beginning narration problem with memorizing vs. summarizing

Sounds very similar to my dd! She does that with Bible verses in particular! So, I’m just going to describe what she does, why I *think* she is doing it…and what I am going to try next… I suspect that one of my daughter’s learning strengths is processing auditory information. She has more or less taught herself to read by listening and following along while I read aloud. She then picked up the same picture books on her own, and read them out loud to herself. She also would sometimes get upset with me when I was reading, “I can’t see Mom!” to which I would answer, “But there are no pictures honey.” and her reply, “No, I can’t see the words!” What I think she has been doing is using her ability to “store” the words in her memory long enough to teach herself to find those same words later. And she has been sucessful, she can read, it isn’t just memorization, I’ve “tested” her by giving her new material she’s never seen before, and she reads it correctly – and does try to sound out new words, based on the words she already knows. (Which helps me see what she DOES need to learn for reading).

Anyway, I think, it’s a combination of her using her already good auditory/reading skills and combining them with short term memory – which is where the problem comes in… the story (or Bible verse) needs to go from her short term memory to long term memory. Instead of being stored temporarily. And I agree with you, I do think it is a problem, becuase “parroting” is not narrating. Narrating as I understand it is taking the information in, processing it and then putting it into your own words. (Later making your own connections). She won’t know or “own” the information until it is hers. So ideas we’re trying….

• waiting a little longer after Aesop’s fables before asking for narration, even a pause of a minute seems to help.
• asking her to tell me about a fable we read earlier in the week. (This worked REALLY well!)
• drawing a picture from the story
• taking turns with me narrating the beginning and the end of the story (ie. she tells the beginning I tell the ending, but not saying who has which part ahead of time)
• going onto other books!

We are not probably going to spend as much time on Aesop’s fables as I did with my ds; because she can narrate, she’s voluntarily narrated her brother’s science lessons, so I know she can do it. So I’m not sure spending lots of time with Aesop is going to help her in particular, we are moving onto Thornton Burgess books for narration next, I’m just substuting them for Aesop’s Fables. The chapters are short, shorter than many other chapter books, the characters are easy to “follow” and the material will be new to her. That’s the plan.

In your case I try asking your daughter about a specific fable you’ve already read, “Can you tell me about the story with the lion and the mouse?” and just see what she has retained. Might help clear things up for you. And there is no law saying that children absoultely must begin narrating with Aesop’s Fables; maybe go onto to anther book that is appropriate for her. (If Little House worked, maybe go back to it or find something similar that catches her interest. Honestly, aside from the book being of literary quaiity, it seems most important for a beginner narrator that the child is interested in the subject. At least that’s my opinion! We all love to talk about something that is exciting to us personally.) You can still read Aesop’s Fables for enjoyment, or if you really don’t want to drop it as a narration book, maybe only read and narrate from Aesop once or twice a week; and narrate in another subject, if you’re trying to practice narrating daily. Hope that helps you!

P.S. My dd turns 6 next month.