CTC Written Narrations

[Hope]

These written narrations are much different then the ones we did with our last curriculum or on our own. I like them, I like the guidance, and they are harder in a good way. I am wondering though how long they should be taking?

My ds12 read and answered the questions easily. Those two things took 15 - 20 minutes. His written narration is getting the main ideas and is good, but is taking a long time. He has stopped and started a lot with it so I am not sure how long. Usually he stays with things until they are done.

Any suggestions of how to help next week?

How long should the writing take? Written narrations are the main reason I put him in CTC instead of RTR.

Thank you!

[mrsrandolph]

If he is just beginning, he will speed up as he goes along, so I would not sweat it. My kids knock them out (after reading) in less than 10 minutes now.

[Hope]

If he is just beginning, he will speed up as he goes along, so I would not sweat it. My kids knock them out (after reading) in less than 10 minutes now.

Thank you for the encouragement! So they must gain the skill! His other curriculum had him do some written narrations, but it was much different in how it was done.

So I did ask him what slowed him down. His feed back was that looking at the box made it harder to think of what to write. He said it is easier for him to look at an entire blank page. I thought he did well with it. He wrote small enough and fit in 8 sentences, but it was a slow process. He also mentioned wanting to write more then 8 sentences, which leads me to a couple of questions.

Is the length of the narration to have a more focused summary narration?

Or, is the length to help students along?

If they want to write more in CTC are they building the skills that are being built to prepare for later guides to do so? In other words, would it make any difference if he went onto lined paper at the bottom of the box and did a much longer narration then what is being asked? He is sometimes inspired to write and will write much more then an assignment, and at other times not. Would it make any difference if the length varied, or is there a purpose behind the length of 5 - 8 sentences?

Thank you for the encouragement Mrs.Randolph!

[LynnH]

I always stick to exactly what the guide says as for length of sentences because I know that Carrie always has a reason for doing things the way she does them. If it is taking him that long to write 8 then I definitely wouldn't encourage him to do more. The skill I think he is learning is to really focus on what seems important to him rather than just to rattle off every single thing he can thing off. It is a good starting point to teach him to really think about what spoke to him or stood out to him in the reading. Hopefully Carrie or Julie will jump on here and see this and give you the reason for just doing 5-8 sentences and what their thoughts are. My son is now in the High School World History guide and he is writing 3-5 paragraph narrations. Each guide increases the length of narrations as well as in CTC the questions will start going away and he will have less guidance. For us Written Narration day has always been the longest part of the day. My son always takes at least 45 minutes to an hour(even longer now that he is up to the high school guides) to do that box. It really does take time and effort to think through what they read and to put it together in to a good narration that captures all the things that the guide wants them to capture.

[Robbi]

My daughter really needs lines on the paper to write nicely so instead of writing directly into her student notebook she does it on notebook paper. First she traces the shape of the box onto the paper & cuts it out. Then writes her narration then glues ir in thr student notebook. This may help your son if he needs a blank page to look at! It does get better!

[Hope]

I always stick to exactly what the guide says as for length of sentences because I know that Carrie always has a reason for doing things the way she does them. If it is taking him that long to write 8 then I definitely wouldn't encourage him to do more. The skill I think he is learning is to really focus on what seems important to him rather than just to rattle off every single thing he can thing off. It is a good starting point to teach him to really think about what spoke to him or stood out to him in the reading. Hopefully Carrie or Julie will jump on here and see this and give you the reason for just doing 5-8 sentences and what their thoughts are. My son is now in the High School World History guide and he is writing 3-5 paragraph narrations. Each guide increases the length of narrations as well as in CTC the questions will start going away and he will have less guidance. For us Written Narration day has always been the longest part of the day. My son always takes at least 45 minutes to an hour(even longer now that he is up to the high school guides) to do that box. It really does take time and effort to think through what they read and to put it together in to a good narration that captures all the things that the guide wants them to capture.

Thank you Lynn. I think your comment of rattling off every single thing he can think of is insightful. I think that is partly what took so long. Cutting his oral narrations down to 5 sentences for the story time box is a challenge. He remembers much of what he reads so sorting through those details can be a challenge. Your insight not to make it longer was also helpful.

Thank you also for the bigger picture. It helps me to see more of where the narrations are heading.

Yesterday, I drew two boxes the same size as the boxes in the note book on a plain page. Then I modeled two written narrations for him. One in each box. One of them ended up being 8 sentences, and one ended up being 5 sentences. I talked through what I was thinking as I did it. It helped me to do the assignment so I better understood the goals and I think it helped him to see it. Next week I will see if it helped!

Last night he told me that he likes HOD!! My other two have been loving Preparing! Carrie and Julie I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have my children like a curriculum. HOD is a tremendous blessing already in our lives. I am looking forward to the year. Thank you!