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Independent Learning
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When and how do you begin independent portions of learning? My 6 yo will begin his “1st grade” year this summer and I wondered if he could be doing some work on his own. From other posts it sounds as though you assign some reading and then they must narrate that reading to you. Is this right? How long a reading do you assign – is it daily or weekly – and who determines when it must be finished (the narration part)?
When first starting out, I don’t assign anything for independant learning… we just have the list of things to do, do them together, and my child gets to mark it as done. (that is important that they mark it…)
As they start to get able to do more, then I start assigning some independant learning. Depending on your math program, math is sometimes one that is early to be independant. (ie, Math U See I think… they watch the video, and do their work…) I use MEP, so they start doing the review day on their own, and I still teach the other 4 days.
Once they can read something independantly, and are fairly good at narrating – then I’d assign a small amount to read, and they narrate when done. At that point, it would be – ok, now go read this and come back and narrate. As they get older (ie 9 or so) they might be able to effectively narrate everything at the end of their schoolwork… but not until they are very good at it.
You can vary narrations by having a narration cube, or popsicles sticks they draw out of a bag, or making a spin wheel, or whatever.
Becky,
My ds7 does a very limited amount completely on his own. One of the first things he did by himself was copywork. I would watch over him while he worked on it until I could see he had a pretty good grasp on all his letters, punctuation, etc. Day by day, I just didn’t watch over him as much, and now I don’t supervise his copywork at all, until he’s finished and I check it. It’s like a gradual weaning of Mother’s presence, I suppose. If I see something in his writing that needs correction, I just point out the mistake and ask him to correct it.
He also does math fairly independently now. He usually needs the most help from me when we begin a new concept, then he works on it by himself as he gains more confidence. If he needs my helps now, he says, “Momma, I have a problem”, and I try to help him find the answer himself as much as I can.
He’s been doing all of his leisure reading on his own for several months now. I don’t always require a narration on that, however. The one book I do assign reading from is his Busy Times reader from Pathway. For that, I just have him read one chapter on his own and then narrate to me. He is able, though, to narrate an entire chapter; but if you’re just beginning, you might want to just assign one or two paragraphs and gradually work your way up to entire chapters.
Per your other question, we don’t vary our narration too much, honestly. That might not be such a good thing. Ds7 seems very comfortable re-telling in his own words. Every so often, I’ll catch him re-enacting something we’ve read during play time, but it’s usually my dd5 who acts out. I use a white board and write key words or people from our reading, then the children use those words as “hooks” on which to hang their narration.
Blessings,
Lindsey
Lindsey – Yes, ds does copywork on his own too, plus his phonics, which is a workbook (gasp!). We use RightStart math so that isn’t independent, but that’s ok for now because he likes the one on one with me. Do you assign leisure reading? This is something I may have to start doing…
Suzukimom – It sounds as though its something that happens gradually as their reading and narration skills improve, right? But if they can do most on their own by age 9, that’s pretty decent. Thanks!
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