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Narration/scheduling question
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I’m sure the answer to this is on here somewhere already, but I hate to take the time to comb through any more posts! Can someone help me with how you schedule narrations? I know I won’t do them regulary if I don’t plan for it. How much time do you allow for narration? Both oral and written. I have 10, 15 and 17 yo. And do you do it as soon as they’re finished with the reading selection for the things they’re reading on their own? Also, how many narrations do you ask for in a day? I’m thinking maybe once a week per subject (history and science) and daily for their readers, maybe none for the family read aloud so they can just enjoy it… Any thoughts??
Thank you.
Julie
Well, my kids are younger than yours – 9, 6, 3, 9m, but this is how we do it.
I expect the 9 and 6 yo to be prepared to orally narrate EVERY lesson. We might not do every lesson, but we probably narrate 85-90% of the time in one way or another.
My 9yo is just beginning written narrations and I require one per week scheduled right after her literature book. She often dictates while I type, but we’re moving to following that with her copying the dictation. CM recommended that they be very proficient at oral narration before beginning written narration, which dd9 is. DS6 began by narrating Aesop’s Fables daily, but he’d heard his sister narrate for several years. He can easily narrate any book we read now, if taken in small enough chunks.
As to scheduling, I choose the custom study method and made a category “read (or read aloud) and narrate” for most resources. I also scheduled notebook entries (aka written narrations) to be used after a resource (book, artist being studied, etc.)
Not the only way, of course, just one idea.
Blessings,
Christie
Thanks so much! Anyone else…older kids not used to narrating? We’ve tried a bit but they don’t like it so far…I did get some good ideas to help with this from some earlier posts…so I’m up for the challenge now I hope!! I know I’ll need to ease into it a bit and start with oral. The organizer tip will be handy… So if you read for say half an hour – how long would you allow for an oral narration? And would you tend to wait to do a written narration until you’ve completed a book/topic/character?
Julie
Julie,
I just started this year with SCM for my ds10. Because we are new and he isn’t familiar with SCM ways, we do most of the subjects together 🙂 I think I’m learning more then him sometimes. We take turns reading and narrating that way he can get the hang of it 🙂 ie: I will read two paragraphs of Famous Men of the Middle Ages, and he narrates back, we do this for the whole lesson. Then next subject he will read, then he stops and says ok mom and I narrate back to him what he just read (and it isn’t as easy as it looks) I’ve made it game, but he also knows I expect him to pay attention. It is forming both of us to have the habit of narration. Also we keep a notebook so after he is done narrating he will write down what he just said to me, if he needs to correct anything we will do it when he is writing his narration. I’m not sure if that is the correct way but for me it is an assurance that it will stick better KWIM 🙂 I also require a narration after each chapter of his language reading, just so I know he is on track with things. Most of the time we read/narrate everything. I hope I helped just a little maybe 🙂
Narration is HARD WORK!
I would start by reading very small amounts, a few paragraphs at most, and asking for a narration which should take a few minutes tops. Then read a bit more, ask for a narration, etc., etc. Start slowly and let them taste success before moving on. You could use some other types of narration, too, but we use oral narration the majority of the time for expediency.
We narrate most everything except our family read aloud literature. Though they often narrate it by talking about it anyway.
As I mentioned earlier, we’re just beginning written narration, but I have dd write her weekly narration immediately after reading a chapter and it’s on that chapter. At the end of a book, we make a notebooking page that might be a picture, copywork, a narration or a combination of both. Last week dd made a movie advertisement poster when she finished reading Gentle Ben.
I’m no expert, but I’d recommend sticking to only oral narration until they are completely comfortable with it and then slowly introducing written narration by having them narrate one day’s reading immediately following the reading. Once proficient with that you could add more requirements from there, perhaps a summary narration at the end of a book.
I hope some of these ideas are helpful.
Blessings,
Christie
Yes. Thank you. I plan to do a notebook page weekly or so. So, maybe I could let it go at that for the “written” part for a while. That way they can choose how much or how little to include and how to structure it – it might not feel like narrating to the kids, but I guess it really is just a different form of narration. It will be a little something to reinforce the learning without being intimidating, I hope.
Julie
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