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How to do oral narration with multiple children during group time?
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Another just getting started question. 🙂 How do you do oral narrations during the family/group time? What I’m afraid of is one child doing his narration and then the next child basically parroting what they heard. Do you pull them aside privately for their narrations to avoid that or do some other method?
My older two are dd11 and ds13 and my youngest is ds8. I know ds13 should be doing written narrations according to what I’ve read but he doesn’t quite have a mastery of oral narrations yet so we need the practice.
WhitneyA
We’ve sometimes taken turns — I ask one child to start and to only give the beginning of the story (or chapter or whatever); then the next child gives the next little bit, and so on.
Or, I ask them (in turn) to describe for me the place or the people we’ve met or the weather or whatever is pertinent to the story/chapter/whatever.
Sometimes I ask them to listen for a scene that they think they could draw and then to draw it while I’m reading…..not all my girls like that, though, so I don’t do it much.
I have already asked my oldest to write out a narration (she’s in 7th grade) and then when she leaves the room, the others narrate.
We will take turns and start with a different person each time. Also, I’ll challenge kids to try to remember one thing nobody else mentioned sometimes, or ask if anyone remembers anything differently than what they heard someone else narrate – and then we can discuss it.
We also do drawings sometimes, then the kids all add a narration to the page (written or orally narrated and I write their words).
Sometimes they’ll reinact things, or build a favorite scene out of lego or playdoh.
I like the idea of them trying to remember something no one else did – my older two are very competitive. lol
Some ideas I have…I only have one school-aged child so far so I haven’t tested them all yet.
Have one person retell what happened before reading, then read a bit, pause, and have another person narrate the first portion. Read some more and have another narrate that section. Finish off with someone else telling what they think is going to happen next. Switch up who gets what part every time.
Have them draw or act out their narrations, either with toy figures or by putting on a play. 🙂
Have the ones who can write write theirs down so there’s no parroting.
Ask what their favorite/most interesting/scariest/etc. part was.
Ask if they were reminded of something else (a poem, a song, a picture, another story read) when they/you read.
I agree with what the other ladies have answered. We would take turns. I ask only for something different than what was already narrated. Once I had some independent readers, I did less group narration and more individual. Mostly, I ask for narrations when I meet with a child individually from their own readings that they have done independently that day. If you have older children, you could have them opt out of the group narration – or have them be the ones to listen for anything left out by the younger ones.
We also vary who starts first. After they finish, I ask if anyone can add something. If no one volunteers, I usually start asking them one at a time. Sometimes I get creative with my questions.
Another thing I do is assign written narrations, with the younger ones drawing a picture and doing some copywork from the lesson. The older ones draw a map and/or picture and write a bit. Writing names, places, and a vocab word or two on the board helps get them going. Stories of America has wonderful poems, so the younger ones would copy a line or two of it. We don’t do this everyday, but aim for once or twice a week.
I don’t really ask for narrations. We just talk about the book. You could talk about what they thought of something someone did or what they think might happen next and they probably wouldn’t say the same things as each other.
I have teens, so we tell each other our opinions about books and what people in the books are doing. I feel like narration isn’t necessarily about telling what happened but about interacting with the information, so I like to treat it more like talking about a book with a friend.Thank you all for the great suggestions! I’m banking all of them to see what could work best for my crowd.
I’ve been reading lately about Charlotte’s objections to a competitive atmosphere in the learning environment. I have four boys, so I totally get that they can try to ‘one-up’ each other, and that can get out of hand and destroy the respectful environment you want to create. Our rule is to take turns, no interrupting, and they can offer something a brother may not have mentioned afterwards. It’s good to emphasize that we can all see the story from a different angle (like the Gospels) and so one person may notice or remember a detail that another would miss. Offering the additional details can be seen as adding depth to ‘our’ study, rather than competing for knowledge, if that makes sense? Anyway, just a thought for how to explain it from the get-go so that it doesn’t become a source of puffing up.
Some things that seem different from already posted, is that I also take a turn in oral and written narrations, trying to show what a very detailed narration looks like. It makes me feel I am one of the group, rather than teacher of the group.
Also, after each of us ds,15, dd11 and ds8 take their turns I ask if the narration is correct and the student’s find the proof back in the readings.Also, I have found that they listen more attentively if they are actively doing some thing with their hands like using a drop spindle to make yarn, playing legoes, using model clay to create and painting to mention a few.
After we have written narrations, we review each one after to make sure it’s correct and review again before the new readings, especially with history and Bible.
We often have involved discussions based on being incorrect on the slightest of details and when I am wrong it is humbling, especially when the ds 8 yo corrects me. I praise them for their very close listening and I encourage them to correct in kindness. They truly have become much better listeners than I and I think it is the fruit of the CM method! Thank you SCM crew!
Blessings, Martha
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