Read Aloud books for Module 1 question

I also have the books for my 1st grader. We also just read one book at a time and do only one chapter per day. We do our read alouds before nap (I read picture books at this time since I have a 4 yr old and 2 yr old) then at bedtime we read our chapter book.

I thought read alouds were just for fun and not for asking narration back?

Tara

Some moms require a narration for every book they read; others pick and choose. (Personally, I don’t require a narration for our family read-alouds.) It’s your choice, dear.

Hi Cindie,  a lot of the literature that we read sort of turns into a natural narration through discussion etc.  My kids will talk about the story in general and that will give me a good idea of what they are absorbing.  I don’t want to be to strict when it comes to the Literature portion of school.  I really want them to enjoy the story for what it is and if there is discussion about the book I count that as “informal narration” .  When I do get them to narrate back something that has just been read, I have basically been telling them to tell me the story that was just read in their own words.  Then I help fill in any blanks by asking more direct questions concerning certain points that may have been missed during the retelling.  I think that we will be doing it that way until we are a little more used to the CM method in general and I feel confident they know what is expected from them for narration.  Then we will start branching out into more creative forms of narrating, drawing etc.  hope that helps!    -Miranda

I am having my son narrate each chapter that he reads.  We’re doing it a variety of ways–oral, writing, drawing a picture, and last week I had him “interview” a character.  He really enjoyed the interview one.  Part of the reason I’m having him do it is because he has been trying out lying to us (guess which habit we’re working on?), and I want to know that he’s been doing his reading when he takes it to his room.

Both kids are narrating history–they fight over details, which is good in a way.  What one doesn’t pick up on the other does.  I love getting their view of what we’ve just read too.

Olivia

Cindie, at your dd age, I would certainly just go with her energy:) If she is ready to talk about what you just read, let her go for it. If she wants to or could be encouraged to draw a picture or build with clay or something like that, have her go for it. You really want to light a fire for learning but be careful not to drop too big a log on the spark or you will put it out;) Have fun with the readings and when she is interested or excited about a certain book, take it a step further and talk it out into a narration. Read Sonya’s list of narration ideas and you will see the diversity there. I wouldn’t require narration from every subject every day, its just too much. But once a day, for differing subjects, sure, just make it enjoyable and watch for the spark of interest to see where it can take you. My dd loved Charlottes web, and we wound up looking at all sorts of things when reading that book, plus she drew spiders webs and horse pictures, and told her sister all about the story- all of which to me are forms of narration, it means she ‘owns’ what she has heard because she can show it back in some way.

Enjoy above all, the learning process:)
Heidi