I’ve been very much enjoying reading these really helpful articles – thank you so much.
So…my daughter is 6 so doesn’t yet read her literature independently. I’ve been getting her to narrate our assigned Family literature books Should i just switch to reading these without requiring a narration? (Obviously, she doesn’t narrate books we read for fun outside of school, such as bed-time reads, Sunday afternoon reads, etc).
I was wondering about this also. I have been using our read alouds for lit., history, and science to teach dd6 to narrate. So that’s 2 narrations a day. Should I drop one?
It is up to you how many and which books you want to require a narration on. A couple of principles to keep in mind that might help with the decision are
Children in grades 1-3 in Charlotte’s schools listened to and narrated from no more than two school books per day usually, and those were separated in the schedule with other subjects in between that used a different part of the brain.
Narrating not only lets you evaluate comprehension, but it also helps cement the story in the child’s mind. So if the information and ideas in the book are ones that you really want your child to remember, a narration can help achieve that goal. If, on the other hand, it is a book that you simply want your child to enjoy and it doesn’t contain critical information, like a fiction classic, don’t worry so much about having her narrate it.
I second the idea of using Aesop’s Fables for narration practice with a 6yo – this has been wonderful practice for my dd6. We do this daily, and I may ask her to narrate one of our other ‘school’ readings (history, goegraphy, nature, or character)…what ever we happen to be doing that day. But usually in a very low key way. We do our literature read-alouds at bedtime and so I generally don’t ask her to narrate this, at least not in a formal “tell me what you remember” sort of way. It often comes out naturally though, and in her drawings, especially with stories she’s really enjoying.
Wow, I didn’t realise Charlotte advocated so few narrations at this age. Now I’m thinking maybe I have too many books scheduled! No wonder I feel busy! I’m going to go and re-evaluate! Thanks.
While I don’t have my children narrate from our literature selections, we do usually engage in some sort of discussion afterwards. “What do you think about ___________’s decision?” “Would you want to go down the drain to get something?” “How would it make you feel if ….” That sort of thing. Sometimes they begin a conversation about the story without any questioning from me. I don’t know if that is CM. It is just something we have always done. You can tell right away if your child was listening. Plus, it’s just another avenue to engage with your child and get to know one another better.
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