Narration: A little prep goes a long way {pt.2}

“Let the boy read and he knows, that is, if he must tell again what he has read.”

Charlotte Mason, vol 6 pg 262

If it is true that, as one writer put it – we narrate and then we know – our children's comprehension of the material then, not to mention their retention of it, depends on narration. It would seem that it's of utmost importance and that we had better get it right, hadn't we?


I love this picture as an illustration for this subject.  It reminds me of how we are always there to help if need be. Yet we allow the child to have the full experience in education;  to come face to face with his own reality, his circumstances, himself.

"The message for our age is, Believe in mind, and let education go straight as a bolt to the mind of the pupil." 

Charlotte Mason, vol 6 pg 261

As parents/teachers, just what do we have to do with narration?

"This, of getting ideas out of them, is by no means all we must do with books. 'In all labour there is profit,' at any rate in some labour; and the labour of thought is what his book must induce in the child. He must generalise, classify, infer, judge, visualise, discriminate, labour in one way or another, with that capable mind of his, until the substance of his book is assimilated or rejected, according as he shall determine; for the determination rests with him and not with his teacher." 

Charlotte Mason, vol 3 pg 180

"We as teachers offend deeply in this matter. We think that we shall be heard for our much speaking and we repeat and enforce, explain and illustrate, not altogether because we love the sound of our own voices, but because we depreciate knowledge, we depreciate children, and we do not understand that the mind and knowledge are as the two members of a ball and socket joint, each of them irrelevant without the other." 

Charlotte Mason, vol 6 pg 258

So, the getting of ideas and the putting of them into order belongs to the child. And according to the quote above, it seems there are ways we can hinder our children.

Circumstances and books vary. Some may be starting out with very young children. Others may be coming to a Mason education midway through. Still others will be adapting to special needs in their families. Many times troubles arise, and suddenly, we think we need to take things into our own hands. In order for them to get everything (something?) out of the reading, I've got to ask them QUESTIONS. Especially, leading or probing questions to prompt their memory. Right?!
No way! Listen to what CM says,

"Given a book of literary quality suitable to their age and children will know how to deal with it without elucidation. Of course they will not be able to answer questions because questions are an impertinence which we all resent, but they will tell you the whole thing with little touches of individual personality in the narrative."

Charlotte Mason, vol 6 pg 261

"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... 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?'"

Charlotte Mason, vol 1 pg 229

The only really helpful questions then, are those based on the Socratic method which tempt the listener to apply a moral or lesson to their own life.

If lotsa questions don't help, by golly, what else can we do?

Primarily, we help by giving patience, time and practice in narrations. After that, more patience, more time and more practice. And then? Still more patience, time and practice. :) You get the picture. But, Charlotte also recommends several other ways that the teacher can help without getting in the way of the reader and his mind feast. Two of these come in the way of preparation before the work of narration is done.

"The Teacher's Part.––The teacher's part is, in the firstplace, to see what is to be done, to look over the 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 [see acceptable types of questions above] and such tasks as shall give full scope to his pupils' mental activity."

Charlotte Mason, vol 3 pg 181

Pre-reading Prep:
Giving an introduction to a reading is sometimes helpful if not downright necessary. Remember, that as educators, we want to stay out of the way as much as possible. The purpose of an intro would be to aid the student's understanding, in a way so as not to interrupt the reading. It is NOT a supplement to the story. It is not a teacher dictated lesson. It is only soil preparation, as it were, so that the child may listen unencumbered by things too difficult. A helpful introduction might include, explaining difficult vocabulary, noting important names and highlighting any mapwork pertinent to the reading. Books that might benefit from a quick overview include, history titles, science reads, and a few more specifically: Parables of Nature, Our Island Story, Pilgrim's Progress and Marco Polo. But as is often the case, after recalling what happened in the last chapter, an intro won't even be necessary.

"Do always prepare the passage carefully beforehand, thus making sure that all the explanations and use of background material precede the reading and narration. The teacher should never have to stop in the middle of a paragraph to explain the meaning of a word. Make sure, before you start, that the meanings are known, and write all difficult proper names on the blackboard, leaving them there throughout the lesson. Similarly any map work which may be needed should be done before the reading starts."

PR Article, We Narrate and Then we Know

Next, a simple reminder before the reading begins, that the student will be narrating when the reading is over, would not be out of place. Just quickly say, "Listen and let the words paint pictures in your imaginations. When I stop, I'm going to ask someone to tell back the story. If it is your turn to tell, you might even choose to use some of the same words from the story! Everyone should be paying close attention."

Pre-narration Prep:
Don't forget! The goal of the following tips is simply to help the teacher stay out of the way as much as possible.

1. Keeping those names of important people and places in the story written and within eyeshot can be SUPER helpful (use the same list of words/names you used as an intro to the reading). Being able to refer back to these, should help the narrative flow. This is very practical with those books you are reading aloud, but even in those early years if your child is reading some of the more difficult books alone, he/she will still benefit from an occasional intro and/or having difficult vocab and/or names written out ahead of time.

2. It also helps to have a few moments (even a half hour or so) to seriously reflect before giving a narration. Sometimes, when put directly on the spot, a student won't do well. He/she can't think of anything or perhaps their thoughts are still a little muddled and they feel frustrated having to put words to them. Maybe they've gotten hung up on an idea planted by something they heard in the story that they need time to process before having to move on to the work of narration. Giving them just a few minutes to order their thoughts with a few of the following prompts can work wonders.

Sometimes, when the reading was difficult, or we've been a bit distracted, I give my younger kids some extra prompts, "Take a minute to remember back to where we started reading. [pause] Can you remember what happened first? [pause] okay, got it? After you've thought for a minute, start as soon as you're ready." This seems to help them to put it in sequence.

3. And finally, for older children, knowing that they can jot down notes, or make lists or marks in the margins of their books, may help them to better formulate their narrations, and avoid a second reading. The students might write down their own questions that cover the reading, or enumerate a series of points made, or any other variety of activities that will help them to own the material for themselves.

“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."

But let this be a warning to us all...

"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.”

Charlotte Mason, vol 3 pg 181

Join me again next time in thinking how we might approach correcting narrations.

Posts in this series:
And then, like, well... and other narration woes. {pt.1}
Narration: A little prep goes a long way {pt.2}  <- -="-" are="are" b="b" here="here" you="you">
Narration: Correcting sloppy speech {pt.3}

Narration: And then, like, well... and other narration woes. {pt.1}

"To begin with, there is nothing mysterious or magical about narration. We all do it. When we have had a pleasant outing or listened to a beautiful concert or seen an exciting play, our first impulse is to tell our friends about it, and how frustrating it is if, when we get home the friends are out or watching a television programme which must not be interrupted. We tell them about it later on, but our account will not have the same vividness and spontaneity as it would have had if we had told it when it was fresh in our minds. This is an important point to remember when we come to consider the method of a narration lesson."   E.K. Manders, PR Article

During the course of the day, I talk. I tell my kids stuff. They hear me say 'so' a lot. I also connect my thoughts with 'and then', a lot. Sometimes, I use 'like' mid-sentence (I know, it's so west-coast. I am hopeful in my belief that I am overcoming this, however). I ramble and fail to connect my thoughts sometimes. All of this has shown itself clearly, in...  well, the way my kids tell stories. Oh yes. It also sometimes comes out when my kids narrate the stories I read to them.

Have you ever had this problem?

I know that at least some of you have. I am actually quite confident I am not alone in this. I am equally sure that there is hope. It is not the end of the world! With a little guidance, practice and time our kids' will improve in speech and narration... and so will we!

"Given absolute attention, and we can do much with four hundred hours a year (1,600 hours in our four years' course) but only if we go to work with a certainty that the young students crave knowledge of what we call the 'humanities,' that they read with absolute attention and that, having read, they know. They will welcome the preparation for public speaking, an effort for which everyone must qualify in these days, which the act of narration offers."  Charlotte Mason, v6p124

It is important to remember some key points about narration.

Narrating is natural. We want to tell what we think about the things we know. The kids will hear a story, and remember *some* things that stand out to them. That's what we want! We want them to remember *some* details, *some* ideas... the ones that start the wheels a turnin'! The ideas that form thoughts that become not just a name, but a picture, a person, a living idea. It will most certainly differ from child to child. And this may very well happen internally, and you may not be aware of its happening.

Let's help them (by example and other means) to tell their stories well. Over the years, I have seen some marked improvement with my kiddos by using some of the following ideas.

Helpful Hints:

Type out their narration verbatim. You could voice record it on the computer, so as not to interrupt or frustrate them by having to ask them to slow down or repeat something.

Have them listen to it, read it over, or read it aloud to them. If it's obvious, this will be enough! :)

You might ask them to count their 'and thens' (or whatever trouble word), or when typing, ask them where you should put the periods, or some such gentle way of pointing out the error.

If they don't notice their extreme run-on sentence structure, you might explain to them what a sentence is, and give examples of different ways of starting one out. Often, I remind them to start the sentence with the person or thing it is about. That makes it kinda easy. I tell them, "Instead of saying, '...and then after that, Napoleon marched his army to...', skip the 'and then and after that' and just start out with the interesting part, 'Napoleon'!"

Gentle ways of making them hear themselves are best. I'm sure you can come up with many of your own that will fit your context best. I tend to think that we probably should draw their attention to it, but not DURING the narration. Let them finish, and then correct if needed.

More things to remember:

• We teach by example. Even though it may not have occurred to us that we could be part of our children's narration problem, I think a look at some of our own habits of modeling speech would be worth our attention. Enough said. :)
• Thankfully, many problems tend to fix themselves when written narrations and grammar lessons come into play (usually around y4).
• Prepping them for narrations will help (I will talk about this in the next post).
• We correct, by helping them correct themselves (stay tuned for an upcoming post). 
• Relax, enjoy the stories, and practice.
• Take your time. For beginners, don't expect too much too soon. Narrating is a complicated skill!
  (see quote below)

::

"How injurious then is our habit of depreciating children; we water their books down and drain them of literary flavour, because we wrongly suppose that children cannot understand what we understand ourselves; what is worse, we explain and we question. A few pedagogic maxims should help us, such as, "Do not explain." "Do not question," "Let one reading of a passage suffice," "Require the pupil to relate the passage he has read." The child must read to know; his teacher's business is to see that he knows. All the acts of generalization, analysis, comparison, judgment, and so on, the mind performs for itself in the act of knowing. If we doubt this, we have only to try the effect of putting ourselves to sleep by relating silently and carefully, say, a chapter of Jane Austen or a chapter of the Bible, read once before going to bed. The degree of insight, the visualization, that comes with this sort of mental exercise is surprising."  Charlotte Mason v6, p 304

I'll be posting more of my thoughts on narration over the next week or two. So, stay tuned!  


Sometimes, we have fun. Just sometimes. ;)

Upcoming posts:
And then, like, well... and other narration woes. {pt.1}  
Narration: A little prep goes a long way {pt.2}
Narration: Correcting sloppy speech {pt.3}

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Language Arts {vol 1}

Welcome to the latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

In this edition, we'll be looking at the place of Copywork, Dictation and Composition in a CM education.



Copywork: (also known as transcription)

"The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter writing or dictation, but transcription, slow and beautiful work... Transcription should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut, and then write from memory." v1 p239

Dictation:  

"Here the object aimed at is to let the child get a correct picture of the word, and the passages to be dictated (not words without their context) are therefore carefully prepared, so that no misspelt word shall leave its impress on the brain."  Mrs. Franklin

Composition:  (also known as narration! v1 p248 & v6 p191)

"Oral composition is the habit of the school from the age of six to eighteen." v6 p270

Are you ready? Grab your cup of tea and spend a while with us looking at the following aspects of a Living Education...

Clara presents Does using the Charlotte Mason method of teaching writing through copywork, dictation, and narration really work?

Jennifer Mackintosh presents Wildflowers and Marbles: Considering - Charlotte Mason and Our Approach to Language Arts.  *She's written a series, so make sure to look for the link w/in the post! :)

Sarah presents What Composition at This Age? posted at All That's Goood.

Queen of Carrots presents A Few Ideas for Copywork.




"The child can simultaneously with reading make up words with loose letters, and copy them so that spelling, dictation and reading can go hand in hand." Mrs. Franklin in The Home Training of Children.


Lanaya presents Perfection in Letter Formation.

Barb presents Copywork and Dictation in High School? Simply Charlotte Mason Giveaway! - She's giving away two copies!

Traci Brooks presents Composition Comes By Nature.

amy in peru presents Narration, just a part of the whole & Copywork: an assignment




We will continue a supervised copywork lesson once a week even in year 7, until I notice we've regained mastery over some laziness that has seemed to creep in once again.


Amy Dumas presents Dictation - It Really Works! posted at Ambling.

Nancy Kelly presents My Calendar of Firsts.

4sweetums presents What Tools Do You Need to Homeschool?.

Jimmie presents Q & A: Did Charlotte Mason Espouse Notebooking?.




In the picture above, the boys are copying from an electronic version of Spelling Wisdom Book 3, and here Bria's using Book 1. Her attention has improved significantly over the last 2 weeks of school! I'm so proud of her! ;)

Tricia Hodges presents Tree Reflection: A Pastels Tutorial.

Cindy West presents The Study of a Twig.

Andrea @ Mosaic Ideas presents Mosaic Ideas for All Ages.

Kelly @ The Homeschool Co-op presents What Really Makes Our Kids Happy?.



The next CMBCarnival will be:

Religious Studies - 11/8
Suggested Reading:
CM vol.3 p137ff & vol.6 p.159-169
Parent's Review article: A Boy's Religion & The Development of the Religious Instinct in the Child

Submit your posts here!

Would you like to submit related photos or art to the upcoming carnival?  In keeping with the theme, I'd love to use other CMer's things, if your items are chosen, full credit will be given.  If you are interested, please send an e-mail to: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com.

Narration, just one part of the whole.

Can I just say that I didn't really believe that narrating, dictation and copywork were enough to teach my kids how to write? Well, it's true. I had my serious doubts in the beginning.  I admit it...  until somewhat recently, I always supplemented.

Don't get me wrong, we have always narrated. We started copywork and studied dictation at the corresponding appropriate ages. But I didn't believe. I didn't really think that could possibly be all.

Well, somewhere along the road, I became a believer. Some of us must see to believe :) My boys are finally old enough, or is it that I've finally been on this living education road long enough to trust that Charlotte Mason knew what she was talking about? Whatever it is, I love her. Our home and school are SO much more enjoyable because of the influence of her thoughts and experience.



image courtesy of uffizi_c

I could say more, but time would fail me... so I'll just link to some highlights!

A quote from Elsie Kitching clearing up some misunderstandings of CM's use of Language Arts, applies in our day as well:

'I had a letter from the Headmistress of a large Secondary School the other day, in which she said, "I do not think there is any difference between our use of narration and yours, except that we have it by way of composition the next day, and you have it immediately." I could only answer that there was a very great deal of difference. Compositions may always be set on subjects, taken from the work, which have been narrated. This is not the repetition of the child's first effort of attention, but a fresh effort to use his mind in another way. The composition probably calls for a summary, or a portion of what the child has read, in depicting a character or in discussing the pros and cons of any point, with illustrations from the general reading of the week.

May I say that Miss Mason's Method is at present suffering from the prevalent idea that her Method is narration, and chiefly the narration of English. Her Method covers the whole of a child's school life, in fact the whole of his life; the habit of narration is the means by which we all make anything our own to which we give full attention.

It has been said, on the other hand, that the one effort of attention and the one narration implies that the child must never do anything a second time, which is again a very much mistaken interpretation of Miss Mason's teaching. The second time may, as I have said, come in the way of composition later on; it probably comes again in the end of term examination, and certainly, if the child is interested, frequently in after life. There are also in the upper Forms the interesting sidelights which one book or subject throws upon another, sometimes covering the same ground from another point of view.'

Helpful links:
AmblesideOnline's Language Arts Scope and Sequence
AO notes on Language Arts
We Narrate and then We Know
AO narration page
An Advisory member's narration journey.
Some helpful answers to common questions on narration.
Some Notes on Narration - a Parent's Review article
AO copywork page

One of our own copywork lessons at Fisher Academy
A dictation lesson from the Parent's Review

CM Blog Carnival on Narration is up!

Oh dear. I've really up and done it now... I'm super late in announcing this Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival! You didn't get a mid-week reminder note either?! That would be totally my fault too. Will you so graciously forgive? My totally viable excuse is that we haven't had an internet connection since we left Houston two Mondays ago... and yes, there were McDonald's and Starbucks along the highways and byways, but we've had nothing but straight driving 56 of the last 120 hours!  Please accept my sincere apologies.  I cannot assure you that it will never happen again, but I can assure you that I hope it will never happen again! ;)

Thankfully, the blog carnival is up and running despite my failures... !

Announcing the most recent edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival:

:: Narration, vol. 1 @ Planting Little Seeds ::

...at the Grand Canyon!!

The topic for the next CM carnival is (everyone's favorite!):

Nature Study

The reading selections are as follows:

• CM series: Vol.1, pg43 - 93
• PR article: How to Best Study Nature

Yay! I can't wait for this edition!!!  I hope you will consider posting this time around even if you normally don't!  Get outside and do some nature study or consider submitting an older post on Nature Study?! Please make sure to submit your posts for the upcoming carnival by no later than 6/13 at 5pm (otherwise it will be auto-postponed until the next carnival by blogcarnival.com)

PS.
I'm sitting in McDonald's using free Wi-Fi, celebrating the eve of the final day of travels... woohoo!

a mother can narrate too.

Even though I haven't blogged in forever, I am still in fact dutifully educating myself for the betterment of my children's education. One of the myriad ways I do this is by reading the suggested (optional, mind you) readings for the twice monthly Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival.  Yes, I actually do read them ;) and yes, I do it because I like to :)

Because we are attempting to ever so timidly begin schooling again after an insane long time, we are in need of some helpful reminders on why we do what we do. How convenient then, that the upcoming blog carnival is on Narration, one of the key ingredients to a Charlotte Mason education. As my boys are coming to the age where they are going to be taking more control of their own education, I decided that they too would benefit from a better understanding of why narration is so helpful necessary.  So, together we read the PR article,"We Narrate and Then We Know". It was interesting as they critiqued my husband's and my varying methods with narration and pointed out where we had made mistakes along the way. They also had questions, and I shared some pointers on different tools they might use to improve their narrations.

All said, it was an encouraging discussion.

Since then I've been thinking (unlikely isn't it?), about how much information I absorb without experiencing a fantastic rate of retention. I wasn't trained this way unfortunately. But, the principles hold true for children as well as adults. I've got to get better about regularly retelling what I'm learning in order to help my brain remember it. Not only that, but Narration helps us to learn to order our thoughts. Do you ever feel like a muddle brain when you're trying to tell someone something you've read somewhere at some point and can't quite remember the details?  If you know me, you know that I have this problem... a lot. Narration can help. With regular narrations, we will improve the way our minds order information and then store it, so that we have it available to share with others!  yay!

So, how can a mother narrate what she's learning?

Write it:

• write a narration in your journal, 
• in a commonplace book, 
• in a letter or an e-mail to a friend, 
• or better yet blog it.

Tell it:

• to a friend over coffee, 
• over the phone, 
• or to your spouse (this will help with drastic summarizing skills as well!)

**This post is up today over at Educating Mother.

Wanna share in the discussion? Pop on over there to answer the question: 

What ways are most practical for you to narrate what you're learning?

Narration... in Spanish or French, hard?!

There's been some talk over on the AOlist about how to incorporate narration into a child's foreign language learning experience.  Sometimes this seems like an impossibly enormous leap to make, especially if we as parents are not fluent in the language being studied!

Though not necessarily easy, I think it is quite possible... especially when taken little by little.  Narration skills are definitely invaluable for learning language!

My children have spent a good amount of time in Peru, where Spanish is the main language spoken.  However, as we homeschool, they have had much less of an opportunity to master the language, as they undoubtedly would have had, had they been completely immersed as Micah and I were in the beginning.  Did you know that you can live in a foreign country and NOT be immersed?  Well, it's possible. :S This just means that we have to work at Spanish with our kids just like the average Joe even though we both speak Spanish and we live in a Spanish speaking country... who'd a thought?!

No matter where you live, or what languages you already speak, learning a new one requires work.  You can't expect to just pick it up by listening to CDs or even hanging out with native speakers.  Effort is required to learn it well.  And the complicated thing about it is, at first there are so MANY aspects to learning it well!  Pronunciation, verb conjugations, masculine and feminine articles, reversed sentence structure, etc, etc.  On the other hand, the encouraging thing is, just as we continue to learn and polish our mother tongue, English, we remember that we will never stop learning our second and third languages as well.  So, we can throw the expectation for perfection right out the window.  We must be diligent and do our very best, we aspire to be effective communicators, we strive for excellence, but we can let go of that elusive perfection... ahhhh.  yes.  now, that's better, isn't it?  :)

So, learning a new language is something that's somewhat complicated seeing as there are so many things to learn seemingly all at once.  However, we don't really have to be overwhelmed by it!  We just slowly and regularly get into the habit of exposing ourselves and our children to the language, little by little.  We hear it spoken, we look at it written, we listen to CDs, we watch DVDs (using the language option), and eventually we actually study it!  We build on the things that we already know, new lights come on; and, it can be really fun!  :)

So, narration.

For those of us implementing a Charlotte Mason education using narration as a key ingredient, this idea may seem really difficult.  After all, many of our children have struggled with narration in English!  ;)  But, narration doesn't have to be difficult or dreaded.  It's kind of a natural thing!  ;)  Remember, narration is retelling what we've just heard.

Here's what Charlotte says:

"Children in Form IIB have easy French Lessons with pictures which they describe, but in IIA while still engaged on the Primary French Course children begin to use the method which is as full of promise in the teaching of languages as in English, that is, they are expected to narrate the sentence or paragraph which has been read to them. Young children find little difficulty in using French vocables, but at this stage the teacher should with the children's help translate the little passage which is to be narrated, then re-read it in French and require the children to narrate it. This they do after a time surprisingly well, and the act of narrating gives them some command of French phrases as far as they go, much more so than if they learnt the little passage off by heart. They learn French songs in both divisions and act French Fables (by Violet Partington) in Form IIA. This method of closely attentive reading of the text followed by narration is continued in each of the Forms. Thus Form II is required to "Describe in French, picture 20." "Narrate the story Esope et le Voyageur." Part of the term's work in Form III is to "Read and narrate Nouveaux Contes Français, by Marc Ceppi." Form IV is required amongst other things to "Read and narrate Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes." Forms V and VI are required to "Write a résume' of Le Misanthrope or L'Avare," "Translate into French, Modern Verse, page 50, 'Leisure.'" vol 6 pg 212

So, using the words made available to them the youngest were to narrate a picture.  Hmmmm.  That sounds easy enough.  Let's take this one for an example:

First, I talk about the picture, this gives them vocabulary that they may or may not have known, setting it out, as it were, on a shelf, giving them words to work with and to choose from.  "En este dibujo hay un payaso sentado en una banquita azul.  Está tocando su flauta... ¿cuál canción está tocando? ¿puedes adivinar? Su cabello es muy crespo y tiene muchos colores. ¡Aha! ¡Hay un pajarito escondiéndose en su cabello! Tiene nariz roja y redonda como muchos de los payasos tienen. Parece que el gato verde con puntitos rojos está escuchado a la música..." 

["In this picture there's a clown seated on a little blue stool.  He's playing his flute... which song do you think he's playing?   His hair is really colorful and curly.  Hey!  There's a little bird hiding in his hair!  He has a red nose, like most clowns.  It seems as if the spotted green cat is listening to the music..."]

Possible narrations:
Mya (3yo) pointing,

"¡Un payaso!" [a clown!]
"¡Un gato verde!" [a green cat!]

Siah (6yo)





Bria (7yo)





Cull (11yo),

"Hay un payaso tocando una flauta con pelo crespo de muchos colores.  Hay un pajarito escondiéndose en su pelo, un gato verde con puntitas rojas escuchando y un sapito sentado en sus pies."

[A clown with colorful curly hair playing a flute. There's a little bird hiding in his hair, a green cat with red spots listening and a little frog sitting on his feet.]

For parents who are just learning themselves, the description will be much simpler.  "Un payaso con una nariz roja" [A clown with a red nose].  Or if you're lucky enough to get your hands on some Spanish picture books, you may just be reading from whatever is written in the book, in which case, having already looked up unfamiliar words, you'll want to concentrate on your pronunciation and intonation of voice.  ;)  It's not as hard as it might seem, after a while.  ;)  really. 

Later (for older students, or in our case, more advanced learners), the children were to narrate a story.  This could go sentence by sentence if necessary, but I'm thinking that if you are advanced enough in the language to be able to read the story and your child understands anything about what you've read, then perhaps they'd be able to handle a paragraph at a time, using simple language.  Admittedly, it takes some time to advance to the point where they'll be able to understand an entire story (even an entire paragraph).  But, CM explains that the child isn't expected to understand ALL the words PERFECTLY before beginning narration.  "Young children find little difficulty in using French vocables, but at this stage the teacher should with the children's help translate the little passage which is to be narrated [into English], then re-read it in French and require the children to narrate it."  So, let's take this section for example:

"Pablo escribió a los cristianos de Galacia sobre cómo debían adorar a Dios.
Ustedes son hijos de Dios por la fe. No hay diferencia entre el creyente judío y el creyente gentil; entre el creyente que es esclavo y el creyente que es libre; entre el hombre creyente y la mujer creyente. Una vez que se convierten en cristianos, ustedes son iguales. Todos son descendientes de Abraham y recibirán todas las bendiciones que Dios le prometió a él. Dios les ha dado el Espíritu Santo como prueba de eso, el Espíritu que clama a Dios y sabe que él es su Padre amoroso."  ~ La Biblia en Un Año para niños, Rhonda Davies

Possible narrations:
Siah (6yo),
"Pablo predicó a los cristianos."

(Basically, at this stage, the beginner might just pick a phrase, remember it, repeat it to himself and then tell back that phrase... that´s okay to start with... he´s still learning to narrate!)

Bria (7yo),
"Pablo ha dicho a las personas de Galacia que Jesus les ama y que él que era cristiano, no hay diferentes, todos eran iguales.

[Pablo has said to the people in Galatia that Jesus loves them and that he who was a christian, there aren't any diferences, everyone was equal.  *I don't usually make them aware that I'm making corrections, I just often quietly repeat what they've said (as if acknowledging what they've said) except using the correct verb conjugation while their giving their narration.]

CM mentions that the teacher and child work together to translate the passage to English.  This helps with comprehension of new vocabulary at the same time concreting known vocabulary.  The teacher then re-reads the passage in French (or other language), before the child is expected to narrate.

So, starting at the very beginning (it's a very good place to start!), we can lessen our expectations.  Narration is really just retelling.  So, if we have a very small vocabulary and we describe a picture with a very few words, then our children will narrate with a very few words... and that's perfectly fine for starting!  We build on that, and they build too... learning, learning.  Always learning.  :)

Helpful Links:

My favorites picture books online in Spanish:
El Globo de Maria (SUPER EASY!  nice illustrations)
El Caballito de Palo (Short and sweet.  colorful illustrations, the clown above is from this story.)
The Royal Raven (in English, Spanish and Dutch! based on an Aesop's Fable, features a witch - please preview)

by Peruvian authors:  (The last several are rather twaddle-ish... ;)
La Nube Rosa
La espada magica del Don Rodrigo
En las punas
El Amaru
El Condor

La Llamita Coja

For older children (w/ more advanced language skill):
Palma for children (biography of a famous Peruvian poet from the 1800s)

Others available in English, Spanish and French:
Que Desastre!
The Story of the Three Little Pigs
I Wouldn't Tell a Lie
Gol de Federico!
Waldo, One, Two, Three! (EASY!)
Denslow's Humpty Dumpty
Denslow's Three Bears


French songs:
Vieilles Chansons (Old songs and ballads for children)



Some really great books for first reading/narration experiences (available in many languages)...
These are really great! There is no story, there is just a big picture in the center of the page, and all around the edges are images focusing on smaller parts of the bigger picture with the word in Spanish (or French, as the case may be). This makes it easy for speakers at different levels to talk about the picture... It could be as simple as, "Mira, hay una abeja!" or as advanced and eloquent as your vocabulary allows. ;)




Use these links, and I earn a commission! :) thank you.

Please feel free to add your thoughts and language experiences in the comments.  

What you share will help us all!  ;)

a mommy moment...

A thumb-sucking baby perched on the back of this chair twirling my hair with her finger
and a small girl waits to tell her story...
Sandwiched between words for the second-born's spelling test
is discussion with a boy whose mission has only one requirement: his very life.
A small sweating boy sticks to my legs watching pictures...
all while a hymn keeps time softly in the background.


...this is a picture of this homeschooling mommy today.

My kids LOVE school!

Well, they love the stories/narration that we do with Ambleside Online! Both boys beg for Burgess Bird book every week! This is a book with Peter Rabbit getting to know the different birds that nest in the Old Orchard. -they are disappointed when I remind them that it's only scheduled every other week on the schedule we're using. Today the chapter was about a Least Flycatcher named "Chebec". While I was looking this up online, I found an absolutely awesome thing: a field guide matched to your zip code by National Wildlife Federation! Today we read "Tree in the Trail" chapters 17 & 18. This has prompted an interest in Indians, Wagon Trains, Santa Fe trail, Cowboys, Buffalo, etc, etc. Such great ideas for creative play. We also read George Wasthington and his hatchet from Baldwin's 50 Famous Stories. At first mention of George, GuerrillaGuy spoke up and said, "Hey, that's that famous war guy!" If something is somehow related to warfare or combat, I'm telling ya, my GuerillaGuy remembers it. We also read two Aesop's Fables - these aren't really anybody's favorites, but at least not a dreaded chore. As for independent reading and math they are not nearly as enthusiastic. But we trudge on because to my husband it is important that they keep up with the other kids their age. Our project for the week is to start our timeline book. I have to figure out exactly how we're going to do it, and then we'll work on putting the figures on for the stories/history that we've already done. Maybe I'll blog about that as we go along. Amy

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by humpty (216.150.112.96)

Thanks for link to the bird in your zip and the Burgess Bird Book. I am going to buy the bird book. It looks great.