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TradCathMom
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| Posted: Feb 28 2005 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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How did you get started with narrations? I guess I'm not even sure *how* they work so to speak. I'd love to hear what you do. This concept is new to me but very intriging!
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JennGM
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I am really interested in this question...I know my first narrations are a long time away, but the whole idea is foreign and "scary" to me...perhaps it's the name of them, too? Anyway, I'm interested in the thread, thanks for asking, Julie!
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: March 01 2005 at 5:20pm | IP Logged
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Our kids have been narrating for a while, so they've got the hang of it and usually just sit down at the computer and type away (either writing highlights of a book that we've read or of a saints life, or writing summaries of the unit we've just finished). They are creative in their font and color choices, which adds a small element of "fun" to narration.
Narration is simply a re-telling in the child's own words of what has been read or studied. I think that the easiest way to ease children (and ourselves) into narration is to gently ask simple questions about what you've just read. You don't necessarily need to write down the answers, just listen. "What was your favorite part of that story?" "Why do you think ___ did that/reacted that way?" "How did the ending make you feel?" etc. You could ask for a description of his/her favorite illustration or ask if and why he/she liked/disliked the illustrations. You could ask how they'd rewrite an ending or have them tell a story in a similar style or theme. If you stop reading, ask them, "Where were we?" when you pick the book back up again. They could simply tell Daddy about what they read that day. When you're just beginning, the more "natural" you can make the activity, the easier it will be.
Earlier today a friend and I were discussing whether or not it was "cheating" to let a young child (struggling with narration or just starting out) use the pictures in the book to help "prompt" the narration. I think that this is fine and helpful for little ones. I'm not sure what others would say about this discouraging the habit of attention, but I feel that if the child is doing his best to listen, and the book is lofty in its phrasing or just plain long and a "stretch" for the child, it's okay to let them look at the pictures to narrate. It will help to make the experience a pleasant one and will encourage narration in the future. Reading small bits and then narrating them is another way of encouraging attention while at the same time easing slowly into narration.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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almamater
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Hi Julie!!
Sorry to jump in so late, but I just read this thread and, well, we just finished doing a narration. I agree with the techniques Janette described. It took a long time before we eased into written narrations from just oral conversations about a storyline.
My eldest is now nearing a eight and is a pretty good writer, though he tires easily. We are working our way through The First Christians as part of history study and narrating a chapter at a time. I read the chapter aloud and then he tells the story back to me in his own words. Sometimes he writes and illustrates and the rest of the time, he dictates to me and I type (he illustrates the print out). I still do a lot of prompting or even give him the book---especially in this book as the story gets a little complicated and the chapters a little lengthy (sometimes we do just a half a chapter).
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Meredith
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I'm a little late on this one too, but here's my .02, fwiw  . My oldest is 8 and I have not started her doing her own formal written narrations yet. She is a voracious reader and can tell back any story or chapter book usually without any trouble.
I really like this CM idea of having children get REALLY comfortable with oral narration before you add them writing their own. I have heard it can take a couple of years for them to make that transition into doing their own written narrations so to keep up with the oral as much as possible during the transition period. Pretty soon, they'll take off with their own writing, and with great programs like the Brave Writer and The Writer's Jungle this should aid them in their writing endeavors. (At least that's my wish)
Of course all the while you would be keyboarding the oral narrations you want them to have for their notebooks or however you keep them and ask them to illustrate, and then all the rest is just gravy and practice!
The best part about narration is that hopefully the material with which you want them to re-tell is from wonderful living literature that you all read together. Just read, read, read and the re-telling will emerge. They won't be able to help themselves but want to relive the stories by telling dad/mom/g-ma/g-pa, or whoever about this great book you've all read or they themselves have read. Remember too that acting out the stories is a form of narration as well as the pictures that accompany them. I believe that a picture truly is worth a thousand words, especially if you have a reluctant narrater. Good luck. Pick a favorite book and go for it  .
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Elizabeth
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Dear Jenn,
Your days of listening to narrations have already begun  . We teach children to narrate when we ask them to tell us about their experiences and then we hang onto their every word. In the very early days, it is the development of our habit of attention that is so important. We ask them a a question and we listen attentively, teaching both the telling and the listening. Then, narration comes naturally. You get all excited about a bug you saw in the backyard and you scoop your 2 yo up and go in to the computer to let him dictate an email to daddy about it. Daddy takes him to the movies and when they come home, you say, "Tell me all about it." And you mean ALL about it. A few months later, he tales you this crazy story about being a superhero and you write it all down and then read it back to him. Or, you let him tell it with the video camera running and then let him watch it. The idea is to get them to retell with as much detail as possible and then to record the re-tellings. It will become so natural that, eventually, they will want to write it all down all by themselves. At first, they'll do it in invented spelling and you will stretch once again as you learn reading skills you never anticipated needing: those of a mom decipherng your child's first attempts at writing  You'll still bear the burden and do most of the writing most of the time, but you will encourage these awkward attempts with your whole heart. Slowly, your writer will grow and you will find meaningful assignments for him "to tell on paper," eventually transitioning (bewteen ten and twelve or so) to him doing all (or most)of the writing. Keyboarding is a skill we teach early to give the child the tools to write when pencil and paper are stumbling blocks. I have found that fluent reading and fluent writing happen almost simultaneously in my house. So far, that's been the case for four children of differnt genders and widely different abilities, but I do know that there people who have not found that to be the case. I've wondered why that is and I do think that some of it is the fact that we have a very verbal household where both Mommy and Daddy are storytellers and write for a living. Mommy's writing shows up in print and Daddy's is "magically" transformed into a television show. Either way, writing is meaningful work around here and something they see modelled often.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Katie
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I really appreciate all the replies and wanted to add my own encouragement. Before I had really heard of CM I was attracted to a homeschooling version which it turns out is really CCM! I found my way to curricula with a CM "feel" such as FIAR, and often wrote down my oldest ds' stories and poems for a lapbook or simply "just because". When he started writing he would draw pictures and write these great descriptions with no vowels and no spaces at all, but boy, were they adorable and really creative! I felt that I should separate short handwriting practice from his "creative writing".
Fast forward to our arrival in Tbilisi. Ds starts First Grade at the international school here. Small classes, great international community. I'm excited for him! After a couple months of being forced to "journal" each morning, and use his vocabulary words in sentences, the creative juices simply dried up. As a 6/7 yo boy, perfect handwriting was still somewhat of a chore, so he started using the simplest sentences possible. Example: Vocab word is "cat" - he writes "I have a cat".
Since bringing him back home, I have been encouraging his narrations, as well as those of his younger sister, and already I have seen a vast improvement. Unencumbered by the need to labor over the writing itself, he has opened up again. In addition, at his request we started cursive handwriting, and so even the handwriting practice is something enjoyable and not dreaded.
This has been an eye-opener for me, and, I hope, some encouragement to others.
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Marybeth
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Is there a special notebook or binder that you keep your children's narrations? Do you have them illustrate after you yourself have written it down for them? Just curious. I have been looking at the MODG K syllabus and this seems to be what is recommended for the Bible study.
Thanks! God bless.
Marybeth
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cvbmom
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I am interested in this topic as well. My 6 year old daughter doesn't want to narrate anything formally. She can re-tell a scene from any Rose Years or Little House book she's reading when she's excited about it, but balks when I ask her to do it for me to write or type. Either she refuses and throws a fit or says she wants to write it herself. When she writes it herself, though, the narration is not as accurate or detailed as when she does it orally. I think she's too young to write narrations anyway. She's an eager early reader who always has a book in her hands and it's usually somehow related to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Suggestions?
Thanks!
Christine
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cathhomeschool
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My boys used to have binders that held all of their narrations along with illustrations (coloring pages -- like the Windeatt coloring books, sticker pages, drawings, etc). Now our narrations are divided. We have historical narrations in our Book of Centuries along with illustrations, photos of historical field trips and crafts made, timelines, etc. We have unit study narrations grouped together in a Language Arts type binder (along with all the othe pieces of the unit study). We have nature narrations either in the unit study binder (if the narration was part of a unit) or in a nature notebook.
I find that organizing our studies is very difficult. So much of what we do overlaps and doesn't fit neatly into "science" or "literature." The great thing about it all is that we always use page protectors and three ring binders, so we can move and change our organization method as wanted.
The kids almost always illustrate their narrations. Sometimes this just means that they add a fancy border to the page or stickers. Sometimes they have separate illustrations done with "Paint" on the computer or with watercolor, pastels, or colored pencils. Sometimes the "illustrations" are photographs of what we did. One idea that I really want to incorporate more into our narrations is scrapbooking. Elizabeth has shared some neat examples of her children's narrations that have a very "scrapbooky" feel -- patterened paper as the background with the child's narration, illustrations and clip art or stickers all cut out and arranged on the page. (You can see these at her website. Click on "Living Books (NACHE 2004)" in the lefthand column.)
cvbmom wrote:
| My 6 year old daughter doesn't want to narrate anything formally. |
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Maybe you can just start scribbling down some of her ipromptu narrations without drawing it to her attention? And perhaps if you let her write her own narrations for a while, the novelty will wear off and she'll ask you to type for her. My boys love to narrate on their own, even though it takes them forever to type it all out. Yes, their narrations are sometimes not as thorough as if I'd typed them (because they tire more quickly or get distracted), but I think that there is a lot of merit to be found in letting them type or write on their own if that's what they want to do. It's ok that the narrations don't contain as much detail. You know that your daughter remembers the detail because of her impromptu narrations. If we are using narration as a tool to gauge our children's retention level, then her oral narrations suffice. If we want to use narration as a documented trail of what we've covered over the course of a year, then her sketchy written narrations should suffice too. Look at it this way: At least she's excited about reading and narrating. Let her go with it in the manner that she enjoys, and over time her narrations will improve in accuracy and detail level, and maybe she'll allow you to type for her every now and then. On occasion, my boys do!  (Just my 2 cents!)
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cvbmom
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Janette,
Thanks for the reply. I think I need to relax a little bit and not worry so much if I'm doing thing "right." I know she remembers things well and is comprehending what she's reading (there are many out of the blue comments on how what we are doing relates to what Laura Ingalls did or attempts to re-create prairie life, for example). I guess I just want "proof" to hold onto. I doubt or second guess myself a lot as I'm trying to figure out how homeschooling works best for our family (there are SO MANY good ideas out there that picking one is tough). She is my oldest and I am a newbie at this. I need to "unschool myself" on this one  and as I said, relax.
I've thought of tape recording her narrations as well and typing them later. Maybe my writing is too slow to keep up with her narrating. When she was narrating without much complaint, I kept having to say..."wait a minute, slow down" or trying to edit then and there saying... "did you mean to say...?" I'll get the hang of this. I'm learning too, right?
I also want to agree with you in the binders catagory. It's the only way I've been able to keep order in all the papers that float around. I find that page protectors are a must around here with many little hands looking at the binders for fun. It's great to see the kids remember what they were thinking when they did a particular page. It's also nice to be able to review things, not just hold these treasures to myself in a box or file somewhere. We have a nature one, a poems one, and a random artwork one so far. I'm sure eventually there will be history, science, etc. as we progress with our learning.
Christine
Wife to dh 8yrs
Mom to dd 6, ds 4 1/2, dd 2, dd 1
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cathhomeschool
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Christine,
I'm glad I could help! I can sympathize with your doubts. I still find myself second guessing methods and tweaking things as the years pass. I find that how we "homeschool best" changes as our family changes -- babies become toddlers and then little boys and someday teenagers (!), and our implementation of CM must change too. The tape recorder idea is great! And yes, we're all still learning -- that's what makes this board such a great resource!
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Willa
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Elizabeth wrote:
Dear Jenn,
So far, that's been the case for four children of differnt genders and widely different abilities, but I do know that there people who have not found that to be the case. I've wondered why that is and I do think that some of it is the fact that we have a very verbal household where both Mommy and Daddy are storytellers and write for a living. |
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As Elizabeth knows, our household is one where narration has not come easily. I think her descriptions of "pre-narration" in her post are of key importance. Having experienced deep "narration-reluctance" in my older kids, I'm now working on narration with my two preschoolers, no, not in a schooly artificial way, but in everyday life..... Aidan, where did we go today? Oh, and then what did we do? Oh, Paddy, I SEE there are three stars on this page, what else can we see? OK, that SOUNDS artificial but it's really just a matter of extending normal conversations, letting the kids "have their say" about things they are excited about and also developing a "habit of attention" and interest on MY part as the mom.
I realized that I'm not naturally a verbal person (except when I write ) so I am trying to train myself to make a narration-friendly environment in our household.
I think the benefits are many and go far beyond school success -- it's important in every area of life to be able to communicate, retell accurately, recount a good story in one's own words -- look around at every aspect of life and you will see those skills going on.
For my older reluctant narrators I don't think it's too late but I'm going back a few steps to work on that "pre-narrating".... drawing out their conversations about their sports games and other interests.
In our household, I write in my spare time and DH is a computer game programmer whose "creations" become visible on a screen in published form, so we have an adult role modelling situation somewhat similar to the Fosses'; as a result my older children usually start writing prolifically when they get to a certain age, but we seem to miss that intermediate stage of verbal expression, ages 8 to 12 when narrating is mostly verbal, which is the area I'm trying to target since I do think it's very important in many areas of life.
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Willa
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ALmom
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Willa,
Thanks for your post. Perhaps that's the clue to our difficulties with narration. I just have not been good at drawing out conversations. This has never been my area and to this day I am very awkward in conversations. I much prefer to write. My husband is the opposite so perhaps he can help by eliciting some sort of "narration" so to speak at the supper table from all of us.
Janet
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cvbmom
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I think I've over-drawn conversations at our house. My 6 year old can spot one of my "school" questions a mile away. I think I just haven't done it in a natural, conversational way. Rather, I have an answer I'm looking for and ask questions until I get to that answer or I tell the answer I'm looking for if it's not given right away. Too preachy or teachy I guess. I need to make it more natural and be satisfied with her answers.
Christine
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Leonie
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Someone asked where we keep our narrations....
If they are history or science related, they go in the relevant section of our notebook/porfolio - for memory sake and for the state requirements!
Other narrations go in our fabric covered, hardbound journals - handwritten or hand drawn or tyoed and cut and glued in.
We also keep our general copywork in there, too.
Leonie in Sydney
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TracyQ
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Sometimes when something we do for school fits into more than one *notebook* (because we keep binders for each subject), I'll copy it, and put a copy of it in every place where it does fit.
Just something we do to combat that problem.
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Getting Started
