Narration (for older students)

I start requiring written narrations at about 11.  We start with once per week and move on up so that the student is either writing something or revising something every day.  We teach essay and research paper form later on and include those regularly too, along with written and oral narration.  How quickly a child is ready for more depends on the child, however.  Mine have moved at very different paces. 

Notebooking CAN be written narration.  Or it can be another type of assignment.  Depends on what you are asking for.  If you are asking for a written narration and give them fancy paper to write it on, then it’s narration.  If you tell them what to write, then it’s more of a separate writing assignment.  There’s not much harm in writing for practice, but only you can decide if it is getting your children closer to their goals.  Do they enjoy it?  Do they try to put their thoughts down?  Do they have trouble with writing itself, or spelling and grammar, that is getting in the way?  (If so, it seems to me to be more fruitful to work on those things first through copywork and dictation.)  Our usual “first steps” to written narration do begin at about nine or ten, but I don’t expect a written paragraph then.  In my experience that’s a pipe dream.  🙂  I will ask for ONE thing you learned today, or to write down the first sentence of a narration and then tell me the rest orally, or something simple like that which doesn’t expect them to be able to compose something in their heads, remember it, AND write it down in reasonable form before they forget it.  My kids haven’t been able to do this until about eleven or so.  Dictation is EXCELLENT preparation for this.  I am providing them with the “composing” and then expecting them to remember and then write down chunks of it.  This has been great practice, although not always well loved (my youngest is the only one who has ever ENJOYED dictation.)