A Little Help Please :)

Okay…this may get long, but I need a bit of advice so…here goes!

I have used Writing With Ease with both of my children to instruct them in narration (summarizing) and dictation (yes, it’s done “cold turkey” in this curriculum :)). I chose this curriculum because it was easy for me to use to teach them, it seemed pracitcal and helpful, and makes sense to me as a teacher. I do not see how I can teach composition effectively if I, myself, am not confident in my own writing/spelling/grammar abilities. Her books give me the confidence I need to feel like I know what I’m doing. 

We are quickly coming to the end of the 4th level and need to begin the next part with my oldest child, but the next level is not ready for purchase at this time…the entire curriculum is not yet written (This shocked my husband when I told him about all this. He could not believe I had started out with a curriculum that is not even finished 🙁

So now I have to either wait on the next level and just do… who knows what in the meantime or pick another way to do all of this! I need some major help!!

As I was reading reviews on the Cathy Duffy site I happened upon this quote that compares the Writing With Ease method with the Charlotte Mason method. 

Narration exercises are used throughout this curriculum, but it is important to recognize that there are different forms of narration. Catherine Levison, author of A Charlotte Mason Education tells us that

Narration is an easy, normal and effective way to retain information. We have all used this process when we’ve told someone about a meeting we have attended, a documentary we’ve seen, or a book we have read. That is why it is also called “telling back.” The act of repeating information or events has a powerful effect on memory, much like when we repeat a number over and over to ourselves if we are unable to write it down. It’s different from summarizing information because we allow the person narrating to choose the emphasis, even the omissions, and in all ways we let his or her mind act on the material. (http://www.charlottemasoneducation.com/narration.html)

This highlights both the benefit of narration and a key difference between the Charlotte Mason approach to narration and the method used in Writing With Ease and some other classically-oriented programs. Both educational approaches value narration as a tool to reinforce memory and recall. However, Charlotte Mason would have the child select his or her emphases and important facts. Writing with Ease is much more prescriptive in narration activities (with the exception of level one), asking students to retell specific information rather than selectively recalling information; it functions more like oral quizzing than a natural narration. However, in WEE there is a focus to the questions, and this becomes especially clear in level 2: the questions are designed to help the child identify key elements of the story so that they will be able to accurately summarize it. So narration in Writing with Ease works to develop mental discipline, listening and reading skills, memorization, and oral presentation in a logical fashion, but it is not the same as the narration technique recommended by Charlotte Mason which would give the child much more control over the narration. 

 

This helps me to see the difference, but not decide which one is more practical, helpful to the child in the long run, or just plain RIGHT! 🙂 I can see that the classical writing method will help a student outline, pick out important facts from a non-fiction reading, and eventually argue a point. I can also see that CM writing will help a child with listening to the whole and not searching for snippets of important info, and telling what he knows instead of what someone else may deem important. I also can find curricula galore that teaches the classical way, but not much to help ME teach the CM way. I’m just not sure where to go from here…any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!

Amanda