We include a sample rubrics for written narrations in Your Questions Answered: Narration and incremental writing rubrics in each Using Language Well Teacher’s guide. While these are for written narrations, you can use then to inspire you to create rubrics for oral narrations. We do not have rubrics for oral narration because Charlotte did not grade narrations.
It’s important to remember that each child is at his/her own unique level and you will need to adjust your grading for that purpose. Is he/she giving his best? Oral narrations (and later written narrations) are a skill that for many take time to develop. What one child takes away from a single reading of a passage will be very different from another child. If my child gives me a quality narration, that is their personal best, shows they understood and assimilated a reading, and has worked towards mastery of a grammatical point I made from a previous narration (perhaps he puts effort forth in not saying “…and then”) I would likely give an A if I needed to turn in grades.
I’d like to share some of Charlotte’s writings as you develop a way to grade for reporting purposes:
“Let the boy read and he knows, that is, if he must tell again what he has read.”
“This, of telling again, sounds very simple but it is really a magical creative process by means of which the narrator sees what he has conceived, so definite and so impressive is the act of narrating that which has been read only once. (Vol. 6, p 261)
“Perhaps the chief function of a teacher is to distinguish information from knowledge in the acquisitions of his pupils. Because knowledge is power, the child who has got knowledge will certainly show power in dealing with it. He will recast, condense, illustrate, or narrate with vividness and with freedom in the arrangement of his words. The child who has got only information will write and speak in the stereotyped phrases of his text-book, or will mangle in his notes the words of his teacher.” (Vol. 3, p. 225)
“They throw individuality into this telling back so that no two tell quite the same tale.” (Vol. 6, p. 292)
“Indeed, it is most interesting to hear children of seven or eight go through a long story without missing a detail, putting every event in its right order. These narrations are never a slavish reproduction of the original. A child’s individuality plays about what he enjoys, and the story comes from his lips, not precisely as the author tells it, but with a certain spirit and coloring which express the narrator. By the way, it is very important that children should be allowed to narrate in their own way, and should not be pulled up or helped with words and expressions from the text.” (Vol. 1, p. 289)
“The first efforts may be stumbling but presently the children get into their ‘stride’ and ‘tell’ a passage at length with surprising fluency” (Vol. 6, p. 172)
“It rarely happens that all the children in a class are not able to answer all the questions set in such subjects as history, literature, citizenship, geography, science. But here differences manifest themselves; some children do better in history, some in science, some in arithmetic, others in literature; some, again, write copious answers and a few write sparsely; but practically all know the answers to the set questions.” (Vol. 6, p. 241)
We (SCM) have an article about raising the bar of narration. If you haven’t read it yet, it can help you continually adjust what you require from your children concerning narration.
I hope the above quotes help you as you determine how you will determine grades that are required to turn in.
