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How Do You Address This Issue In Narration
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If you are following CM’s principles of only one reading, then narrating (either in writing or orally), then highlight any points missed – what do you do if you ask a narration question for a reading and your student says “I don’t know”?
My high school daughter is reading a Maybury book. If you are familiar with these books, you know they are very short chapters. She was to read 2 chapters this week. I believe she read them last night (which might be part of the problem). We sat down together today for her to narrate them and we discuss them and she did a really good job narrating the last of the two chapters read. But the first one she had to read, she didn’t tell me anything about it. So I mentioned what the chapter was about and asked if she could tell me anything about it. She said “I don’t know.” How would you address that?
To give your dd the benefit of the doubt, perhaps she just needs some more practice with narration? How long have you been asking for narrations? Wouljd it be easier for her to write her narrations? Have you tried writing down key words, names, or places from her readings to give her “hooks on which to hang her narrations”?
It could also be that she doesn’t want to narrate, especially if it requires a lot of effort for her to remember what she’s read. This will just have to be a discipline in the habits of attention and mental effort.
Only you can determine which is her situation.
Blessings,
Lindsey
She’s been doing narrations for around 3 years now. We didn’t start incorporating more of CM’s methods until around 3 years ago. We spent the first year doing mainly oral narrations. Then she began written narrations. She’s been doing written narrations for 2 years now. She actually typically does good written narrations for the most part. Sometimes there will be ones that are brief; but overall she does pretty well. I haven’t tried writing down key words, names, places though. And she doesn’t mind narration. I will say though, she is a little tired today so maybe that contributed. But the thing is, she did really well narrating the other chapter. She also did okay with some of her other narrations today. I haven’t read all of her written narrations yet. But this particular book I didn’t have her do a written narration for. My plan was for her to do an oral narration and then we’d discuss it. But the discussion really didn’t happen because she basically just listened…which is not what I was going for. 🙂 I was hoping for some discussion. I think for her reading in this book next week, I’ll have her do written narrations. Then we can discuss it.
You know, as I’m thinking about it, there was one other narration that was more brief initially. She’s reading two short biographies right now. I’m reading them as well and they are very well written and I think very engaging. But she did need me to give her some prompts for the readings in one of the biographies today and then she did okay.
I know at the high school level they are more independent in their work. But I’m just wondering if maybe we need to take some time and go back to having her come and narrate some of these readings right after she reads them instead of waiting until later in the day or the next day. She does do her written narrations right when she reads the material.
You know though, sometimes I notice that she can do a really great written narration on a reading but then not be able to orally narrate it well. Any thoughts?
But I’m just wondering if maybe we need to take some time and go back to having her come and narrate some of these readings right after she reads them instead of waiting until later in the day or the next day.
I think this is probably your best bet. Until she gets the hang of it, this will help you both stay on top of her reading and narrating. If her written narrations are better, you could stick with that. Allow her to type them, if that would make it quicker and easier for her. It may just be her learning style to gather her thoughts better on paper than in her mind.
For what it’s worth, I have one who almost daily says, “I don’t know”. I tell him the whole point of reading is to understand it and if he can’t tell me what he read he needs to read it again. About 80% of the time he can instantly recall what he read and give a detailed narration. Another 15% of the time he goes into a room and comes back two seconds later to give a detailed narration. And the other 5% he has to re-read then narrate. The % has slowly shifted to the 80%; at first there were many more moments of having to re-read. This may not be the case for your daughter, but I found he was just reading too quickly and not paying attention. Now that he understands what is expected AND that “I don’t know” doesn’t get you out of anything, he’s doing much better.
Ummm….what is a ‘narration question’? This is what I would say to a high schooler:
Tell me about __________________.
And then they do.
Not to oversimplify, but it is really just conversation. Discuss. Have her do it immediately following the reading, and if she is new to narration, keep the reading short.
But, beyond narration, the process is really re-telling – whether that be life events or what she has read, or whatever. It is the ability to distill and convey what has just gone through her mind. If her attention has been focused, she should be able to do so. If not, then the habit of attention has to be established first.
After reading your second post…
Don’t freak out over one bad day narrating. We all have our bad days!
And definitely have her narrate immediately following the reading. The thing about written narration is that it forces the student to fix their attention to regurgitating what they have just read. You can’t fake words on paper.
Personally, I find oral narration much more challenging because I have to think as I speak and order my words without reviewing them. Writing always includes the ‘edit’ option.
Try to make it natural and casual and have her educate you about what she has learned. Few children can resist the opportunity to educate their parents!
Thanks everyone for all the help! I really appreciate it!
Lindsey, I do give my daughter the choice of whether to type or write her written narrations. She often chooses to write her regular narrations; but she likes to type her term exam answers. 🙂 And I can relate to doing better expressing my thoughts when I can put them down on paper first. It gives me time to process the thoughts as I write. And I can erase and re-write if I need to.
crazy4boys, thanks for sharing how you worked on the narrations with your son. I’m trying to work on the whole “only read once” to work on that habit of attention. It seems to me that it really does take some time to learn to put your full attention to what you are reading in order to learn the material with only one reading. I have been trying to do this myself with some more difficult reading and with these more challenging readings, it’s not always easy. You know? I find that it works to stop and narrate more frequently.
ServingwithJoy, to answer your question “What is a narration question?” I am simply talking about when you say “Tell me about ________” or “Describe ________”, etc. So it’s the same thing that you are talking about. 🙂 Like I said, she is not new to narration really. She’s been narrating for around 3 years now. But I guess, in the big scheme of things, that could still be fairly new when you’re talking about starting CM methods right around the middle school/high school age.
I think the fact that she was tired today probably contributed. But this has happened more than once. Like I mentioned before, I do notice that she tends to write much better written narrations than tell oral narrations, with the exception of literature. She does very well in telling me about what she’s read in her literature. And really, as I mentioned above, when I think about it, I do much better putting things down on paper first versus having to gather it all together and talk about it first. So I would probably agree that oral narration is much more challenging. I can see why they advise those first starting with CM methods to just focus on oral narration first.
I really think that we probably do need to just step back and take the time right now to narrate after each reading right after reading them instead of waiting until later to do the oral narration. But what I’m wondering is – if the student does a good written narration but afterwards doesn’t orally narrate that same material well, my question would be…why? Why is that? And maybe it still goes back to needing to maybe just focus on oral narration immediately following the reading each time for awhile, with just one or two written narrations a week. Just to take more time working on talking about what you’ve read and getting the information cemented in the mind.
I’m also wondering if maybe some of the work needs to be scaled back for now and just focus in on fewer readings and orally narrating them well.
Suzukimom, that’s certainly a valid question. But yes, she did read it. She is very diligent about completing all her assignments. 🙂
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