Paddy's Narration

Paddy did his first "formal" narration today. Of course, we've been "talking about books" since he was old enough to talk, and a couple of times since we started Year 1 I've been asking him what he remembers about a story. (he usually says the last thing that happened in the story).

Today I told him to tell me back the story (A Bundle of STicks from Aesop's Fables) and that I would write it down for him. He talked to me too fast for me to write it down exactly but this is what I got down:

The father gave the sons a bundle of sticks, and they tried to break it, but they couldn't.

Then he gave the sticks to them one by one and they broke them easily.

He said, "My sons, if you agree with each other, the enemy won't be able to injure you --

if you're bad and don't agree with each other, then you won't be any stronger than those sticks."

Cute, huh? I really didn't want to mess up narration for this young one. I want to be able to rely on it as a learning tool, since I am commited to literature as a force for education but want to do everything I can to foster attentiveness in dealing with it. I always have had trouble with narration before. IT didn't seem natural to ME. But trying to narrate the books I read to myself (I've actually been trying to narrate Kieron's Year 4 material) made me both more respectful of the way it helps retention AND the difficulty of it. So from that base I have been able to persevere better in asking for narration. Kieron doesn't really like to do it but he is seeing the point in it and does well.

When I asked about starting narration on the Ambleside list with my six year old, several people suggested that we start off slowly with Aesop's Fables and other simple tales, and then build from there.

Aidan's narrations right now are still about events of daily life. I've been working with him on accurate observation. But when he's more ready to listen to stories I think the narration process will help him, too.

Beginning Narration Notes

I haven't really tried to have Paddy narrate yet. When we pick up one of the stories from Ambleside that we haven't read for a while, I try to jostle his memory a bit... "remember how Paddle was in the beaver pond..." and then he fills in with whatever he wants to say. Then I keep reading. I am trying to focus on reading as a more contemplative thing with a beginning, middle and end, and try to let that develop into a narration and then discussion pattern naturally. I don't want to embarrass him as I am afraid I did when I experimented clumsily with narration when my older kids are younger.

So today, I said something like, "So what happened there?" I've done this a couple of times and he says something about the last thing that happened. In future I may slow down even more and ask him between short episodes or passages.

I've been narrating myself and it's not easy. There is something in my mind that balks at it, at being forced into the track of "what comes next". In "Blink" I read that there are two kinds of memory -- a huge visual-associative "right brained" bank and then the verbal/linguistic/sequential side. In the book, he says that the verbal memory can actually override the associative side and so some witnesses to crimes, for example, are LESS able to visually identify a suspect, say in a lineup, AFTER they have given a point by point description than BEFORE. Very interesting and may explain why the silent pond in my right brain resists being filtered through.

I find though that when I DO narrate or make that effort, it is easier to dredge the actual thing out of my mental pond later on. Charlotte Mason compares it to links in a chain. You make verbal associations with the visual, intuitional memories and that allows you to access them instead of having them lurk down underneath forever.

Some people have their beginners draw a picture about a story and then ask them to explain what is happening in the picture. Another method in Laura Berquist's book is for ME to draw the picture at his direction. That gives me an idea of what he sees.

Another thing I am considering, now that Aidan is in the habit of dictating journals for me to write down, is to ask Paddy to dictate journals and stories and then narrations. He would probably enjoy this since he sees me doing it with Aidan.

Narration Cards

I liked the Spelling Command Cards here and decided to try to make a set of Narration Command Cards (PDF) (or Idea Cards, maybe). I used some of the suggestions from Simply Charlotte Mason, dropped others that I knew my boys wouldn't do, and added some that I thought they might actually do. I can already think of a few more that I didn't include, but this will do as a start!

I know some people use a narration jar and this might be somewhat similar, but I'm going to make cards out of them.

Here's a nice Narration page at Squidoo. It's pretty, and has lots of ideas and resources.

essay exams, narration, composition

Some types of essay verbs -- from Taking an Essay Exam

classify: Into what general category/categories does this idea belong?
compare: What are the similarities among these ideas? What are the differences?
contrast: What are the differences between these ideas?
critique: What are the strengths and weaknesses of this idea?
define: What does this word or phrase mean?
describe: What are the important characteristics or features of this idea?
evaluate: What are the arguments for and against this idea? Which arguments are stronger?
explain: Why is this the case?
identify: What is this idea? What is its name?
interpret: What does this idea mean? Why is it important?
justify: Why is this correct? Why is this true?
outline: What are the main points and essential details?
summarize: Briefly, what are the important ideas?
trace: What is the sequence of ideas or order of events?

Another take:

The following words are commonly found in essay test questions. Understanding them is essential to success on these kinds of questions. Study this sheet thoroughly. Know these words backwards and forwards.

• ANALYZE: Break into separate parts and discuss, examine, or interpret each part.
• COMPARE: Examine two or more things. Identify similarities and differences. Comparisons generally ask for similarities morethan differences. (See Contrast.)
• CONTRAST: Show differences. Set in opposition.
• CRITICIZE: Make judgements. Evaluate comparative worth. Criticism often involves analysis.
• DEFINE: Give the meaning; usually a meaning specific to the course of subject. Determine the precise limits of the term to be defined. Explain the exact meaning. Definitions are usually short.
• DESCRIBE: Give a detailed account. Make a picture with words. List characteristics, qualities and parts.
• DISCUSS: Consider and debate or argue the pros and cons of an issue. Write about any conflict. Compare and contrast.
• ENUMERATE: List several ideas, aspects, events, things, qualities, reasons, etc.
• EVALUATE: Give your opinion or cite the opinion of an expert. Include evidence to support the evaluation.
• ILLUSTRATE: Give concrete examples. Explain clearly by using comparisons or examples.
• INTERPRET: Comment upon, give examples, describe relationships. Explain the meaning. Describe, then evaluate.
• OUTLINE: Describe main ideas, characteristics, or events. (Does not necessarily mean *write a Roman numeral/letter outline*.)
• PROVE: Support with facts (especially facts presented in class or in the test).
• STATE: Explain precisely.
• SUMMARIZE: Give a brief, condensed account. Include conclusions. Avoid unnecessary details.
• TRACE: Show the order of events or progress of a subject or event.

Boring, I know -- yawn.

But I do think I learned a lot from writing essay exams in high school -- it occured to me that these types of imperative verbs could be used as forms of narration.

Here also are Narration Ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason.

There are some thoughts on Narration at AO.

Over the years we used many different narration techniques. Narration, to me, is similar to a 'workout' - you emphasize different muscles at different times.

In the early years, the habit of attention is the main goal. Children learn to train their minds to interact with the material, not to look out the window, think about what's going to happen after school, or poke their sibling :-) My child might not always get out of the reading what I would have gotten out of it - and they might even miss the three or four points I would like them to know, but they are learning the habit of attention. Learning a few random facts may make them sound 'educated' but they will be ill-equipped in the discipline of self-education for the work ahead that requires serious concentration and attention.

A post about literary analysis and narration.

Narration

The Thrifty Homeschooler has some posts going up about a Charlotte Mason education and frugality.

This is an interesting one about narration.

I experimented quite a bit with narration last year -- of course, we've done it through the years but I was always hesitant and ambivalent about "required narrations". I think last year helped me get past that block, or perhaps my present set of kids are more OK about narrating. But this year I'm thinking of just forming a habit of narrating one or two more steep and challenging books, rather than trying to do all of them.

One of my goals for Aidan is to start him on the process of narrating, and I imagine Paddy will be following right along -- he already spontaneously narrates his favorite read-alouds, which none of my other kids really did.