Tips for written and oral narrations??

[brennasmommy]

My 11dd struggles with narrations of any kind. She is in CTC and does so well with every part of it...except for narrations. After reading something, she has a hard time remembering what was read. She says she enjoys what she reads independently, and she seems to enjoy the stories when I read for storytime, but she struggles to recall the details when she's supposed to. This is our first year with HOD, so I know we have missed some of the steps for easing our way into narration, and she has always had problems focusing (although some of this has started getting better as she has gotten older.) Any tips on teaching her narration skills or helping her to remember details as she reads?

[lmercon]

Hi,
Narration is a very important skill, but does take time and practice to do it well. If you look in the appendix of your manual, there are tips for you as to how to carry out narrations, as well as a tip sheet for your dd to help her as she narrates. I would also suggest that you break down the reading selection into smaller chunks at first. Read just a paragraph or two, then have her narrate it. Increase the amount of reading as she improves. If she struggles to get started, you can ask a few leading questions to jump-start her. Just try to avoid questions that can be answered with a "yes" or "no" or can be answered with just a word or two.
hth,
Laura

[brennasmommy]

I guess I would have to say that focusing would probably be her main problem. We try to follow the tips in the back of the manual, but she doesn't remember the information in the book to follow the tips. Thank you for the suggestion of reading in smaller chunks...I had never thought of that! I would imagine smaller chunks would help! Any other tips on getting a child to focus on what's being read would be greatly appreciated. She gets so frustrated when she can't do her narration...

[Carrie]

Laura did a great job of helping you. Her advice is exactly the advice I would give (and CM too). I would definitely photocopy the Student's Oral Narration tips sheet from the Appendix of CTC for her to have beside her when she reads. I would also break the readings down into shorter segments, asking for a brief narration after several paragraphs working through the tips on the student sheet.

For her written narrations, I would definitely read the directions provided in the Written Narration box in the CTC guide each week. There are quite a few additional helps in that box that (if you're anything like most people) are easy to not read each week since the box appears the same. I would also photocopy the written narration skills list for your student to have by her as she edits her written narrations.

I'll paste below the guidance from the written narration box in CTC too and tell you that I asked my child the questions orally after the reading and made sure he knew the answers. If he didn't know them, we looked back in his reading to find the answers before he began writing his narration. Often, my son answered the questions in order in his narration, devoting a sentence to each question. This really helped him hit the key points of a good narration.

You will be writing a narration about Chapter VII: The Deluge, which is part of today’s history reading.

To prepare for writing your narration, think about the questions below. If you do not know the answers, find them on p. 30 or 31 of The Story of the Ancient World. Ask yourself, Who entered the ark? How was the door to the ark shut? From where did the floodwaters come? How long did the downpour last? What happened to the living creatures on earth? How high did the floodwaters rise? What did the waters carry along with them? How long did the ark float? Why did Noah send out a raven? What happened when Noah sent out the dove? Why was Noah filled with joy when he saw the olive twig? When did Noah come out of the ark?

After you have thought about the answers to the questions, turn to Unit 1 in your Student Notebook. In Box 4, write a 5-8 sentence narration that begins with, Noah entered the ark... When you have finished writing, read your sentences out loud to catch any mistakes.

Check for the following things: Did you include who the reading was mainly about? Did you include what important thing(s) happened? Did you include how it ended? If not, add those things. Use the Written Narration Skills in the Appendix for editing.

Blessings,
Carrie

[brennasmommy]

Thank you so much, Carrie. I will definitely give those things a try.