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narration challenges beginning with my girls ages
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I have begun using narration with my 5 girls. We are new to it, so I have only been asking one written a week from the three oldest. While I believe in its benefits, it has been challenging to consistently practice with listening regularly and requiring it from all 5 girls. Also, when writing out their narrations, they are looking at the book in front of them and quite often just writing down facts from it, adding little of their own thoughts. I don’t want to discourage them and make this seem hard, but should I make them put away the book before they start writing? This is most often happening with science, so there is a lot of facts to remember. Any thoughts on this?
Thank you
I’m currently reading The Art of Narration by Karen Glass. It’s really helpful and affirming so far. Sticking to oral narrations in the beginning may be advised. Written will come once the oral narration is established. They will likely look much less like lists of facts as the girls’ comfort level grows. The book I’m reading has many examples of written narrations from actual kids of various ages so you may find that useful.
I agree with going back to oral narrations since narration is new to your students.
Also some books are just more challenging to narrate. My children do not narrate every reading every day. Some days it is history, some days science, and they don’t all do the same book, they take turns, so that narration does not drag on. My older two do not do written narration of every subject either. Higher level science I prefer oral narration which happens naturally as they tell me about what they are learning, usually because they are fascinated and just want to tell me, sometimes because they are confused and need help understanding something new.
Narration takes time. When my oldest moved into written narration she would try to write the words verbatim, almost like dictation, I had to remind her often that narration is retelling in her own words, as if she was telling her grandma the highlights of the story, that helped her understand that I was not looking for all the facts, but her thoughts too.
SCM has a great blog series on Narration as well as a book that is a big help!
Narration Q&A blog series is also really helpful
As others have stated, because they are new to narration, only do oral narrations for now. After they are very comfortable with giving oral narrations, then you may introduce one written narration each week to those who are at least 4th grade. I highly recommend you read the Narration Q & A blog series linked in sarah2106’s comment.
As for them wanting to look in the book, that is not allowed. There are a few things you can do to help them with this. First, insist on them giving their full attention to the reading and make sure the reading is short enough that they can give their full attention to it. You may need to start with very short passages, maybe a few paragraphs or a page, then ask for a narration. However long you decide to make the reading, set them up for success by making it a length you know they should be able to listen to. As they become better at narrating, gradually lengthen the amount of the reading to stretch and challenge them.
Second, before reading that day’s reading ask for or give a brief summary of what happened in the last reading from that book. This pre-reading review reminds them of what has happened and gets them ready to listen to the next part.
Third, make a list of key people, places, words, and dates that are in the reading. Show this list to your children before the reading and allow them to use the list when giving their narrations, both oral and written. This list gives them things to listen for during the reading and prevents the need to look in the book “because I don’t know that guy’s name.” The samples for our Narration Notecards will give some examples of key words lists and give you ideas for different types and levels of narrations.
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