Attention and narration

There are a couple of things you could do depending on the content of the sentances.  You could start the narration yourself.  “First ____, can you tell me what happened next?”  Or you could ask him questions about what you read, but try to keep them as open ended as possible.  Narration is a learned skill and takes a while to get the hang of.  He is just starting out and will eventually get it and you will be able to read progressively more and more with him able to narrate it all.  Just give it time and a few promps if needed (remember to keep them open).

We started at 6 with only 2 sentances at a time.  My son is now 8 and can narrate a whole chapter that is 3-4 pages.  We narrate daily, his religous studies and a silent reading he does just to practice narration.  We only just started this as he has only recently begun to ready well, before that I read aloud a small passage for him to narrate.  I had something set aside soley for narration.  Our literature read alouds were just for enjoying.  When I read our literature read aloud, I ask him to tell me what we read yesterday.  That is also narration. 

My daughter sometimes blanks when I ask her for a narration. I tell her to pretend I hae never heard the story etc. Can she tell me the story? This usually gets her going. why? I don’t know. LOL, but it works.  I usually narrate to them after a few paragraphs then I have them narrate to me so they see an example from me of what I am wanting.. I tel them it can be in theirr own words…HTH