correcting narration

From what I have read, you do not correct during the narration, for sure, but afterward you could ask for clarification of a certain event/character.  You can certainly discuss what they narrated and if you felt something wasn’t accurate, then you could bring it up then.

I have to run, but I’m sure others will have more for you.  HTH

I would love to hear from others as well. My feeling is that if a child “regularly” makes factual/content errors in narrations (or regularly leaves out something “major”) this is more evidence of:

– a weakness in the child’s reading skills (maybe he’s become a word skipper or tends to skim when reading to get to the “good parts”…)

– (if the reading was read aloud) a weakness in comprehension, ability to follow plot, make connections, etc.

– (if reading was a read aloud) a challenge with attention or length of the reading (I think with some kids we need to find the sweet spot on length of a reading in order for the child to narrate most effectively. My DC have been narrating for about two years; in the beginning I would time our readings to no more than 5 minutes per session – regardless of where we were in the chapter – and have them narrate. A five minute session was all they could absorb at one time… in the beginning. Nowadays we can easily do 20 minutes of reading and they are fine with it (they seldom miss any details). The point I’m trying to make is that we needed to build up on reading length gradually).

Although we call it “narration”, to me the act of telling back is the major indicator of whether the child reads effectively and understands thoroughly. If “narration” were done in publics school today it would be called “reading comprehension” (in the early grades) and “composition” or “book report” or “chapter summary” for written work in the senior grades.

Getting back to your question – sure, I guess you could “correct” your child’s narration by explaining to him where there was a major gap or factual error. But IMO you’re not really getting to the root of what needs to be “corrected” unless you fix whatever might be causing him to miss the material in the first place. (Attention? Reading too quickly? Too many unknown words?).

Bottom line – and also as you asked: No, narration is not “just for them”. In a CM education it is THE major indicator of how strongly they read, listen, understand and form opinions on the material you assign.

HTH some… Angie