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REALLY easy beginner narration passages?
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My 7 YO is apparently largely incapable of narrating even a super short (4 sentence) Aesop’s fable. As in, he can’t remember most of the fable accurately or sometimes at all when I finish reading it. I’m at at a loss for how to introduce him to narration if he can’t even handle the fables which are supposed to be the way to introduce it. He seems to have some memory issues in general, or else he’s just a really good faker (which is possible…he has some ODD tendencies and is quite good at pretending he’s stupid and clueless and it’s very difficult to figure out how much is genuine difficulty and how much is sheer uncooperative-ness).
Keep practicing and it should get better. Model what you are looking for, and stay positive. If you show irritation, and he knows that you really want to do this, then he could use it as a way to irritate you. Let him know over and over that you are on his team, rooting for him to succeed.
My dd9 only orally narrates well if she really likes the book.
Hang in there:)
Maybe try having him repeat a sentence at a time in his own words (or even word for word, just to see that he is hearing the sentence). For example if the sentence is “The fox put grapes on the table in hopes of tempting the bird out of the tree.” (I totally made that up by the way, so it isn’t from Aesop). Then have him tell you the sentence. If needed, have a printed/handwritten copy in front of you both and ask him to help you figure out what is going on. Who is the sentence about? The fox. What did the fox do? Put grapes on the table. Why? He wants to catch the bird and eat it. Do you think that will work? (Totally his own opinion here!) I would literally have a colored pencil for each question and have him circle or highlight the answer to each question. Who is it about? Circle fox in green. What did the fox do? Circle it in yellow. Why? Color it blue.
Is this narration the way we think of it and want it? No. BUT it may be a step he needs to help with his reading comprehension. Then you could progress to having a paper with the prompts: Who is it about? What did they do? Why? What do you think about that?
Do it with each of the 4 sentences to see what happens in the whole story.
Is he reading this to himself then narrating? Or are you reading aloud? Does he have the text in front of him for both options? I know some people process better by visually seeing it and others process when hearing it better. And some need both.
So I am different, my kids did not like Aesop fables. they had a hard time understanding the story because some of the words were “older” and personally even sometimes I was a bit lost, LOL. I set them aside and went with things that interested them.
I started with them simply telling me stories they made up, or I read a simple story like a Dick and Jane ot Winnie the Pooh story and then they retell a favorite part of it to me, I would ask them to tell me about their favorite part of a movie or ask them about a tv show (curious george has great adventures, LOL). It got them used to telling me in their own words what happened from books, tv, adventures at Sunday school… That moved easier into school narrations because the understood they were just telling me about what they heard just like they tell me about everything else. 🙂 Now they tell me everything, haha
My kids used the Pathway Readers, the Elson Readers, and Treadwell’s Reading-literature Readers from Yesterday’s Classics ( or free online).
The literature is high quality and made of shorter sentences in the early volumes, especially Pathway.
Forgive me if this has been covered, but are you reading aloud, or is he reading the sentence aloud, then narrating? I would suggest the latter. That way he’s getting 3 forms of input: kinesthetic- holding the book; visual- seeing the words; auditory.
Narrating is hard work. Being read aloud to and then narrating would be more difficult for a visual child. Save the read alouds for pure enjoyment for now, is my advice.
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