Written Narration after reading independently

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  • March 27, 2012 at 3:57 pm
    fortyoaks
    Participant

    My 12yod read her assigned book independently. I have not read the book, so I asked her to write me a narration of the book she read. I guess I was a little too open-ended. She wrote 3 typewritten pages, basically outlining the main battles of the Civil War, interspersing a little of the characters & their stories here and there. She said that since we were learning history of the Civil War she thought I would want mostly facts of that type. Evidently I didn’t explain myself very well. This is the first time she’s done written narration, so I guess I can’t assume she knew what I was wanting her to do. My understanding of written narration is basically a written version of what she would say verbally while we are reading a book together. I don’t want to discourage her for further written narrations, because she spent a LOT of time on this, but how do I gently instruct her for future indepently read books?

    March 27, 2012 at 4:20 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    First, I would tell her that you are impressed and appreciate the fact that she wrote 3 pages of narration. (My kids that age are often hard-pressed to come up with 3 paragraphs!)

    Second, just patiently tell her that learning to narrate, especially in written form, is a work in progress for her. I would tell her something like, “Thank you for putting forth such effort and giving me relevant facts from the book. Now, let’s take this to the next level and refine your narration.” Then you might reiterate what narration is supposed to be. There’s a section on narration (from the Quick Links on the SCM home page) that says this: “In simple terms, narration is telling back in your own words what you just read or heard.” That’s what you could tell her you’re looking for.

    What I would do, so as not to discourage her after all of her hard work, is to tell her you want her to pick a chapter of the book she just finished and write a narration of maybe 3 paragraphs fitting the description of narration that I quoted above. Then, you can see what she does with that and maybe have her narrate shorter portions until you are satisfied that she knows what is expected of her.

    March 27, 2012 at 6:23 pm
    fortyoaks
    Participant

    Good advice Sue. Thank you so much!

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