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Another Narration Question
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I have read the blog topics here and understand that narration is the telling back of what was just read or experienced. I am just trying to implement narration on a regular basis this year (only 2nd year of homeschooling). Last year I started to introduce it using Aesop but did not stick with it because I was just not sure of the process myself. I know how to tell back in sequence what I just read but the part about making it their own is still a little vague for me. Do they just throw in personal opinions about the topic when narrating, how does that work?
Also, my 13 yr old son always tested at least a year behind in reading comp. we are now going thru vision therapy and working on visual memory as part of the therapy. I have him do silent reads for 20 mins each day with a junior classic of “The Call of the Willd” right now. I ask him what the story was about or to tell me what happened today in the story and he never has much to say. Today he said ‘Buck’ the dog, had to pull a sleigh with 1000 lbs of weight. That is all he had to say. My other question or advice I would like to seek from those experienced with narraration is, should I have him read 2 paragraphs then narrate, read 2 more and narrate again. Or should I have him just keep reading that book silently, maybe 3 days a week with no narraration, the other 2 days read some short stories and only narrarate those 2 days. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope I make sense in my wording of these questions.
How did he do narrating Aesop? I found that was a good one to do beginning narration with. Honestly I wonder if Call of the Wild is just not the best choice. I’d try to find something that has a fair amount of action and which interests him. It could even be below his usual reading level. That is fine for now. Does he narrate to you in any other area of life? Tell you what he learned from a video maybe or something like that? When kids are into something they naturally want to tell about it. Also I don’t think you can force making it their own. That will come in time as they learn more and are able to make their own connections.
Hope that helps
Nebby
Thank you Nebby,
He does much better narrating a read aloud which is what I did with Aesop. With the read alouds he can do some brief to moderate sequencing. When he does silent reads, he is mostly blank with narration. I do want him reading silently daily though. He does tell me about his hunting trips with dad, what happens on the hunts and things about his day when he spends it with his grandmother. Still they are not always full of detail but much more than when he reads silently.
So is narration, with them just telling me what they remember about the story in order that it happened, good for now?
I also have a 9 yr old dd. I guess I will use some short folk tales and such for some narration practice.
With this being your second year, I’d say yes, let them just tell you what they remember. That’s a great place to start.
Just so you know where you’re headed, you might focus on the narrative (tell the story) style for a while, then when you feel confident that they’re ready for more, add in some descriptive (describe how something looks) and some expository (explain how something works) at times. A lot of that will depend on what you’re reading to them. Obviously, if the story doesn’t focus on much description, you won’t ask for that type of narration; but if you happen to read a passage that contains lots of imagery that they can picture in their mind’s eye, you might encourage a descriptive narration at that point. Keep these two options on the back burner for now, though. Stick with telling the story until they gain more confidence and fluency in that art.
Thank you Sonya for your wisdom. If you were in my situation would you only have them narrate read alouds, since my son does better with these? I want to work on the silent reads because at this age he needs to begin to get something out of reading books on his own. I just don’t know how to get to this point. I will start having him read from the Collier Junior Classics maybe until he builds up his silent reading skills, maybe the memory part, I don’t know. Since homeschooling began last year, this is the most of books my children have been exposed to. In school it was their boring “reading” as a subject textbook stories. They did get to choose some library books on their own and do AR tests. AR is comp questions, I guess. Anyway, he did get to read some Magic Treehouse books with this program but it wasn’t something he did everyday. On standardized testing both my children have always tested below grade level on reading comp. Hopefully the vision therapy will help with this also.
From my limited experience (two children DD9 and DS7) with narration, I’ve found that sometimes the history and science books are easier to narrate. With literature books, my kids tend to get so involved in just enjoying the story, that they don’t narrate as well. The prompt you give can also make a difference. The chapter might be mainly describing the character or setting, without a lot of action to narrate about. So if I ask “Tell me what happened in the story,” they really don’t have much to tell.
With history, often each chapter is a specific event that I can ask a more direct question about to get them started. For example, the other day I asked “So, did Vasco De Gama finally make it to India? What happened on his journey?” In science, the kids can tell me everything they learned about whichever creature they read about. They don’t have to worry about sequence, just remembering as many details as they can.
Not that narrating the sequence of events in a story isn’t important, but in the beginning, you might want to explore other types of passages to see which your son finds easier to narrate. Finding literature books where each chapter is a story, rather than a continous novel, might also help. “The Jungle Book” is one that comes to mind.
I really like the “Christian Liberty Nature Readers” for practicing narrating in science. They are interesting, and often include a story about a real animal/bird/creature that someone observed, along with factual detail. History books such as the “Famous Men” books work well too.
Joanne
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