Question about typing oral narrations in MTMM

[LynnH]

First let me say I am very impressed with the follow up activities in this guide. I really see how they move it up to the next level. I can see where some of these will be quite challenging for ds, but I know they are necessary skills for high school. As I have poured over my guide I have a question about the boxes that say I am to type up his oral narration. I know Julie said that she has Wyatt record his on his ipod and then she types it. My question is do I type it exactly as he says it? He still struggles with not beginning every sentence with then or and or doing one long run on sentence. Is the point for me to type it just as he says it so that he can look at it and realize where he needs to improve? Or am I to correct it into proper sentences as I type it? I wasn't sure since it gets folded and goes into his notebook.

[Carrie]

Lynn,

You'll want to type it just as he says it, as the typed narration is meant to be a "recording" of the way the child spoke the narration.

One thing that is great about the ipod is that the child can go back and begin again narrating, if he doesn't like the start, or he can pause and regroup while narrating to gain a better narration. It allows the student time to process and pause while narrating.

I allowed my son in MTMM to refer to the key words listed in the guide as he narrated, and he sometimes paused to look up a name, place, or date from his text. I thought this was fine, since the readings are getting much longer and more involved! I, didn't, however allow my child to narrate while looking right at the pages of text.

Blessings,
Carrie

[8arrows]

I don't have my MTMM guide yet, but may I ask what the rationale is for the parent typing it up? Why don't the kids just type it up? What am I missing? I am feeling like a mean mom here, but I am thinking that they can type it up just as well as I can.

[Motherjoy]

Well, we skip it here. But I don't mind being talked into doing it.

JD still orally narrates to me, but I don't type it out. He writes in the box that he did, in fact, orally narrate to me.

Sorry...I'm lazy...

[Carrie]

8arrows,

If you had your child type the narration, then it would be a written narration. When you type it from your child orally narrating, it is still an oral narration because you are listening to your child narrate orally (and then typing out what he/she said). Since written and oral narrations are two different forms of narrating, they have different sets of skills and different outputs.

If you had your child type his/her oral narration from his/her ipod, then eventually I think the child would just want to skip the oral narration part as no one is really listening to him/her orally narrate anymore. He/she no longer has an audience for the oral narration, so at that point it just becomes a written narration.

It is wonderful to have a record of your child's oral narrations, and typing them gives the child that record. There is often quite a bit of difference in output between an oral narration and written narration (especially in length, vocabulary used, tone, style, references to other things the child has read, etc.). An oral narration is given for an audience, which definitely affects the way it sounds. Written narrations are more a reflection of the author's writing style, and includes emphasis on spelling, grammar, punctuation, dates, names, places, etc. which will definitely impact the length and style of the narration. Orally narrating is a less skill-intensive narration for a child at this point, making it more fun and less rule oriented.

Blessings,
Carrie

[arstephia]

I want to chime in as this was a totally new concept for us. I was tempted to forego having me write them because he does a great job with both his oral and written narrations, but I try to stay as close to the guide as possible so I gave it a try. It is a good thing for both of us as he has to think of what he is going to say and then say it as I am frantically trying to keep up! LOL! I have other kids on the computer a lot of the time when I am doing this portion, so I am often writing it by hand. He thinks it is a fun role reversal of the dictations. LOL! But it does make him be concise in his wording since he knows I am writing and can't keep up with too much wordiness. I too have him glance at the key ideas and make him include as many of those as he can. It has gotten to be a favorite part of the week since so much of what he does is independent as a high schooler. A lot of people with high schoolers feel they never see their students because they are just working through texts. HOD requires a lot of interaction with my teen, and I treasure that. So, don't wish away that activity. It is really a blessing.

[LynnH]

Thank you so much for the insight into this activity. I think it will be a great tool for him to see how his oral narration looks. I think it will help him improve his oral narrations. We have tried many things to reduce the and ums and nothing has worked. I think this might do the trick.

[school4princesses]

One other thought on this. I was in a session once where an exercise was done. Someone had to recount a memorable event from the first 8 years of their life, and someone else had to record it exactly as they spoke it. Afterwards, when it was read back, it was interesting to note all of the run on sentences that were used. When we are speaking, we do not think of the grammar that we use; as a result we end up using horrible grammar. But after this exercise is done several times, it makes a person really slow down and make sure that their grammar is correct when they speak. After all, we want them to be proficient and coherent in their public speaking. I think this is a great way to hone that skill.

Blessings.

[8arrows]

Thank you for the encouragement, recommendations, and reasoning.

[snadig]

Ladies this was very interesting thread. Can you all chime in on some of the differences from revtorev to MTMM? I am just wandering how much of a jump in skills this guide is. My daughter would really like to do the geography guide and could probably handle it all, but I am not sure I want her to have a heavy school day yet. She is doing great with RevtoRev, but is ready for some time off.

Thanks!
Stacey