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Me again with another written narration question!

We are finally in the swing of doing these well...err...to my satisfaction that she is doing her best...

My question is this. When the child hands in her written narration (we are in Preparing), am I supposed to "edit" it or go over things with her like missing or misused punctuation? I am specifically thinking of commas and quotation marks. Am I supposed to correct spellings?

My first inclination is not to edit the work. To me, the "educational point" of the written narration is not grammar or spelling, so I don't want her focusing on these so much when she is writing her narration that she is hindered from making the best narration possible. From my teaching days, I remember that when kids get focused on spelling things just right, they choose to use easier words instead of good "meaty" words that would make better writing. When they are overly concerned about whether or not they can use commas or quotation marks correctly, they go out of their way to avoid dialogue, etc.

But, maybe I am supposed to edit it??

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

I too am uncertain about this sort of thing. I have a friend who suggested pointing out one item that you find your child struggling with and work on that. For example, if you find that spelling is an issue use that as your one item for a few days. Start with a praise. "I think your handwriting is very nice." or "You seem to really understand the material, you must have been listening." Then point out your one item. "I see you seem to be having trouble spelling words with 'ould' like should and could." Finally, praise again. And then work on only that item until you see some improvement. My friend calls it a praise sandwich so that you start and end on a good note. She has 4 kids who have graduated and gone on to college with great success. (They did not use HOD since it was not around at the time.)
I hope that Carrie or Julie can help clear this up for us.

Ggggg

When I was teaching writing, we called that (pointing out one thing to correct) a "teaching point". So, if my daughter's written narration slaughters the use of quotation marks, I would just make the proper use of quotation marks my teaching point for that narration and ignore any other mistakes.

I do think we should hold our kids accountable for spelling the words correctly that we know they already know how to spell. If they have already studied a particular word and have used it successfully in the past...say in dictation...then I would hold the child accountable for spelling it correctly in their narration.

Probably you're right,it's better to focus onone thing at a time. I guess I'm influenced by a popular classical writing curriculum that I used in the past, where they tell you to correct the child as soon as they make a mistake.

That's why I'm wondering if we are supposed to do that with our children' narrations? Usually I hardly have to correct any mechanics , but I'm wondering more about whether I should point out a better sentence structure, use some dialog, onomatopoeia,metaphors,etc. we are only in preparing , maybe all these things will be required later?

Also, wouldn't it be great if HOD would offer an affordable grading service for narrations? I'd be willing to pay as I'm having a real time teaching writing since English is my 3rd language

Check out the written narration tips page in the appendix.

I always forget that it is there, but that should help you a lil.

As Mercy mentioned, we use the "Written Narration Skills" list from the Appendix for help in the editing department. It works great! I first have the boys read aloud their written narrations with pencil in hand, as they often self-edit this way. I encourage them to make changes as they are reading if they see something they need to or want to change. Then, in general, I required quite quickly #1-4 of the "Written Narration Skills" list (in PHFHG). I jot the correct spelling or missing punctuation mark in the margin of the line it needs to be corrected in, after they are done reading it aloud. They then fix the spelling and try to figure out where to put the punctuation marks (I help with this right away if they are stuck). Finally, they erase the writing I made in the margin. This makes the process effective and streamlined, and their final copy still looks pretty. For CTC on up, I put a sticky note next to the written narration box and write on that next to the appropriate lines rather than in the margins. Then we toss the sticky note when we are done! Spelling is always something to keep working on, but we move on to steps #5-10, one at a time, after our dc have #1-4 down fairly well. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie