narration question

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  • April 17, 2009 at 3:33 am
    razorbackmama
    Member

    In all my reading on narration (which granted, hasn’t been a TON, but I have read up on it), I haven’t seen this addressed, so I’m hoping someone can help me!

    Reading comprehension can be an issue for one of my dc in particular. That’s all fine and good, but whenever he’s telling me about something, rather than say things like, “I don’t know,” he pretty much makes up this whole new story, based on what he THOUGHT he read (but didn’t actually read). If I simply have him narrate to me the things he read, how can I know if he actually understood what he’s readng, unless I have actually read the book myself?

    He has a smidge of some sort of processing issue, I think – he even has trouble comprehending some movies and even what goes on in real life at times. So it’s not specifically a reading issue.

    Should I stick with a reading curriculum for him, one that has questions/answers, so that I can make sure he’s actually reading the material correctly? Or is there a way to overcome this with narration?

    He is 12. I know it’s not embellishment – he just can’t follow the plot. Like I said, he struggles with following the plot of his own life or conversations around him from time to time. (And to watch a movie with him is torture LOLOLOL!!!!!)

    I don’t ask him to narrate the books he reads on his own apart from “so what is your book about?” Of course he rarely reads on his own, so….

    We used to use a reading curriculum, but I wanted to just start using living books with narration instead. But this has totally been the sticking point – I can’t figure out how to do it! I have 5 school-aged children, and they are at all different levels in their reading ability, so time is most definitley a factor as well. Help!

    April 17, 2009 at 3:43 am
    Shanna
    Participant

    My first thought is whether his books may be too advanced for him. Not from the reading prospective but from the comprehension side.

    The other thing that comes to mind is having him narrate smaller sections and then gradually increase the amount of reading as he gets better at oral narration. I would start with a paragraph and see how he does. If he doesn’t handle that well then I would back down to sentence narration and then just build up from there or whatever level he does well with.

    HTH

    April 17, 2009 at 4:41 am
    razorbackmama
    Member

    How can I tell if what he’s saying is accurate or not? Or do I just need to go ahead and read his books in order to know?

    April 17, 2009 at 11:14 am
    Rachel White
    Participant

    HI,

    If you start reading the books aloud to him, you won’t need to read anything separately. If he’s narrating from his school nooks, you will need to read it prior to.

    Have you considered having him read aloud to himself to increase his sensory input?

    It’s a very good idea to have him read (and you if you read aloud)only a

    paragraph at a time.

    My dd has major sensory dysfunction and slowly over two years her comprehension has improved so much, so it can be done. I have her read aloud in front of me (or around me)and then she narrates what she just real aloud to me. I think that has made a big difference because I can immediately stop her if she reads a word wrong, and/or reads too monotone and/or doesn’t use the commas, periods and such correctly; all these things can inhibit comprehension. Just go in small bits.

    Rachel

    April 17, 2009 at 1:28 pm
    razorbackmama
    Member

    I read aloud to him quite a bit (history and such), but yes, I’ll try shorter snippets. I have to admit, I’m confused as to how reading aloud to him would help for his reading though. I’ll have to see how having him read aloud will work. With 4 other kids doing school, it would be pretty noisy LOL.

    April 17, 2009 at 6:39 pm
    baileymom
    Member

    Hi “razorbackmama”…just wondering if you’re another fellow NEArkansan?

    I’m fairly new to the CM method, so I don’t have a lot of narration advice. But I do have a 9 yr DD who has trouble “following” stories, movies, conversation sometimes. Looking back, I think she gets it from me. (I was always the true blonde, really). But I have noticed it gets less and less as she gets older. I do read aloud to them, and they also read aloud to me every day. Like Rachel said, I will have to correct words with her (even simpler ones), and remind her to use the punctuation as she reads aloud. Even so, sometimes she still cannot narrate what she herself just read. The biggest help, I think, is to use small chunks at a time, and build up. ***Also make sure he isn’t reading books waaay above his level. My younger DD cannot read the same things my older DD could at that age. They’re each different. I’ve had to learn not too worry about it.

    You mentioned you have 5 kids…so, I don’t think reading all his books before he does is really an option. There is no way I could do that with my readers. I have 6 DC.

    Hope you find something that works for your family 🙂

    Kathi

    April 17, 2009 at 7:14 pm
    razorbackmama
    Member

    Hi Kathi, I’m from AR but don’t live there anymore. It’s “home” though!

    I actually have 6 kids, but the youngest is a very busy toddler LOL.

    I’m thinking at this point I may have to do narration and something else until narration gets better. We are using WWE, and that will help a lot with the narration. But in the meantime…. 😛 I also have to be careful to not frustrate him, which I think having him narrate a whole bunch will. But he may need to get over that LOL.

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