Preparing Hearts - Narrations and Independent Responsibility

[hfwalker]

We're about 5 units away from finishing Preparing with my DD who is 10. I've received some advice off and on via Facebook, but thought I'd write here, too.

Written narrations have been a struggle from the beginning. Especially if it's a topic she doesn't want to write about and that day is probably our longest. I've tried limiting her to answering just a few of the questions listed, but the assignment still drags on. I don't know how to motivate her. I'm also wondering if I'm part of the issue. Sometimes she will just write the thoughts that come to mind regardless of the order in which they occurred and has a hard time figuring out a closing sentence. I stress that the thoughts need to be in order. Should I be? She does remember to incorporate the skills we've talked about which is positive.

Oral narrations are better executed, but rarely are points in the Key Idea mentioned. Is that okay? I will usually listen to what she says and then ask further questions.

I feel like I still have to go over the independent work with her before she proceeds. Most of this past year she would say she read the assignment but write the copy work in manuscript instead of cursive or miss steps in an experiment and then tell me that she didn't notice it in the instructions. Are their any tips out there to help with this?

[my3sons]

We're about 5 units away from finishing Preparing with my DD who is 10. I've received some advice off and on via Facebook, but thought I'd write here, too.

Written narrations have been a struggle from the beginning. Especially if it's a topic she doesn't want to write about and that day is probably our longest. I've tried limiting her to answering just a few of the questions listed, but the assignment still drags on. I don't know how to motivate her. I'm also wondering if I'm part of the issue. Sometimes she will just write the thoughts that come to mind regardless of the order in which they occurred and has a hard time figuring out a closing sentence. I stress that the thoughts need to be in order. Should I be? She does remember to incorporate the skills we've talked about which is positive.

Oral narrations are better executed, but rarely are points in the Key Idea mentioned. Is that okay? I will usually listen to what she says and then ask further questions.

I feel like I still have to go over the independent work with her before she proceeds. Most of this past year she would say she read the assignment but write the copy work in manuscript instead of cursive or miss steps in an experiment and then tell me that she didn't notice it in the instructions. Are their any tips out there to help with this?

Oral narrations and written narrations are intended to be gradually improved from year to year. Narrating is a surprisingly difficult skill! I try it myself now and then, just as a reminder how much focus it takes to do. Carrie has this to say about her research on CM's style of narrating...

Another way we assess kiddos through HOD is with CM-style oral and written narrations. Written and oral narrations CM-style look very different from child to child. This is different than written narrations done classical style, which result in more of a summary (meaning most kiddos' narrations will look very similar when done summary-style). These are two different types of narrations. One is a summary, with certain key points being required. The other is a true written narration CM-style, where the child sifts and sorts through information, choosing what to write about and borrowing words and phrases from the author to write in the author's style (without having certain key points that MUST be included for the narrations to be "correct").

In this way, a classical style summary can have a specific answer key. A CM-style written narration wouldn't even know where to begin with an "answer key", as each child will draw out or seize upon different points to express within the narration. This is why in HOD's guides, we may ask leading questions to get the child thinking about what he/she read, but we leave the sifting and sorting up to the child as far as what to write and how to write it. The key idea within our guides on written narration days will provide you as the parent with a summary of the reading, so you can see if your child is on-topic in his/her narration, but it is not intended that the child include all those points in the key idea within the narration.

We do have children practice orally narrating in both summary style and descriptive style in our upper HOD guides, because it is important to have a balance of both styles of narrating. But it is important to understand the two different styles of narrating, as there is much more to narrating than simply summarizing what was read. Otherwise narrating in general can quickly become an exercise in outlining key points and will lose much of what makes CM-style narrating meaningful.

Since summarizing lends itself well to outlining, and these skills are both important, we teach these areas through Rod and Staff English in conjunction with science or history passages that are more factual. This is because a summary lends itself well to being written from just a portion of a book, while a written narration is instead intended to pull from a more continuous ongoing story, rather than just an excerpt. So, we tend to use ongoing books for written narration practice.

This is because the knowledge gained as the child continues reading the same book, provides insights that can then be drawn upon and pulled together as connections when writing the narration. This process requires a different set of skills than those required to write a summary from a passage plucked from a source, where the goal is a summation of the key points in the particular excerpt or passage instead. We delineate that summarizing and narrating are two different skills with two different styles. It is important to note that narrating CM-style is a very different skill from summarizing or outlining. I do skim the text as my child is orally narrating to me, holding the book in hand. This helps me see if the child is including ideas, names, places, etc. from the text, but it also shows me that the connections are those which the child has made!

I hope this helps as you ponder how oral and written narrations are handled within the HOD guides.

I think Carrie's comments above fully answer most of your questions, but I'll just share that I have learned to use the Appendix helps to remind me of my role in narrating, by children's role in narrating, and the ways in which I can best help without quizzing my kiddos and derailing CM's intended purpose for the creativity and individuality aspect of narrating. Carrie has an excellent progression of narrating assignments for students as they move through the guides. Each year more depth is encouraged and taught simply by following the daily plans carefully for each HOD guide. That brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention. For the last portion of PHFHG, I'd have your dd read the "I" boxes several times from start to finish before starting her work. I'd have her either underline in the guide the things she has to do, or have her orally tell you before she begins what she is going to do. At this point, if she misses something she is supposed to do, I'd have her reread it and underline or tell you orally again what she is to do prior to beginning. Then, if she misses it (i.e. writes in print not cursive, and you made sure she underlined that or orally said she had to do that), I'd have her redo the assignment. I'd let her know that the purpose of the "I" boxes is for her to be able to learn to read the directions and follow them accurately step-by-step, and that since you are to the end of the guide, she'll need to do each assignment right or redo it to better prepare for next year. Then, I'd encourage, encourage, encourage her every time she gets it right! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie