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Question on oral narration
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I’m curious as to what oral narration looks like in your house at the early elementary level (grade 2/3)? Or what language arts looks like? We’re coming off a more Waldorf approach to education, which I know they have some similarities, but differences, too.
Right now we’re using Print to Cursive Proverbs, we read aloud (currently going through some Thornton Burgess books), my son reads aloud every day, but that’s it. We don’t really do dictation, narration etc… He has SPD with motor planning issues, joint hypermobility etc… so writing is not his strongest area. We’re trying cursive at our OT’s recommendation and he is liking it better, though of course, trying to learn a whole new way of writing has slowed us down some.
I have considered adding in grammar, something like English for the Thoughtful Child or Language Lessons for Today (from MFW). I’m having a hard time letting go of feeling like he should be doing more than he is for LA.
My daughter is 1st/2nd grade and before switching to CM, she was doing the Phonics Museum program. (Covers K & 1st), she really enjoyed it so we finished it however, when they introduced spelling tests, I skipped those for now. It’s amazing how much she is spelling correctly just from everyday reading and copywork.
With the phonics being completed, I’m getting ready to start her on the Print to Cursive Proverbs. The lessons seem short which is perfect. Until she finishes the whole book, she will continue copywork in print.
I think copywork is more about learning spelling, punctuation etc. than it is about handwriting practice. (Though, they get that too). I have her copy verses, the Character Quality of the week, quotes from what we are reading, etc. We are getting ready to start the Burgess Bird Book and thatresourcesite.com has copywork for chapters 1-15 (the rest should be done by Friday). So, she will have that as well.
From my understanding, it’s best to start formal L.A. Lessons when they are around 9/10 years old (4th grade).
As for narration, depending on the length, I may stop half way through or wait until the end. I just ask her what it was about. If she claims she does not know, or if she is way off base, I will start over (sometimes this magically jogs her memory. Lol). She usually colors while I read. And for now, no dictation.
And duo…Her narrations are not super detailed and sometimes I have to prompt her a bit but, she is only 7 so, I know it will improve with practice. I often know she is listening well when she has questions while I’m reading. Frustrating for me to stop howver, I would rather do that so she understands the rest as I go along. If we have discussion during and after the reading, then I skip narration.
By the way, I used to feel the same way. I worried that not starting her on a traditional L.A. Curriculum at this age would hinder her until, I got Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing. I’m not completely done reading through it yet but, it has definitely made me feel more confident in the CM methods. I highly recommend it.
Language Arts for my 2nd grade son this year includes:
Daily phonics work (I am currently using old fashioned workbook pages that he responds to well.)
Daily reading practice to me during school, then again in the evening. (building fluency)
Cursive most days
Listen to read alouds (history, science, literature, Bible). ( not all every day)
He narrates orally after one of the read alouds.
It looks pretty simple typed out. My daughter had a similar experience when she was a second grader, although she was an independent reader by this age. She did not work on phonics, but had some copywork in addition to cursive.
Grammar can wait until 4th or 5th grade. Personally, I like for my children to be reading and narrating well before adding grammar to their studies.
I was addressing one of your questions above but forgot to tell what oral narration looks like in my house. 🙂
I read a short chapter and may ask a question such as “what would you have done?”. Then I follow with, “your turn to tell this part of the story. What happened first? Then what? How did that change things?”. That’s how we started. I don’t need to give prompts often unless I want my son to dig a little deeper.
Usually I read to him his science while his sister reads her science independently. Then we meet back together to give “reports.”. They enjoy this time of sharing what they’ve learned and offers a different audience and purpose for narration.
Even if I don’t require an actual narration from a reading, we still discuss it. This is our natural way of relating to books.
My DS is 7 and in 2nd grade. For LA he does daily copywork, we do cursive about 3x/week together, and he does oral narration of our readings. He is an advanced reader so he has 2 daily independent readings (Bible and history/science) that he narrates afterward, and he narrates our together Bible, history and geography. I just say, “Tell us what we read about.” It’s also important before you start a new reading to make sure they remember where we left off with the last reading. It sort of “sets the stage” from what I remember Sonya saying. So before we start a reading, I will ask DS7 and DD5, “What did we read yesterday?” This helps them get in the right mindset for the new reading.
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