younger works with me at the computer so this step is sort of skipped with him.
Friday: Final is due.
The following Monday: We start over either with the same subject or a different one. If it is the same, they are free to include some information from what they read and narrated orally the week before.
Another player for us, starting in 7th grade, is this: We are required a certain amount of literature documented. We develop a book list to accomplish this and they must write a 2-4 page (double-spaced, Times font) book report on each book. IDEALLY, they would read a chapter and type up a brief summary. Then at the end of the book (which is about 6 books for a jr. high, 8 for sr.), they would combine their summaries and polish it up. What typically happens around here is that they read the entire book and then try to write a book report from memory. I fussed about it with the first 4 going through but could really find nothing amiss in their reports and so dropped it after I realized I was just being bull-headed 😳 Must be all that oral narration early on! 😉
One thing I have been encouraged to include is an opportunity for the student to select a bunny trail to go down a bit in their narrations, which would lead to more research skills. Maybe next year.
Now that I’ve totally confused you I’ll call it day!
Blessings,
Cindy
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