Comprehension Questions? Geography?

[mamamag5]

I was wondering if there were comprehension questions for the books that they will be reading including read aloud books, reading books and history books. I really enjoy asking questions about their reading especially if they are doing some independently. We are looking to use Bigger, CTC and RTR next year. I can't tell from the samples if this is part of the curriculum. I also enjoy doing some geography work based on their reading. Looking up places on the map of what we have been reading about. Does the curriculum have suggestions or assignments for doing this as well?

[LynnH]

There are not comprehension questions for CTC and RTR. I am not sure about Bigger because we started our HOD journey with Preparing. The reason there are not is that HOD follows a Charlotte Mason philosophy. Your dc will do oral narrations in all 3 guides with the history, science and story time readings each week as well as written narrations in CTC with the history readings.In RTR they do 2 written narrations a week, one for the history reading and one for the science reading. The oral and written narrations are actually much more challenging than just answering comprehension questions. They have to retell the story using their own words, borrowing the authors words and also adding in any connections they can make. I read in a book about narration once that comprehension questions test what a child doesn't know, where as narration shows what a child does know. I have really seen this to be true with my own ds. It is a learning process for them to approach things this way. My ds came from the ps and he was so used to just giving "the right answer". Now he has learned to really think about what he is reading and put it all together in a narration of the things that stood out to him as important. This enables me as the teacher to really see if he is comprehending the readings. The only time there are comprehension questions is in 2 science books by John Hudson Tiner, one is used in CTC and one in RTR. Also the Poetry has questions to get them to think about the meaning of the poetry and to introduce things like personification.

As far as Geography goes, yes there is definitely an emphasis on finding the places on a map that the dc are reading about. In CTC and RTR there are maps put out by Map Trek that the dc do almost every week. They map things like the Roman Empire, The Ottoman Empire, the spread of the Black Death, the Hundred Year War and city centers of Medieval Europe.

[mamamag5]

Thank you so much. This was very helpful. I totally agree about narration and telling what you know.

[annaz]

As an addition to what was said, CTC's Geography has "Field Notes" writing about what you read and follow-up questions.