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using narration to study – for ME
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Has anyone here used narration to help them retain information? I will be taking a college level class at my church, and thought it might be a good idea to narrate to myself what I’m reading, as I study during the week. I’ve never taken any college classes, and this is a class that I’m doing over the course of the summer….so it we’ll be going over the material faster than a “normal” class. I figured if CM’s priciples are correct, then I could certainly benefit from using them as well! I was hoping some of you might have some experience with this, or could point me in the right direction, to use CM’s principles as an adult.
Thanks!
YES! I have done this (without even knowing it was a CM approach…:) ), and it is a huge help. Have you read The Well-Educated Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer? It is an absolutely fantastic book on classical reading/self-education for adults, and she goes into great detail on retention techniques that include processes extremely similar to what CM would call “narration.” She talks about margin notes; notebook-keeping; different types of “narration” as you read (can’t remember her term), and outlines, all in the context of the Great Books.
Best of luck!
ETA: In referring to Ms. Bauer’s book, I was thinking only of written narration ideas; I think it would be very helpful from that perspective. Not sure about other types of narration for adults, although it is an intriguing idea. I have however found notebook-keeping and written narration/summarization a great way to process and retain what I am reading.
I do this when I’m reading a great book already, just on my own. Whenever you read something fascinating, chances are you’ve already been telling your dh or friends or parents or whoever all about what you’ve read. That’s narrating. 😉
If you have no one to narrate to, write it down. I have found that to be just as helpful in my high school and college classes. Writing it down helps it stick. HTH!
Thanks for your responses! I was figuring I would simply (verbally or in my head), narrate it back to myself. I’m so auditory, that if I actually spoke it outloud, I think it would help me a great deal! I’ll look Bauer’s book too!
Charlotte encouraged all ages (6 and up) to use narration as a tool for educating oneself.
“Now this art of telling back is Education and is very enriching. We all practise it, we go over in our minds the points of a conversation, a lecture, a sermon, an article, and we are so made that only those ideas and arguments which we go over are we able to retain. Desultory reading or hearing is entertaining and refreshing, but is only educative here and there as our attention is strongly arrested. Further, we not only retain but realise, understand, what we thus go over. Each incident stands out, every phrase acquires new force, each link in the argument is riveted, in fact we have performed THE ACT OF KNOWING, and that which we have read, or heard, becomes a part of ourselves, it is assimilated after the due rejection of waste matter” (Vol. 6, p. 292).
I find it fascinating, too, how Charlotte set up the college classes in her training school. The lectures would end ten minutes before class was over and everyone used that time to do a written narration of what they had heard. There was no note-taking during the lecture. Anybody want to give that method a try?
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