How can I test my son's narration ability?

[abrightmom]

I want to insure my placement assessment in the written narration department. My DS(nearly)12 seems to place well in RTR but I don't know if he can write a narration. We have done very little of that over the years. Do you have a suggestion for testing his ability? If he's ROUGH on written narrations but well placed otherwise should we feel good about RTR? He has finished the first half of English 5 and seems to fit well with all of the placement criteria for RTR.

Thanks .

[Motherjoy]

If he places in RTR in all the other categories, I would not let his written narrations keep him out of RTR. You could consider going down a level, but you could also consider moving slowly with his narrations.

If he hasn't done any oral narrating, you need to start there. You can't just start with written, if he's not use to forming those thoughts in his head. So, basically, you could have him work orally for a few months before moving to written narrations. Type his narrations as he says them to you, and then slowly have him begin typing them on his own. So, after two months, you could stop typing as he is about to wrap the narration up and then say, "Okay, you finish the last two sentences." Then keep bumping that back bit by bit until he is writing his own narrations altogether.

[Carrie]

Katrina,

One thing to consider is that the amount of writing within each guide rises significantly as kiddos progress through the guides. So, if writing a written narration is a struggle, I wonder if the rest of the writing within RTR on top of the written narration would be overwhelming? This is definitely something to consider, as the writing only continues to increase from guide to guide. So, if one guide overwhelms, the next one will as well. This may leave you modifying every year when we would prefer to start him at a level where he can excel and incrementally grow into the required skills. How are the rest of his writing skills outside of written narrations?

Blessings,
Carrie

[abrightmom]

Hi Carrie,

He is doing well with writing! God has given him such a natural ability with the written word. He has done well with the writing assignments in Rod & Staff English (he has studied to the halfway point in English 5). When he is free to be creative the ideas and thoughts flow but he does have trouble with an assigned topic at times. It is possible that writing a narration will be easier for him than I imagine as the content is there. I haven't asked him for a narration in a long time but he has excellent recall. He surprises me with the detail he recounts from his readings.

Where I believe the written narration might be a struggle (and again, I'm not sure how to test this) is pulling the narration together in writing. It isn't the act of writing itself but the thinking behind it to synthesize those thoughts and getting them to flow. Perhaps my own inability in this area is playing to my insecurity in deciding for my son.

This son has a very difficult time with the stories of the Old Testament. In the interest of covering the struggles with love I'd like to say no more except that it is the reason I don't want to consider CTC for him. He fits RTR quite well on the placement chart and it has been my intention to move back to HOD this year. I've been looking at it as an option since mid way through last school year where we explored an opportunity the Lord presented to us that we felt was right at the time.

I will address the CTC placement with my husband though I'm pushing away from it due to the sensitivities of our son. I don't want to overwhelm this son as he has had a tough year and we want his 6th grade year to be fruitful for him (challenging without overwhelming him).