Narration Improvement

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  • September 10, 2008 at 3:26 am
    LindaOz
    Participant

    I was wondering if anyone has ideas of how to improve oral narrations in a 12yo. Dd12 writes well and produces good written narrations. But I feel that her oral narrations are somewhat ‘lazy’. I don’t feel that she puts much effort into a quality retelling, and I’d like to help her improve in this area.

    Any ideas??

    Thanks,

    Linda

    September 10, 2008 at 3:59 pm
    CindyS
    Participant

    Hi Linda,

    I thought of three things that might be going on. One is that she may not have made the connection between the value of oral narration and well-written reports, public speaking, retention, etc. It’s the ‘why is this stuff important?’ question. Another is that some children this age think narrating is baby-stuff and so they don’t think they should have to put much into it (it’s just Mom; it’s only valuable if it’s written). The third is that perhaps she is like me :). I can retell loads of stuff if I have had the opportunity to ‘unload’ on paper first and get my thoughts in order. It can be a handicap, but I need to digest things first and that takes lots of doodling and chicken-scratch-drives my family nuts. I don’t know the answer to it, it’s just a suggestion of what could cause a difficulty in narrating.

    Some suggestions would be to keep at it! Has your daughter been narrating all along? If not, she may just need time to come up to speed and that takes little bits. You may want to make sure that the little bits she is narrating are up to or a little above her abilities, and more times than not geared toward an interest of hers. That makes it something to strive for.

    Another idea could be to give her opportunities in public speaking. That would give her something to prepare for. As a side-note, we used a great little curriculum called “Speak Out!” a few years back for our older children and they loved it.

    One other thought would be to give her opportunities to direct younger children in their chores, cooking, etc. That would give her some practice in being precise.

    Blessings,

    Cindy

    September 10, 2008 at 4:14 pm
    skoolin5
    Member

    I would love to know who “Speak Out” is by? I wouldnt mind checking this out! Sorry to intrude, I just was reading and this sounds interesting. I am trying to get the Narration thing down.

    Thanks, Jodi

    September 10, 2008 at 7:27 pm
    CindyS
    Participant

    Hi Jodi,

    I have looked and looked for my copy but I’ve either packed it away (way away!) or loaned it out. I googled it but could only find a similarly titled book about speech/debate for middle schoolers. This is not the same book. I’ll let you know if it turns up in the next little bit, but it looks like it’s no longer published. However, I was not suggesting that this would be ‘the’ thing to use to improve narration. I was just thinking it could be an avenue to pursue as interests and abilities develop.

    Blessings,

    Cindy

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