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3ringcircus
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| Posted: Nov 08 2012 at 10:50pm | IP Logged
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Please forgive if this has recently been posted. I'm not even sure what to search for!
1. Where can I find a brief but thorough description of how to work a child through a CM-style narration? I need nuts and bolts, but don't want the flowery language about how wonderful the CM process/philosophy is for children. I've read enough to want to incorporate this one aspect for now, and it's what I want to focus on.
2. What books have you started with for a little boy? I have tried Thornton Burgess & Grimm's Fairy Tales. I'm right now trying super-short Aesop's Fables. G is a pretty bright kid, and interested, too. But, he is extremely distractible, and I can see things going way over his head at times, and him getting lost and not able to pick it back up. He doesn't seem to miss pictures, but IDK if he's still 6mo or so away from being able to handle the more formal vocabulary of "literature". I do want to expand him, though, so I want the right book(s) to start with. He's almost 7. Is it possible that we might do better w/ a long but simple chapter book? What might that book be? All these books w/ side-note descriptive sentences that interrupt the flow of action in the paragraphs are catching him up.
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Christine
Mom to my circus of boys: G-1/06, D-1/04, S-4/10
Started HS in Fall'12
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Claire F
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| Posted: Nov 08 2012 at 11:24pm | IP Logged
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I can share with you what we usually do (although I don't claim to be anything of an expert on the topic).
Aesop's Fables were great for us last year in learning to narrate (my oldest was 1st grade last year). I think that is where my son really started to "get" it. The nice, short stories were easy to remember and tell back.
So, what we did with a fable, for example, was to read it aloud. Then I'd simply ask him, "Ok, can you tell me that story in your own words?" Or, "Can you tell me what happened in that story?" I might add detail for him, like, "Remember, the story was about the bird and the wolf," so he'd recall the characters and not get stuck on trying to remember who was who. Then he'd tell it back to me as best he could. That's basically it.
If he's having trouble with narrations, just chose very short selections. Like I said, fables were great for my son last year. But if you're reading something longer, try just a paragraph or two. Pause and ask, "Can you tell me what's happening here?" I would sometimes do that twice in a chapter, rather than stopping every other paragraph for several pages - just to get him used to it and give him some practice.
For what it's worth, (and I know so many people love Thornton Burgess), but my son hasn't really taken to Burgess and I found it was not an easy book for him to narrate from at all (we were reading the Animal Book for Children). Like I said, Aesop was great for beginning narrations for him.
I hope that helps a little, at least. 
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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Mimip
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| Posted: Nov 09 2012 at 7:19am | IP Logged
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We just started narrating with our almost 7 year old and it was very slow at the beginning. The two books we are currently narrating from are an Aesop's Fable book we have and the Children's book of Home and Family by William Bennett. I've learned from my girls that I have to start with a sentence at a time, literally. We started with Robert Louis Stevenson poems, Rain and such and went line by line. I know it sounds basic but this way I did not get frustrated. Then we moved to a short 3 sentence paragraph. We were at paragraphs for about 3-4 weeks and now he can narrate longer passages, maybe long paragraphs or 2 paragraphs.
Honestly I would rather read small things and have him narrate successfully than longer passages that are too hard for him to narrate the details and starts making things up. (BTW, this is what happened with my oldest daughter when I started with longer passages, I knew then we had to go back to shorter passages and spend some more time there.)
We've also had great success with narrating tall tales and bible stories. I use the yellow Fr. Lavosik picture bible and they usually can narrate those pretty easily at the beginning. Also short saint stories are great, if they are exciting. My kids love the interesting ones about burning at the stake and such 
When my second was starting narration we were just starting our tall tale study and she was able to narrate those if we went slowly paragraph by paragraph.
Good luck and I hope you find a great solution for your family.
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In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Couple of read-aloud/narrative questions
