A few years back I gave a talk at an AO conference about the riches. I told a story about my grand-daughter Lizzie and a trip her family took to their local art museum. Lizzie was only five at the time and so most of the advanced preparations her mother made were focused on her older brother, who was school aged. But Lizzie met a painting called The Grief of the Pasha, and Lizzie fell in love. Those were her mother's words in an email she sent about the visit, and they are quite apt. (for the full story, you'd need to listen to the recording of the talk, information below)
Falling in love is an important key to learning. Picture study takes perhaps five or ten minutes every other week, but it can be the beginning of a life long love affair, and the door to learning other things as well. Picture study also will help your students improve their moods and sharpen their thinking for other studies during the day as well.
Subjects undergoing an MRI while looking at artworks they considered most beautiful showed increased blood flow in a certain part of the brain by as much as 10 per cent – the same brain area and same increase in blood flow as when gazing at a loved one.The Power of Art
Viewing art triggers higher-order mental processing The human brain is designed to enjoy art
A study from the University of Westminster found that participants' stress levels decreased after a lunchtime visit to an art gallery. Participants who came in w/ high levels, had lower concentrations of cortisol, commonly known as the stress hormone, 30 min. later. And the effect was most marked for those who were most stressed. Think about what this means for improving the atmosphere while doing lessons! Spend a few minutes looking at your art for the week right after a stressful lesson- art isn’t an extra, it’s a basic necessity for school.
Normalisation of salivary cortisol levels and self-report stress by a brief lunchtime visit to an art gallery by London City workers, Clow & Fredhoi
After analyzing 15 studies that had people looking at art for different reasons, neuroscientist Oshin Vartanian explained in a Q&A that "areas of the brain involved in processing emotion and those that activate our pleasure and reward systems are also being engaged." Essentially, parts of the brain that are associated with contemplation are automatically sparked when viewing art, even if they aren't thinking about it critically
The fantastic effect of art on mind and body
Drawing is another part of the curriculum often skipped, but drawing helps with learning and memory as well. I would suggest you try this at home with reluctant artists/narratorsm but don't tell them ahead of time what you are doing. Just during the day tell them two different stories, similar in length and interest. Have them sketch what they recall of one, just move on through your day without drawing the other. Later in the day, ask for a short narration of each and see what happens. Drawing helps you remember, how well you drew is irrelevant, Science Daily: If you need to remember something, draw it., even if you only have 4 seconds; Drawing helps memory, even if you only draw for four seconds. TechTimes
Nature Journals (and nature studies) are, regrettably, frequently skipped until people can get their schedules under control, but this is a beautiful thing in its own right, and it also, happily, well help your other subjects go more smoothly:
Karen Matsumoto wrote a beautiful article on nature journaling, published on John Hopkins’ School of Education website. She says: “In my experience working with children, I have found that the act of drawing and writing helps students to see and know nature through attention to and expression of their feelings. Feelings are a part of learning; it is now known that feelings are essential to deep understanding and sound decision making. Because attitudinal, emotional, and aesthetic considerations are important for growth and development, journals can be a good vehicle for "starting where children are." Rachel Carson, naturalist and writer, suggested that feelings help start the process of children wanting to know (1956). "Once the emotions have been aroused - a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration, or love - then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found it has lasting meaning."." Nature Journaling by Matsumoto
And the same day I found that article, I read this comment in one of our groups, by Rusty Parker, enthusiastic over all the new thing she was seeing in her own backyard- “It's amazing what I'm seeing now that I care!” This gives new depth and meaning to Mason's comments on what matters most at the end of our school days is not what we know, but how much do we care, and about how many things do we care, doesn't it?
Go outside and look at the natural world. Find things that make you all share a collective sense of amazement, of awe, things that make you go, "Ahhh!"
"...awe helps bind us to others, motivating us to act in collaborative ways that enable strong groups and cohesive communities." The importance of shared awe
"we tested the hypothesis that awe can result in a diminishment of the individual self and its concerns, and increase prosocial behavior. In a representative national sample (Study 1), dispositional tendencies to experience awe predicted greater generosity in an economic game above and beyond other prosocial emotions (e.g., compassion). In follow-up experiments, inductions of awe (relative to various control states) increased ethical decision-making (Study 2), generosity (Study 3), and prosocial values (Study 4). Finally, a naturalistic induction of awe in which participants stood in a grove of towering trees enhanced prosocial helping behavior and decreased entitlement compared to participants in a control condition (Study 5)." (Shared experiences of awe increase social cooperation and decrease self-centeredness)
Narration and discussion, saying things out loud, also helps with memory: John Muir Laws on saying aloud: Prompts for deeper nature observation: Saying aloud helps you remember later
Many will find the materials here to be helpful: http://beetlesproject.org/
A few days after their visit to the art museum, a friend shared a poem about the Pasha's grief w/ Lizzie's mama. It is a long poem, written by Victor Hugo in 1827, and I would not think most 5 year olds would have cared for it or understood it. Lizzie's mama read her the poem anyway (linked here: https://www.joslyn.org/Post/sections/375...lation.pdf) and reports that in conclusion, Lizzie was running around the house hollering "I was right! I was right! He was sad because his tiger died!"
The riches are not extra. They will nourish your souls and bind your hearts together, give your studies energy, life, and vitality. Do not skip them.
You can buy the recording of this talk here. The recording has a lot of additional material. It is not a duplicate of this post.
Who am I? Christian, Mom of 7, grandma to 14, 'retired' homeschool mom after 29 years, AmblesideOnline Advisory member. I've camped on the Al-Can highway, snorkeled in the China Sea. I blog about Charlotte Mason, books, travel, and more. Posts often include affiliate links. I promise not to waste your time.
Showing posts with label Narration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Narration. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Composition Suggestions from a CM trained Teacher
"Written composition begins to take the place of oral work in Class II."
What did that look like?
Have you ever wished you could hear directly from a teacher trained by Charlotte Mason? Wouldn't like to hear how the method worked for her, how she implemented the philosophy and how she taught her students?
We can!
The House of Education was the teaching school Mason established. Here she shared her methods with young women who wanted to teach. She also had a dayschool where the methods could be put into practice.
"In 1895, the House of Education Old Students' Association was formed to provide current and "old" students who were scattered abroad, opportunities to keep in touch and provide mutual support. In 1896 they began publishing the magazine, L'Umile Pianta, named after a plant growing near Ambleside, which Charlotte Mason admired for its ability to bend without breaking. " From the CharlotteMason Digital Collection at Archive.org
The students (current and graduated) also held conferences from time to time, and the conference talks often were reprinted in the magazine. At the 1911 conference, House of Education graduate Miss H. H. Dyke spoke on Composition, Letter Writing, and Copywork.
I think this will resonate with many frustrated parents:
"In teaching in the Parents' Union School, the chief difficulty is lack of time. ... half an hour once a week (for composition) is surely very inadequate. There is no opportunity for the definite instruction which I strongly feel is desirable, nor for the criticism of essays already written, and the essay is of course necessarily written straight into the exercise book, instead of being read through and re-copied as I should like. The girls no doubt pick up expressions from their text books, and peculiarities of style but they do not make the progress they might, and their work nearly always bears the sign of haste. As this is one of the accusations commonly brought against the Parents' Union scheme, I very much hope that this point may afterwards be discussed. "more time, then, seems to me to be not only desirable, but absolutely necessary, and then I think a great deal of help could be given."
Her idea was that composition should be twice a week rather than once. She doesn't want to lengthen the time period, she is keeping to moderately short lessons (they are shorter for lower grades, but gradually lengthen).
She further writes that upon leaving the training school:
"we set out, perhaps, to teach Composition in the happy belief that no great art or skill was needed, but that, given interesting subjects and with good literature as their model, the children would acquire a good style without our help."
" I wonder whether any of you became conscious of being mistaken. Was it your experience, as I candidly confess it was mine, that though the children's vocabulary was enlarged by the use of books, yet they did not learn by nature the elementary rules of Composition?"
This was not largely my experience. In proportion as I used Mason's methods and did not rely overmuch on audio books and did do copywork and dictation and required written narrations, those children developed a pretty good style without extra help. Those for whom I failed to use Mason's methods as thoroughly (we went through a very difficult patch of life while I was in the throes of untreated and overlooked PTSD), did not do as well. But my family is not the only sample to consider. We tend to be pretty verbal already. So it's probably encouraging to know, if you feel like your kids needed a bit more instruction, there's an expert who agrees with you!
She says she believes there is room for a great deal of help to be given students learning composition. So what are her suggestions? Perhaps she has some ideas that will work for you.
Helping children keep a sense of proportion in their compositions: For example, in her observation, the Class II students often lack a sense of proportion. That is, they emphasize unimportant things and omit vital things. Perhaps they spend a page on minutiae and irrelevant anecdotes and never remember to mention that the person they are writing about was the emperor of most of the known western world, or developed the airplane, or was a famous artist.
How can we fix that lack of proportion? Dyke suggests giving them an outline of a simple story and letting them fill it in. Here I think it also works to let them write their own basic outline of a simple folk tale or news article of interest to them, or a fable from Aesop's, and then a few days later, have them use that outline to rewrite the story. This is an old method that has helped many a writer build their skills. Matt Whitling's Imitation in Writing series scripts this for you. I wouldn't use the entire series, but if you're struggling you could try it for one term, or use it as a template or springboard for your own version.
She also suggests that they think of a general theme for the direction of their written narration (or composition) and instructing them to omit any anecdotes that have nothing to do with the overall idea.
Organizing their ideas: Miss Dyke says it's most important to have the children write down a definite scheme before they begin- 'write down in the form of headings all that occurs to them on the subject, and then arrange these headings in their logical sequence.' Have the students look over their headings with their general theme in mind and omit any that don't fit their theme. She suggests only spending five minutes doing this since only 30 minutes is allotted to composition in a week.
My personal suggestion is that you need not limit yourself so severely to something even Miss Mason's own trained teachers found onerous. You don't want to drag lessons out. You do want to quit while the students are still fresh. But you might follow her suggestion and have two composition sessions in a week instead of one.
Here is another idea for helping students organize their ideas. This is not from Miss Dyke, another homeschooling mother shared this with me years ago. Have your student write everything he wants to write on a topic in about 15 or 20 minutes- except the student must start each sentence on a new line, or better yet, double space the sentences, so each sentence is separated from the previous one by a blank line. At the end of the alloted time, actually cut apart the sentences. Now have the student rearrange the sentences so that like things go together- all the sentences about this topic or time period go together. I sometimes told my children to think of the different ideas or topics as different types of fruit and they were sorting all the apples together, all the bananas together, etc. Then try rewriting it by taping the sentence strips to another piece of paper, but in a better order. If you run out of time, you can put the sentence strips in an envelope and do the reorganizing and taping a day or two later.
Please do not overdo this. I suspect if you try this two or three times over half a school year, your scholar will start to think about organizing his ideas before he writes, and he will have some notion of how to do this. If you want to take it further, a few days after the cutting apart and rearranging, the student can make a freshly written copy, making improvements as they occur. It's also a useful method for teaching students the concept of first drafts and rough drafts and that most writers (all good writers) rewrite.
Other helps Miss Dyke suggests: '...some kind of introduction should be made heading up the theme itself; then the different facts are marshalled in order, a clear sequence of thought and a suitable proportion between the different parts of the essay being observed, and lastly a conclusion is drawn- e.g., the leading thought of the essay is given. The essay should if possible begin and end with an effective sentence. Use Bacon's essays for examples."
You can do this as your reading other things, too. Keep your eyes open for good, striking opening and closing sentences, and occasionally comment on them when you see them. Ask your student to watch for them, too. You could make them a theme for copywork selections for a while, or commonplace books if your student has graduated to those.
She also says, "Another valuable exercise is to read a speech from the newspaper, or to take any other suitable extract from literature- e.g. a complete and short episode from any classic, or one of Bacon's or Lamb's essays- and ask the children to extract the plan, writing down the chief points in the form of headings. They will very quickly learn to discriminate between a good and a bad speech, distinguishing one that is logical and forcible from another which, thought calculated to appeal to the uneducated will not prove to be sound logic if analysed."
With older students, this was sometimes what I requested for a narration- to write down the main points of a few of the paragraphs.
She says to tell beginning students to use short sentences and to make their beginnings as varied as possible.
Looking at a page of work from any good author and comparing the ways the sentences begin will show 'in what varied ways it is possible to start a sentence and the children will quickly notice how pleasing variety is to the ear."
Paragraphs can be taught by using the 'headings' the children have used with outlines and writing plans. Show them that everything that they say that falls under one heading belongs in one paragraph, and when they start the next heading, everything they have to say should flow from that.
Punctuation is best taught by 'careful observation when reading,' and the dictation lessons also give practice in this.
Note that this implies the necessity of the students doing their own reading from actual pages which show punctuation. Too much reliance on audiobooks can cause problems in spelling and punctuation. Sometimes it cannot be helped, but it's important to be aware that Mason's method is based on seeing thousands of printed pages of proper punctuation demonstrated, so if you need audiobooks, you will also need a more direct approach to teaching punctuation.
Words fitly spoken: Next she suggests teaching children the value of using the right words. "clearness is to be sought after before all things." One exercise to help develop clearness is, again, to take a well written essay and require your student to write a one sentence summary of a paragraph.
Teach them the value of using the best word for the occasion. Once in a while have your student or class come up with a list of synonyms, then use them in the same sentence to see that words with similar meanings cannot necessarily be used precisely the same way.
Teach them not to use long words unless they are the right words. Unless you are trying for comedy, 'The mayor was proceeding to his residence on his bicycle when he was precipitated from his machine, and sustained a fractured leg' is not better than 'while riding home, the Mayor fell from his bicycle and broke his leg.'
These helps for composition teaching should be used sparingly- don't throw all of them at a student at one time. Focus on one of these tools for a few weeks, keeping the lessons to 30 minutes, give or take a couple minutes (but not much stretching beyond that). It's better to have three 20 minutes lessons than one hour long session. Spread them out, sometimes pointing things out naturally as they arise- copywork and dictation are opportunities to point out punctuation, dictation is helpful for paragraphs. When you are struck by a particularly rich sentence, it's okay to say so. Keep your own commonplace book and let your student see you sometimes stopping to write something down because you are so impressed by the power of the writing. A little goes a long way, especially when spread over time, with regular, focused times of attention to the topic.
Miss Dyke has other things to say. "Blank Verse" she says, 'used to be included in the Programme as an occasional exercise for Class III and IV" she says the result is most unsatisfactory to both teacher and children if they have any literary feeling at all and she hopes it's completely removed from the programme because a children with any poetic talent will versify without encouragement, and for the rest- perhaps the amount of bad poetry (if it can be dignified by that name) produced nowadays should be a sufficient deterrent from encouraging everyone to think he is a poet. At any rate, I do not think the time spent on this exercise is justified by the results, and I should reserve the writing of poetry until the power to write prose was greater." I laughed aloud, although in the subsequent discussion it seems the consensus of her audience was disagreement, they liked blank verse assignments and wanted to continue them.
Nobody, however, seems to have accused her of being divisive, of not measuring up to Miss Mason's standards, of failing at CM. They simply disagreed.
Footnotes:
H. H. Dyke, Ambleside Conference 1911, speaking on composition, narration and letterwriting L'Umile Pianta : For the Children's Sake. 1911, June. p. 1-76.
In the September, 1912 issue of L'umile Pianta, a letter from Helen Dyke is published. She writes of the Christian mission where she is working in India, in the town of Barisal, 200 miles from Calcutta.
She writes again in the May, 1914 issue, where she was then working with a new mission in Joharpar, India, which she says is reached only by boat, because rice fields surround the place.
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
What did that look like?
Have you ever wished you could hear directly from a teacher trained by Charlotte Mason? Wouldn't like to hear how the method worked for her, how she implemented the philosophy and how she taught her students?
We can!
The House of Education was the teaching school Mason established. Here she shared her methods with young women who wanted to teach. She also had a dayschool where the methods could be put into practice.
"In 1895, the House of Education Old Students' Association was formed to provide current and "old" students who were scattered abroad, opportunities to keep in touch and provide mutual support. In 1896 they began publishing the magazine, L'Umile Pianta, named after a plant growing near Ambleside, which Charlotte Mason admired for its ability to bend without breaking. " From the CharlotteMason Digital Collection at Archive.org
The students (current and graduated) also held conferences from time to time, and the conference talks often were reprinted in the magazine. At the 1911 conference, House of Education graduate Miss H. H. Dyke spoke on Composition, Letter Writing, and Copywork.
I think this will resonate with many frustrated parents:
"In teaching in the Parents' Union School, the chief difficulty is lack of time. ... half an hour once a week (for composition) is surely very inadequate. There is no opportunity for the definite instruction which I strongly feel is desirable, nor for the criticism of essays already written, and the essay is of course necessarily written straight into the exercise book, instead of being read through and re-copied as I should like. The girls no doubt pick up expressions from their text books, and peculiarities of style but they do not make the progress they might, and their work nearly always bears the sign of haste. As this is one of the accusations commonly brought against the Parents' Union scheme, I very much hope that this point may afterwards be discussed. "more time, then, seems to me to be not only desirable, but absolutely necessary, and then I think a great deal of help could be given."
Her idea was that composition should be twice a week rather than once. She doesn't want to lengthen the time period, she is keeping to moderately short lessons (they are shorter for lower grades, but gradually lengthen).
She further writes that upon leaving the training school:
"we set out, perhaps, to teach Composition in the happy belief that no great art or skill was needed, but that, given interesting subjects and with good literature as their model, the children would acquire a good style without our help."
" I wonder whether any of you became conscious of being mistaken. Was it your experience, as I candidly confess it was mine, that though the children's vocabulary was enlarged by the use of books, yet they did not learn by nature the elementary rules of Composition?"
This was not largely my experience. In proportion as I used Mason's methods and did not rely overmuch on audio books and did do copywork and dictation and required written narrations, those children developed a pretty good style without extra help. Those for whom I failed to use Mason's methods as thoroughly (we went through a very difficult patch of life while I was in the throes of untreated and overlooked PTSD), did not do as well. But my family is not the only sample to consider. We tend to be pretty verbal already. So it's probably encouraging to know, if you feel like your kids needed a bit more instruction, there's an expert who agrees with you!
She says she believes there is room for a great deal of help to be given students learning composition. So what are her suggestions? Perhaps she has some ideas that will work for you.
Helping children keep a sense of proportion in their compositions: For example, in her observation, the Class II students often lack a sense of proportion. That is, they emphasize unimportant things and omit vital things. Perhaps they spend a page on minutiae and irrelevant anecdotes and never remember to mention that the person they are writing about was the emperor of most of the known western world, or developed the airplane, or was a famous artist.
How can we fix that lack of proportion? Dyke suggests giving them an outline of a simple story and letting them fill it in. Here I think it also works to let them write their own basic outline of a simple folk tale or news article of interest to them, or a fable from Aesop's, and then a few days later, have them use that outline to rewrite the story. This is an old method that has helped many a writer build their skills. Matt Whitling's Imitation in Writing series scripts this for you. I wouldn't use the entire series, but if you're struggling you could try it for one term, or use it as a template or springboard for your own version.
She also suggests that they think of a general theme for the direction of their written narration (or composition) and instructing them to omit any anecdotes that have nothing to do with the overall idea.
Organizing their ideas: Miss Dyke says it's most important to have the children write down a definite scheme before they begin- 'write down in the form of headings all that occurs to them on the subject, and then arrange these headings in their logical sequence.' Have the students look over their headings with their general theme in mind and omit any that don't fit their theme. She suggests only spending five minutes doing this since only 30 minutes is allotted to composition in a week.
My personal suggestion is that you need not limit yourself so severely to something even Miss Mason's own trained teachers found onerous. You don't want to drag lessons out. You do want to quit while the students are still fresh. But you might follow her suggestion and have two composition sessions in a week instead of one.
Here is another idea for helping students organize their ideas. This is not from Miss Dyke, another homeschooling mother shared this with me years ago. Have your student write everything he wants to write on a topic in about 15 or 20 minutes- except the student must start each sentence on a new line, or better yet, double space the sentences, so each sentence is separated from the previous one by a blank line. At the end of the alloted time, actually cut apart the sentences. Now have the student rearrange the sentences so that like things go together- all the sentences about this topic or time period go together. I sometimes told my children to think of the different ideas or topics as different types of fruit and they were sorting all the apples together, all the bananas together, etc. Then try rewriting it by taping the sentence strips to another piece of paper, but in a better order. If you run out of time, you can put the sentence strips in an envelope and do the reorganizing and taping a day or two later.
Please do not overdo this. I suspect if you try this two or three times over half a school year, your scholar will start to think about organizing his ideas before he writes, and he will have some notion of how to do this. If you want to take it further, a few days after the cutting apart and rearranging, the student can make a freshly written copy, making improvements as they occur. It's also a useful method for teaching students the concept of first drafts and rough drafts and that most writers (all good writers) rewrite.
Other helps Miss Dyke suggests: '...some kind of introduction should be made heading up the theme itself; then the different facts are marshalled in order, a clear sequence of thought and a suitable proportion between the different parts of the essay being observed, and lastly a conclusion is drawn- e.g., the leading thought of the essay is given. The essay should if possible begin and end with an effective sentence. Use Bacon's essays for examples."
You can do this as your reading other things, too. Keep your eyes open for good, striking opening and closing sentences, and occasionally comment on them when you see them. Ask your student to watch for them, too. You could make them a theme for copywork selections for a while, or commonplace books if your student has graduated to those.
She also says, "Another valuable exercise is to read a speech from the newspaper, or to take any other suitable extract from literature- e.g. a complete and short episode from any classic, or one of Bacon's or Lamb's essays- and ask the children to extract the plan, writing down the chief points in the form of headings. They will very quickly learn to discriminate between a good and a bad speech, distinguishing one that is logical and forcible from another which, thought calculated to appeal to the uneducated will not prove to be sound logic if analysed."
With older students, this was sometimes what I requested for a narration- to write down the main points of a few of the paragraphs.
She says to tell beginning students to use short sentences and to make their beginnings as varied as possible.
Looking at a page of work from any good author and comparing the ways the sentences begin will show 'in what varied ways it is possible to start a sentence and the children will quickly notice how pleasing variety is to the ear."
Paragraphs can be taught by using the 'headings' the children have used with outlines and writing plans. Show them that everything that they say that falls under one heading belongs in one paragraph, and when they start the next heading, everything they have to say should flow from that.
Punctuation is best taught by 'careful observation when reading,' and the dictation lessons also give practice in this.
Note that this implies the necessity of the students doing their own reading from actual pages which show punctuation. Too much reliance on audiobooks can cause problems in spelling and punctuation. Sometimes it cannot be helped, but it's important to be aware that Mason's method is based on seeing thousands of printed pages of proper punctuation demonstrated, so if you need audiobooks, you will also need a more direct approach to teaching punctuation.
Words fitly spoken: Next she suggests teaching children the value of using the right words. "clearness is to be sought after before all things." One exercise to help develop clearness is, again, to take a well written essay and require your student to write a one sentence summary of a paragraph.
Teach them the value of using the best word for the occasion. Once in a while have your student or class come up with a list of synonyms, then use them in the same sentence to see that words with similar meanings cannot necessarily be used precisely the same way.
Teach them not to use long words unless they are the right words. Unless you are trying for comedy, 'The mayor was proceeding to his residence on his bicycle when he was precipitated from his machine, and sustained a fractured leg' is not better than 'while riding home, the Mayor fell from his bicycle and broke his leg.'
These helps for composition teaching should be used sparingly- don't throw all of them at a student at one time. Focus on one of these tools for a few weeks, keeping the lessons to 30 minutes, give or take a couple minutes (but not much stretching beyond that). It's better to have three 20 minutes lessons than one hour long session. Spread them out, sometimes pointing things out naturally as they arise- copywork and dictation are opportunities to point out punctuation, dictation is helpful for paragraphs. When you are struck by a particularly rich sentence, it's okay to say so. Keep your own commonplace book and let your student see you sometimes stopping to write something down because you are so impressed by the power of the writing. A little goes a long way, especially when spread over time, with regular, focused times of attention to the topic.
Miss Dyke has other things to say. "Blank Verse" she says, 'used to be included in the Programme as an occasional exercise for Class III and IV" she says the result is most unsatisfactory to both teacher and children if they have any literary feeling at all and she hopes it's completely removed from the programme because a children with any poetic talent will versify without encouragement, and for the rest- perhaps the amount of bad poetry (if it can be dignified by that name) produced nowadays should be a sufficient deterrent from encouraging everyone to think he is a poet. At any rate, I do not think the time spent on this exercise is justified by the results, and I should reserve the writing of poetry until the power to write prose was greater." I laughed aloud, although in the subsequent discussion it seems the consensus of her audience was disagreement, they liked blank verse assignments and wanted to continue them.
Nobody, however, seems to have accused her of being divisive, of not measuring up to Miss Mason's standards, of failing at CM. They simply disagreed.
Footnotes:
H. H. Dyke, Ambleside Conference 1911, speaking on composition, narration and letterwriting L'Umile Pianta : For the Children's Sake. 1911, June. p. 1-76.
In the September, 1912 issue of L'umile Pianta, a letter from Helen Dyke is published. She writes of the Christian mission where she is working in India, in the town of Barisal, 200 miles from Calcutta.
She writes again in the May, 1914 issue, where she was then working with a new mission in Joharpar, India, which she says is reached only by boat, because rice fields surround the place.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
Saturday, March 9, 2019
Narrating with more than one child
From time to time when my kids were young, I would read them all the same story and had them narrate, even though there is a very wide age spread with my kids (the eldest was 15 when the seventh was born).
"Value of Narration.––The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading,––one reading, however slow, should be made a condition; for we are all too apt to make sure we shall have another opportunity of finding out 'what 'tis all about' There is the weekly review if we fail to get a clear grasp of the news of the day; and, if we fail a second time, there is a monthly or a quarterly review or an annual summing up: in fact, many of us let present-day history pass by us with easy minds, feeling sure that, in the end, we shall be compelled to see the bearings of events. This is a bad habit to get into; and we should do well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation of second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have been done at first.
Disciplinary Devices must not come between Children and the Soul of the Book.––These few hints by no means cover the disciplinary uses of a good school-book; but let us be careful that our disciplinary devices, and our mechanical devices to secure and tabulate the substance of knowledge, do not come between the children and that which is the soul of the book, the living thought it contains..."
Other thoughts:
I think it is okay to stop and ask for narrations after just a few sentences. It's okay that it's tedious because you won't be doing this for long. They will start listening more carefully and thinking and paying attention better themselves.
It's also okay to say, "Tell me one thing, anything at all, just ONE thing from our reading.
You can also have them draw a picture from the reading and then tell you about it.
Always require a narration after a school reading (but not poetry or free reads).
If you are reading to several children, you can also tell them they have 5-10 minutes to plan, and then they will act out a skit from the reading for their narration.
https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR39p058RepeatedNarration.shtml
Tandem narrations were also done- one child might start, then before he was finished another would pick up the thread and continue, and so on. I did this, too, but my kids *hated* this more than any other sort of narration. Once started, they wanted to be able to finish.
They should not hear the same thing narrated twice. They also should never know it's not their turn to narrate. I used to keep two beads in my pocket, a different colour for each girl, and after a joint reading, I would pull out the bead and that child narrated. After her narration, I would ask the other one if she had anything to add or correct.
I always put the bead back in my pocket, because, again, they should never know it is *not* their turn to narrate- knowing they will not have to narrate can blunt the edge of their attention. Knowing they always might have to narrate sharpens the attention. This did sometimes mean the same girl narrated three times in a row, but that's the luck of the draw.
Fun story: I accidentally hit on this method because on one of the all too many days the crafts were left messy, I was picking things up and absent mindedly picked up two beads off the floor and put them in my pocket. They happened to be two different colours and so when there was an argument about who should narrate, I did this (formerly we'd picked numbers between 1 and 10, but that sometimes took far too long).
Funner Fact: I've shared this for the last ten or fifteen years, all over the internet, to the point that a couple years ago, somebody shared this idea with me as something she heard somewhere and thought I should pass along.
If they are listening to the readings and then narrating together, don't have them repeat narrations. Ask for one child to narrate, randomly chosen. When one is finished (even if he couldn't think of anything), ask others to fill in any missing parts or if they want to add or correct anything. If you have a wide age span, ask the youngest to start. As the next youngest to add something. Ask the third youngest if there is anything to add or correct. If you get up to a teenager, you can ask what they think will happen next, or why something happened the way it did."Value of Narration.––The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading,––one reading, however slow, should be made a condition; for we are all too apt to make sure we shall have another opportunity of finding out 'what 'tis all about' There is the weekly review if we fail to get a clear grasp of the news of the day; and, if we fail a second time, there is a monthly or a quarterly review or an annual summing up: in fact, many of us let present-day history pass by us with easy minds, feeling sure that, in the end, we shall be compelled to see the bearings of events. This is a bad habit to get into; and we should do well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation of second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have been done at first.
Disciplinary Devices must not come between Children and the Soul of the Book.––These few hints by no means cover the disciplinary uses of a good school-book; but let us be careful that our disciplinary devices, and our mechanical devices to secure and tabulate the substance of knowledge, do not come between the children and that which is the soul of the book, the living thought it contains..."
Other thoughts:
I think it is okay to stop and ask for narrations after just a few sentences. It's okay that it's tedious because you won't be doing this for long. They will start listening more carefully and thinking and paying attention better themselves.
It's also okay to say, "Tell me one thing, anything at all, just ONE thing from our reading.
You can also have them draw a picture from the reading and then tell you about it.
Always require a narration after a school reading (but not poetry or free reads).
If you are reading to several children, you can also tell them they have 5-10 minutes to plan, and then they will act out a skit from the reading for their narration.
https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR39p058RepeatedNarration.shtml
Tandem narrations were also done- one child might start, then before he was finished another would pick up the thread and continue, and so on. I did this, too, but my kids *hated* this more than any other sort of narration. Once started, they wanted to be able to finish.
They should not hear the same thing narrated twice. They also should never know it's not their turn to narrate. I used to keep two beads in my pocket, a different colour for each girl, and after a joint reading, I would pull out the bead and that child narrated. After her narration, I would ask the other one if she had anything to add or correct.
I always put the bead back in my pocket, because, again, they should never know it is *not* their turn to narrate- knowing they will not have to narrate can blunt the edge of their attention. Knowing they always might have to narrate sharpens the attention. This did sometimes mean the same girl narrated three times in a row, but that's the luck of the draw.
Fun story: I accidentally hit on this method because on one of the all too many days the crafts were left messy, I was picking things up and absent mindedly picked up two beads off the floor and put them in my pocket. They happened to be two different colours and so when there was an argument about who should narrate, I did this (formerly we'd picked numbers between 1 and 10, but that sometimes took far too long).
Funner Fact: I've shared this for the last ten or fifteen years, all over the internet, to the point that a couple years ago, somebody shared this idea with me as something she heard somewhere and thought I should pass along.
Greek and Roman mythology pleased everybody, and even my teenagers enjoyed hearing a familiar old fairy tale read aloud (still do). And sometimes I read them all something geared more for the older group or the younger group just 'coz.
We tended to get in our group readings at breakfast and/or lunch (I would eat first or last, reading while everybody else eats), and sometimes their father read aloud to them from the same book at bedtime (Pilgrim's Progress, Shakespeare, Bible, Swiss Family Robinson, nature writing etc, these are all books that work with a wide span).
Sometimes we just read. Sometimes I asked all four of the oldest of the 'students' to narrate, but I started with the youngest and asked each
one to add something the youngest hadn't mentioned.
We tended to get in our group readings at breakfast and/or lunch (I would eat first or last, reading while everybody else eats), and sometimes their father read aloud to them from the same book at bedtime (Pilgrim's Progress, Shakespeare, Bible, Swiss Family Robinson, nature writing etc, these are all books that work with a wide span).
Sometimes we just read. Sometimes I asked all four of the oldest of the 'students' to narrate, but I started with the youngest and asked each
one to add something the youngest hadn't mentioned.
Occasionally I asked the oldest for something a bit more in depth: Explain how we know a character was guilty without being told, , what are some ways the author revealed aspects of his character before he's caught, or what sort of character _____ is and why do you think so? More of these sorts of questions here.
Other times we read aloud from nature writing by Rachel Peden or Edwin Way Teale. We'd read an entry, then retell something from it, only the older children would write their narration, or write an entry of their own in a nature journal modeled after the style of the author we'd read.
Sometimes Mom can narrate, and then ask the children to fill in anything Mom missed (start with the youngest).
I think this is also the place where one could use some of Miss Mason's
'other ways to use books. For example, I could take a story like one of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. I could ask the two youngest simply to narrate. Then I could ask the two oldest to tell me about Portia's character, to describe the setting or to explain the significance ofsome instance in the story.
From volume III:
I think this is also the place where one could use some of Miss Mason's
'other ways to use books. For example, I could take a story like one of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. I could ask the two youngest simply to narrate. Then I could ask the two oldest to tell me about Portia's character, to describe the setting or to explain the significance ofsome instance in the story.
From volume III:
From School Education (volume 3), so this is for children around 9 or 10 and up:
A Single Careful Reading.––There is much difference between intelligent reading, which the pupil should do in silence, and a mere parrot-like cramming up of contents; and it is not a bad test of education to be able to give the points of a description, the sequence of a series of incidents, the links in a chain of argument, correctly, after a single careful reading. This is a power which a barrister, a publisher, a scholar, labours to acquire; and it is a power which children can acquire with great ease, and once acquired, the gulf is bridged which divides the reading from the non-reading community.
Other Ways of using Books.––But this is only one way to use books: others are to enumerate the statements in a given paragraph or chapter; to analyse a chapter, to divide it into paragraphs under proper headings, to tabulate and classify series; to trace cause to consequence and consequence to cause; to discern character and perceive how character and circumstance interact; to get lessons of life and conduct, or the living knowledge which makes for science, out of books; all this is possible for school boys and girls, and until they have begun to use books for themselves in such ways, they can hardly be said to have begun their education.
The Teacher's Part.––The teacher's part is, in the first place, to see what is to be done, to look over the work of the day in advance and see what mental discipline, as well as what vital knowledge, this and that lesson afford; and then to set such questions and such tasks as shall give full scope to his pupils' mental activity. Let marginal notes be freely made, as neatly and beautifully as may be, for books should be handled with reverence. Let numbers, letters, underlining be used to help the eye and to save the needless fag of writing abstracts. Let the pupil write for himself half a dozen questions which cover the passage studied; he need not write the answers if he be taught that the mind can know nothing but what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put by the mind to itself.
These are just some suggestions and ideas. You can have the kids narrate to each other. You can hit on some other method. Make sure they are narrating every reading, however.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
These are just some suggestions and ideas. You can have the kids narrate to each other. You can hit on some other method. Make sure they are narrating every reading, however.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The following items are for sale, and proceeds support my family's work. When creating these things, my constant thought was 'What might readers like to know or think about? What will help our Charlotte Mason parents and families? What will give them something to think about, something to love, something to grow on?' I hope you can tell.
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
Friday, March 8, 2019
Open Ended Narration Questions
What happened after... (any event in the reading, preferably one early on).
Should he/she have done that?
Should he/she have done that?
How does x compare with y? (X and Y can be two characters, two places, two events, two stories)
That's interesting. What do you mean by that?
What was going on at that time?
Why do you think …?
What do you suppose was the cause or reason for….?
What do you think will happen next?
Who has something to say about that? (for a group reading or narration)
Are there any choices the main character has made that you really admire? Tell me about one. Choices you really think were wrong? Tell me about one.
Tell me about some of the people in this reading/book.
What do you find out about any of the characters in this reading?
What are the main characters like? How do you know?
What’s a part you really enjoyed?
Why?
Did anything here really surprise you, strike you or grab your attention?
Did you wonder about anything as you read?
What happened in this chapter? Why? Is that what should have happened?
Did this remind you of anything else?
If you could be any of these characters, which would you choose, and why?
If this happened to you, what would you do?
Do not ask all of these questions after a reading. That would be ridiculously exhausting. You can use a question to prompt the narration, or once the child has give you a basic narration, ask maybe one or two of these questions.
These questions are not all meant to be asked at once, nor for every age of reader.
Don’t argue with his answers, or he won’t want to tell you his thoughts again. Depending on your relationship, you might rather thoughtfully say, “Really? I hadn’t thought of it that way. I thought……”
You want questions that give the child scope to think and process, not merely remember facts. You’re not looking for one correct answer. You don’t want to ask, “Why should Harry trust Snape,” but rather, “Would you trust Snape or not? What are some of your reasons?”
Be careful in wording the questions. “Why does Choi Soo Hyun resent his little brother” is not as good as ‘How does Choi Soo Hyun feel about his little brother?’ followed by, “How can you tell?” or “Why do you think so?” Or, “what things in the story showed you how he felt?”
You are helping your child discover connections. You are not telling them what the connections are.
Recommended Reading:
Consider This
Mind to Mind
Minds More Awake
The Living Page, and, of course, Charlotte Mason’s own writings.
Consider This
Mind to Mind
Minds More Awake
The Living Page, and, of course, Charlotte Mason’s own writings.
(affiliate links lurk here)
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The following items are for sale, and proceeds support my family's work. When creating these things, my constant thought was 'What might readers like to know or think about? What will help our Charlotte Mason parents and families? What will give them something to think about, something to love, something to grow on?' I hope you can tell.
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
Common Kitchen: What's for lunch? Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families? What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing? How can I accomplish all those things at once? We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income. I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world. These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids. Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions. I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Narration
Karen Glass, of course, literally wrote the book on narration: Know and Tell (now out on Kindle!) If you have that, use it! If you are waiting for it, below are some quotes, references, and practical advice from my homschooling and tutoring practices.
My own children are grown now. I do some tutoring for ESL students, and I use Miss Mason's methods with them.
In reflecting on our years of homeschooling (29 years), here are some things I wish I had known about narration from the beginning.
We didn’t always narrate every single reading as consistently as we should, but when we didn't do narration, we don’t get nearly as much out of the books.
My own children are grown now. I do some tutoring for ESL students, and I use Miss Mason's methods with them.
When we first begin narration, and any time I think they are flagging in attention or I think the reading is more complex, I read a single paragraph, then stop and ask them to tell me what we just read about. Other times I read that single paragraph and ask them to tell me one thing they remember from the paragraph. This single paragraph at a time narration is a baby step towards longer readings and narrations over larger sections of the books.
Sometimes we vary the narrations, depending on the book. They might narrate by drawing a picture from the reading and telling me about it, by acting out a brief skit (I set the timer and give them maybe five minutes to plan the skit- otherwise, they spend the rest of the day planning and never performing), by setting up a scene with blocks (Horatio at the Bridge made a particular excellent building block scene) or dollhouse dolls- there are all sorts of ways a child can narrate. They can reenact a scene with Beanie babies. I might ask them to tell me just one thing they remember from a paragraph. Then I might start asking for two things. Sometimes if I am reading to several children, I will ask each child to tell me one thing from the reading. I start with the youngest and work my way up so that the youngest are not left empty headed, saying, “But they already said what I was thinking of!”
Some young learners find it stressful to narrate at first- it’s harder than we realize. So do go gently, but I believe narration is of vital importance to the CM method, and the child who doesn’t narrate his reading is really missing out on an important processing tool. You can have children take turns narrating quietly to you (they shouldn't hear the other's narration.). You can have one child narrate and let the other offer corrections or additions as his own narration. The student should *never* know that they will not be called on to narrate. You can finish a reading and say, "Get ready to narrate," and give them a minute to think about what they will say and then call on one student.
Incidentally, these baby steps also work when processing from all oral narration to some written narrations. We usually begin by asking the children to write down two sentences about the reading, then five. Or I will ask them to make a list of what they know about one of their favorite characters. In the nature readings I might ask them to make a list of what that critter eats or is eaten by, or describe where it lives. Gradually, we work our way up.
The form of narration is not as important as the process, especially at the beginning. The most important point is that they need to review the material in their own minds, prioritize it, organize it, think about it, and select episodes or other material that they want to tell about. When you ask them that seemingly simple question, “Tell me what we just read about,” this is exactly what happens.
 |
| You don't save time by skipping narration. |
In reflecting on our years of homeschooling (29 years), here are some things I wish I had known about narration from the beginning.
We didn’t always narrate every single reading as consistently as we should, but when we didn't do narration, we don’t get nearly as much out of the books.
Slow and steady wins the race, although my own inclination was to race through as many books as possible, trying to cram everything we can into a school-year, with periodic breaks from utter exhaustion.
When I did this, it was as effective as trying to give a thirsty child a drink from a fire hydrant. He gets water all over him, but it doesn’t actually quench his thirst, and that water evaporates quickly.
When I tried to leave out things like narration to get done quicker,
it’s the same reaction- my kids got books all over them, but they did not get so much inside which is where it counts.
it’s the same reaction- my kids got books all over them, but they did not get so much inside which is where it counts.
My thinking is that it’s more important to read fewer books, but narrate them all, than to read more books and not narrate. Still, there are ways to do this more efficiently.
Some of my children have been prone to narrating longer than
the reading actually took- for them, sometimes I have set a timer and that’s all the time they have to narrate. I tell them they have a few seconds to gather their thoughts, and then start the timer and say, “GO!” They narrate as much as they can before the timer beeps.
We do not repeat narrations- meaning they do not each give a narration, each having to listen to the others- this is not a successful or effective way to narrate- there’s a great article on this at the Parents’ Review page on AMbleside’s website.
the reading actually took- for them, sometimes I have set a timer and that’s all the time they have to narrate. I tell them they have a few seconds to gather their thoughts, and then start the timer and say, “GO!” They narrate as much as they can before the timer beeps.
We do not repeat narrations- meaning they do not each give a narration, each having to listen to the others- this is not a successful or effective way to narrate- there’s a great article on this at the Parents’ Review page on AMbleside’s website.
However, we do not take turns with narrating either, by which I mean if A narrated last time, B will narrate the next book. No, this isn’t effective because part of the beauty of narration is the help it gives in paying attention. Unless every child must know that there is a good chance that she will be called upon to narrate after every single reading,it loses some of its effectiveness. If Child Two knows she won’t be called on to narrate because she did it last time, then she’s prone to listen just a little less carefully than otherwise. I don’t mean this is deliberate at all, I think it’s just a natural result- if we know we won’t be called on, our attention is just naturally a little less sharp than if we know we might be.
So every time we read a book all the children listening know they have an equal chance of being called on every single time. Sometimes I pick a number between one and ten to choose our narrator. Sometimes I have a different colored bead or button for each child in my pocket or in a basket, and I just draw the button, and that child narrates. Her button goes right back into my pocket, so she might be called on four times in a row- This also saves a few seconds or minutes each time, as there is no arguing about it not being somebody’s turn.=)
Sometimes a narration is not a generic ‘telling back,’ but a more focused telling of some smaller part of the reading. I might ask a child to tell me five things from the story, or tell me what the animal we just read about eats, or to tell me something (anything) this story reminds them of- another story, something that has happened to them. Sometimes I have them draw a picture from the story. Sometimes I have them act out a skit. Here again, the timer is your friend. Set your timer and give them five minutes (or less) to plan their skit- otherwise, mine could spend all day planning a major production. This is a good one to use when you have to switch out laundry or start lunch- they are getting ready to do their skit while you are doing something else anyway.Then have them act out their skit.
Sometimes I ask them to tell me just one thing, anything at all, but just one thing, from what we read. I tend to do this with stories like Parables from Nature, which are complex and perhaps not so easy to retell as a story. Takes the pressure off the children, and sometimes they give more thorough narrations with this question than when I ask for them to tell me as much as they can!
Sometimes I ask them to tell me just one thing, anything at all, but just one thing, from what we read. I tend to do this with stories like Parables from Nature, which are complex and perhaps not so easy to retell as a story. Takes the pressure off the children, and sometimes they give more thorough narrations with this question than when I ask for them to tell me as much as they can!
There are some books my younger children read where one of them narrates every single paragraph. We just read through these books much slower. They read Beowulf for Children, for instance, and this is one that got a narration after each paragraph. This means that we sometimes only read two paragraphs at a sitting, sometimes three, never more than four. That also means we took a long time to finish this book, but that’s okay. They retained more this way. So we only spenti fifteen minutes at a time on it, but we don’t even read so much as a page a day. Sometimes I have found this most helpful at the start of a book that might have more difficult language (Pilgrim’s Progress, for instance), but after a few weeks they are understanding it better and we no longer need narrate after each paragraph.
I wouldn’t do this with every book, but Beowulf for children is so totally narratable that it works very well for this.
More information on narrating:I wouldn’t do this with every book, but Beowulf for children is so totally narratable that it works very well for this.
From Volume I: "Method of Lesson.––In every case the reading should be consecutive from a well-chosen book. Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little (and get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is to be read, in order that the children may be animated by expectation; but she should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative. Then, she may read two or three pages, enough to include an episode; after that, let her call upon the children to narrate,––in turns, if there be several of them. They not only narrate with spirit and accuracy, but succeed in catching the style of their author. It is not wise to tease them with corrections; they may begin with an endless chain of 'ands,' but they soon leave this off, and their narrations become good enough in style and composition to be put in a 'print book'!
This sort of narration lesson should not occupy more than a quarter of an hour.
The book should always be deeply interesting, and when the narration is over, there should be a little talk in which moral points are brought out, pictures shown to illustrate the lesson, or diagrams drawn on the blackboard. As soon as children are able to read with ease and fluency, they read their own lesson, either aloud or silently, with a view to narration; but where it is necessary to make omissions, as in the Old Testament narratives and Plutarch's Lives, for example, it is better that the teacher should always read the lesson which is to be narrated."And again:
Questions on the Subject-Matter––When a child is reading, he should not be teased with questions as to the meaning of what he has read, the signification of this word or that; what is annoying to older people is equally annoying to children. Besides, it is not of the least consequence that they should be able to give the meaning of every word they read. A knowledge of meanings, that is, an ample and correct vocabulary, is only arrived at in one way––by the habit of reading. A child unconsciously gets the meaning of a new word from the context, if not the first time he meets with it, then the second or the third: but he is on the look-out, and will find out for himself the sense of any expression he does not understand. Direct questions on the subject-matter of what a child has read are always a mistake. Let him narrate what he has read, or some part of it. He enjoys this sort of consecutive reproduction, but abominates every question in the nature of a riddle. If there must be riddles, let it be his to ask and the teacher's to direct him the answer. Questions that lead to a side issue
or to a personal view are allowable because these interest children––'What would you have done in his place?' "
However:
"Children play with Moral Questions.––There is no part of education more nice and delicate than this, nor any in which grown-up people are more apt to blunder. Everyone knows how tiresome it is to discuss any nice moral question with children; how they quibble, suggest a hundred ingenious explanations or evasions, fail to be shocked or to admire in the right place––in fact, play with the whole question; or, what is more tiresome still, are severe and righteous overmuch, and 'deal damnation round' with much heartiness and goodwill. Sensible parents are often distressed at this want of conscience in the children; but they are not greatly in fault; the mature conscience demands to be backed up by the mature intellect, and the children have neither the one nor the other. Discussions of the kind should be put down; the children should not be encouraged to give their opinions on questions of right and wrong, and little books should not be put into their hands which pronounce authoritatively upon conduct."
From Volume III:
Let the pupil write for himself half a dozen questions which cover the passage studied; he need not write the answers if he be taught that the mind can know nothing but what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put by the mind to itself.
Younger children would not be asked to write so much, but if you have a reluctant narrator, the child might be more interested in being told, "You are going to give Mama a test after the reading, so listen and be ready to ask me some questions about this story when we are done."
You can also have a child draw a scene from the story and then explain it to you, or set up a scene with blocks or other toys and then explain it to you- this is actually a double narration, but they don't know it.
You may use props- One of my Korean students recently gave me an excellent and lively narration of Aesop's Fable of the two travellers and the bear using only a pen, a pencil and an eraser to reenact the tale. The eraser was the bear. The pen played dead in a most convincing way, and the pencil rested safely behind the tree's ear (the young narrator)!
Since Volume VI is an overview intended to present Mason's methods to those who were not familiar with them, it also has information useful to parents of quite young children, such as this:
"Children are in Form IA from 7 to 9 and their reading is wider and their composition more copious. They will 'tell' in their examinations about the Feeding of the Four Thousand, about the Building of the Tabernacle, How Doubting Castle was demolished, about the burning of Old St. Paul's, How we know that the world is round and a great deal besides; for all their work lends itself to oral composition and the power of such composition is innate in children and is not the result of instruction. Two or three points are important. Children in lB require a quantity of matter to be read to them, graduated, not according to their powers which are always present, but they require a little time to employ their power of fixed attention and that other power which they possess of fluent narration. So probably young children should be allowed to narrate paragraph by paragraph, while children of seven or eight will 'tell' chapter by chapter. Corrections must not be made during the act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed."
Also from Volume VI:
From Volume III:
Let the pupil write for himself half a dozen questions which cover the passage studied; he need not write the answers if he be taught that the mind can know nothing but what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put by the mind to itself.
Younger children would not be asked to write so much, but if you have a reluctant narrator, the child might be more interested in being told, "You are going to give Mama a test after the reading, so listen and be ready to ask me some questions about this story when we are done."
You can also have a child draw a scene from the story and then explain it to you, or set up a scene with blocks or other toys and then explain it to you- this is actually a double narration, but they don't know it.
You may use props- One of my Korean students recently gave me an excellent and lively narration of Aesop's Fable of the two travellers and the bear using only a pen, a pencil and an eraser to reenact the tale. The eraser was the bear. The pen played dead in a most convincing way, and the pencil rested safely behind the tree's ear (the young narrator)!
Since Volume VI is an overview intended to present Mason's methods to those who were not familiar with them, it also has information useful to parents of quite young children, such as this:
"Children are in Form IA from 7 to 9 and their reading is wider and their composition more copious. They will 'tell' in their examinations about the Feeding of the Four Thousand, about the Building of the Tabernacle, How Doubting Castle was demolished, about the burning of Old St. Paul's, How we know that the world is round and a great deal besides; for all their work lends itself to oral composition and the power of such composition is innate in children and is not the result of instruction. Two or three points are important. Children in lB require a quantity of matter to be read to them, graduated, not according to their powers which are always present, but they require a little time to employ their power of fixed attention and that other power which they possess of fluent narration. So probably young children should be allowed to narrate paragraph by paragraph, while children of seven or eight will 'tell' chapter by chapter. Corrections must not be made during the act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed."
Also from Volume VI:
But, it will be said, reading or hearing various books read, chapter by chapter, and then narrating or writing what has been read or some part of it,––all this is mere memory work. The value of this criticism may be readily tested; will the critic read before turning off his light a leading article from a newspaper, say, or a chapter from Boswell or Jane Austen, or one of Lamb's Essays; then, will he put himself to sleep by narrating silently what he has read. He will not be satisfied with the result but he will find that in the act of narrating every power of his mind comes into play, that points and bearings which he had not observed are brought out; that the whole is visualized and brought into relief in an extraordinary way; in fact, that scene or argument has become a part of his personal experience; he knows, he has assimilated what he has read. This is not memory work. In order to memorise, we repeat over and over a passage or a series of points or names with the aid of such clues as we can invent; we do memorise a string of facts or words, and the new possession serves its purpose for a time, but it is not assimilated; its purpose being served, we know it no more. This is memory work by means of which examinations are passed with credit. I will not try to explain (or understand!) this power to memorise;––it has its subsidiary use in education, no doubt, but it must not be put in the place of the prime agent which is attention.
Long ago, I was in the habit of hearing this axiom quoted by a philosophical old friend: "The mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself." I have failed to trace the saying to its source, but a conviction of its importance has been growing upon me during the last forty years. It tacitly prohibits questioning from without; (this does not, of course, affect the Socratic use of questioning for purposes of moral conviction); and it is necessary to intellectual certainty, to the act of knowing. For example, to secure a conversation or an incident, we 'go over it in our minds'; that is, the mind puts itself through the process of self-questioning which I have indicated. This is what happens in the narrating of a passage read: each new consecutive incident or statement arrives because the mind asks itself,––"What next?" For this reason it is important that only one reading should be allowed; efforts to memorise weaken the power of attention, the proper activity of the mind; if it is desirable to ask questions in order to emphasize certain points, these should be asked after and not before, or during, the act of narration. (emphasis added)
Parents' Review Articles (these were so eye-opening to me when we first started putting the PR articles online for free use by all interested in CM's methods):
This list of resources was compiled by AmblesideOnline Auxiliary member Kathy Livingston and is in the forum where it is updated as needed. This is the sort of useful information available in the forum, where you will also find thoughtful discussions:
Ambleside Online Narration Discussion
Ambleside Online: Some Thoughts on Narration - An article by Donna-Jean
Narration for the Newbie by Carroll Smith
A narration cube
Narration Cube.pdf (Size: 63.51 KB / Downloads: 451) A narration jar
Narration Jar Ideas 1109.doc (Size: 23 KB / Downloads: 450) Six steps of the narration sequence
Six Steps of The Narration Sequence.docx (Size: 11.41 KB / Downloads: 586) Six Steps of The Narration Sequence.pdf (Size: 8.63 KB / Downloads: 435) (bookmarks)Archipelago: Narration Helps
Archipelago: Narration Through the Ages
Afterthoughts: 31 Days of Charlotte Mason: Narration by Karen Glass
Afterthoughts: Narration and the Single Reading
What is narration and how do you do it? Bookmarks made by Veronica Smith.
AONarrationBookmark.pdf (Size: 2.2 MB / Downloads: 77)Note: Narration has also been found to be a highly effective tool in evangelism!
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Education for All, a new Charlotte Mason e-zine. In this issue: Handicrafts, toys, imagination, nature study, and more!
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