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Narration Confusion – help!
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My dd, 9, and I have been going around and around on this issue for awhile now. Narration is not her strong point. At the end of last year, I started allowing her to read along with me when I read her narrations out loud to her. That helped – she is very visual. This year she asked me if she could just read it to herself and narrate after that. I was curious to see what would happen so we did narration that way yesterday and today and I was amazed at the amount of information she could narrate back to me compared to me reading aloud to her. She said my voice was sort of a distraction to her.
So, my question is, would it be “cheating” to always allow her to read the material to herself instead of having to listen to me read it to her. Isn’t part of narration learning to LISTEN to something with your full attention?
i think it comes down to learning style…she is apparently a strong visual learning, not auditory 🙂 Since we homeschool, we have the luxury of teaching to our kids learning style, so I say run with it. If reading it herself helps her retain more information, then I would stick with that.
I do think, though–what if she goes to college and has to get info from a lecture? Just a thought. Use her strength when you can . . . but where would we all be if we refused to ever work on our weaknesses? Perhaps it’s worth setting aside a little time each week to work on this skill. Perhaps you can teach her some coping ideas to help with listening. It’ll be tough to go through life never being given something you need to know orally!
Thank you for both of those responses…..hmmm, a lot to think about.
Is there a point where your kids do all/most of their narrations from the child reading to themselves?
How can I strengthen her auditory skills? Maybe I could do some narrations from her own readings and some from my out loud reading.
Writing down the key ideas before I read the passage (as suggested in one of Sonya’s latest blogs) does help quite a bit.
Thoughts anyone?
the college lecture example had me thinking….about the only way i personally retain any info from audio presentation is if I am taking notes…and in a college lecture, I WOULD be taking notes. Would it be terribly “non-CMish” if your daughter took notes while you were reading to her, and then she did a narration?
Scoathy,
It is interesting that you mention that because just today, I had my dd listen to Famous Fifty stories on Books Should Be Free and then she WATCHED me write out her narration (another suggestion from Sonya’s blog post) and then she wrote out the last part of it. It was the best narration, I think, that she has ever done!
And I sort of forgot that when you are listening to a lecture in college, yes, you take note as the professor is speaking so I am not so worried about how she will do if she goes to college as I was before. Thanks so much for reminding me of this!
I think that taking notes while I am reading to her would be a great idea to use in some capacity….very helpful -thanks again.
Blessings
Alicia
Another option would be to have your daughter draw pictures while she listens. This really helped my daughter when she was learning to narrate. Also, simply having something to do quietly while listening can help. I personally have a hard time just sitting and listening. I can’t even just sit and watch television or a movie, because I lose focus. I always have something I’m doing. Crochet, crosstitch, ironing, or folding laundry are my usual activities.
For my DD8, she likes to draw or colour while listening. Perler beads, knitting looms, and crochet have also been successful. Her first choice would be bouncing on the mini-trampoline, but the noise drives me crazy and I can’t read, so I’ve vetoed that activity. Anything that keeps hands busy, but doesn’t cause a distraction from the reading would be fine.
For a 9 year old, she should be transferring to doing some, if not most of the reading independently and silently, but listening comprehension is important as well, so I would keep at least a couple of readings as read alouds, to practice that skill as well.
Joanne
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