Stop Press - I started a blog!

[nee1]

Seastar,

Thank you, thank you, and thank you. I greatly appreciate the detailed explanation. I'm implementing your strategies immediately! I'll report back in a few weeks time to update you on our progress.

Please, if you remember other things you did to improve speech and vocabulary via read-alouds, I'll be very happy to hear them. Thank you again for your detailed explanation above. I'm extremely grateful.

[seastar]

My pleasure! And please do report back - I love to hear how other people are getting on and it inspires me to do more.

 BTW have you read the section on narration in The Well-Trained Mind? They promote narration as a way to develop the child's understanding and story-telling skills. However, it also has an incredible impact on language skills. At a basic level, you simply ask questions as you read. Eventually, you ask the child to summarise the story by asking something like: "What was the story about?" They recommend the following questions to help the child hone in onthe book's central theme: "What was the most exciting thing that happened in the book" or "Who was your favourite character?", "What did your favourite character do?" Of great importance is that the child answers the questions in complete sentences. Well, inspired by the book, I have started to insist on complete sentences in all of her speech, with great success.

Two other things I forgot to mention in my last post: I talk a great deal about the illustrations in the books which really develops her understanding of the story, character's emotions & motivations, and provides her with the langauge to describe the story. Also, around the time of starting the book challenge, I introduced audio books for car journeys. Initially, I was just using CDs of books we already own. However, after a week, her listening skills had developed enough to introduce new books. (PS - I'm part way through a blog post on audio books so hopefully I'll have more to add then).

[andreasro]

You have so much to share! You should write on your blog the things you wrote here, too. They are precious pieces of advice, you know? Thank you, and keep going! I'm a beginner-blogger too, learning from this big and great community 

[seastar]

That's a good idea, thanks andreasro. Have you had your blog for long?

[nee1]

Seastar,

It appears you were reading my mind. When I read the ‘Story of the Day’ idea you implement with your child at the end of the each day, I thought: ``that appears to be narration; here the child is narrating the events of the day rather than a storyline of a book’’. Thanks for sharing your experiences. You’ve given me a lot to think about.

Yes, I’ve read the Well Trained Mind ideas on narration.  Have you read Charlotte Mason’s ideas on narration? I think her stuff is powerful too. Catherine Levison has written 2 primers on Charlotte Mason’s methods. One of her books is: `A Charlotte Mason Education’. I quote from the chapter titled ‘Narration’:

``Narration is assimilating information and retelling it. Anyone would listen closely if they knew they were going to retell what they had heard. Just like when you’ve seen a documentary and tell your friend all about it the next day, you will remember it better.

Charlotte Mason uses an illustration of a doctor visiting a sick person in hospital. The patient is in extreme pain and the doctor has written a remedy on the card. He tells her this will alleviate the pain, however, he’s only going to let her look at the card for a few minutes. Then the card will be destroyed permanently, and he won’t be writing it for her ever again. Can you imagine the attention she would give to that card? This is the kind of attention Charlotte wants the child to pay to their reading. When they are retelling they have to leave some information out and that’s one of the choices being made by their minds. Charlotte says it is not a mere act of memory because we let their minds act on the material in their own original way. They will classify and connect information. Remember, you cannot narrate what you do not know. If you can narrate it, you know it.

Narration can be used in all school subjects and in all experiences. Charlotte says years later the child will be able to narrate the same passage with ``vividness, detail and accuracy of the first telling’’.

HOW TO: Read one single reading aloud, about 10 to 13 minutes for each book. It is very important to have children’s full attention during the reading; they’ll usually understand the sentence or paragraph anyway. Ask one of the listeners to tell you what you’ve just read. If they hesitate, ask them if they remember one thing of what you read.  If they seem reluctant and I know they understood, I’ll usually make a joke like ``Oh, I see, well I guess it was about a pink rabbit who met an elephant.’’ This usually makes them laugh since this probably was not what Robin Hood or Gideon was doing in our story and they start telling you what it was about. Only let one child narrate per reading. You don’t correct them, but if another child points out an error that’s okay. Charlotte says not to interrupt a narration. Most kids narrate easily because we tend to do this as people – we relive events (or books) with others. Your child has probably told you all about some even he witnessed or every detail of a show he saw. This is the same thing. It’s casual and natural, which is why it differs from a book report. So, don’t make more of it than it is.

Narration is a very powerful learning tool. Charlotte Mason tell us (and she’s right) that perfect attention and absolute recollection is an asset to an employer, teacher and the nation. She says adults read and forget but her students `` have the power of perfect recollection and just application because they have read with attention and concentration and have in every case reproduced what they read in narration’’. She also points out that many profession wish they could grasp the content on a single reading. For some children, it takes a little more practice. One child, whose test results showed he was behind one full grade level in ``listening’’ on the IOWA Basic Skills test, is now narrating with a ``photographic memory’’.

Children begin narration at six years old, and they do it orally. They tell, you listen. You may take dictation if you care to  and file those as often as you desire. Don’t let it become a burden to you though. To prevent that I often take down the narration at the end of the book with only an occasional chapter narration. If I wrote out each oral narration they ever told me, I would not be doing much else. I know one mom who uses a tape recorder as a time saver and a way not to have to stop or slow down the child while she takes dictation. This could be useful with many children, but I would take the time to listen to them narrate in person as often as I could.

At ten years old they begin to write out their narration. This can be a long process. Give them all the time they need (I mean a year if needed) to make this transition. Henrietta Franklin wants us to be cautious not only to begin too early with written narration or nature notebooks. Accept their written work without undue concern for the punctuation, capitalisation, or the spelling. These ``skills’’ will improve with practice and with the reading the child will be doing. I will, on occasion, point out in a lighthearted way one very important error such as the pronoun ``I’’ not being capitalised. Keep in mind these narration are not done for the purpose of spotting errors.

You see, the young child is being read to before he can read. He can be learning the Bible, history, and geography before he is six years old. Charlotte says a child of six has begun his education; it doesn’t matter that he learn to deal directly with books. That is why what you chose to read to them is so important. Charlotte wants them exposed to the best in literature, poetry, music, and art. She most definitely does not want them in what we called ``dumbed-down’’ books. She calls literature written down to the child’s level ``twaddle’’. ‘’

QUOTE ENDS.

Granted, Charlotte Mason recommended that narration starts at age 6, but I don’t see why it could not start earlier. For us EL parents, age recommendations are just that, they are meant to be ignored or adapted to our EL kids. Maybe if she was alive in the 21st century and knew all that we now about brain growth between ages 0-6, she would have changed her recommendations?

Anyway, I see her method of narration as a powerful way to improve expressive speech in toddlers and very young children. Further, I see it would greatly improve the habit of attention. If a child knew he/she would be asked to narrate after one reading, they might be more likely to pay rapt attention to what was being read.

BTW, you can find Charlotte Mason’s original 6 volumes FREE here http://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html  website. They also have modern paraphrases of her 6 volumes still on the ambleside website here http://www.amblesideonline.org/CMM/ModernEnglish.html.

Oh, Ambleside is currently preparing a topical series of her 6 volumes. Here is the page where all her quotes on narration have been compiled:   http://www.amblesideonline.org/CMM/topicalnarration.html. That should give a quick preview on all she’s had to say on narration. Read that topical summary of narration (it’s in the modern English paraphrase). Let me know what you think.

Best,
Nee

[andreasro]

That's a good idea, thanks andreasro. Have you had your blog for long?

I've had it since May 2011. DadDude and other bloggers on BK have been an inspiration.
I've started shyly at first, then, by October this year, I realized I can do it so started to write articles on early learning. And I have success ) It's bilingual now, though it takes time for me to translate in English the longer articles.

Granted, Charlotte Mason recommended that narration starts at age 6, but I don’t see why it could not start earlier. For us EL parents, age recommendations are just that, they are meant to be ignored or adapted to our EL kids. Maybe if she was alive in the 21st century and knew all that we now about brain growth between ages 0-6, she would have changed her recommendations?

Anyway, I see her method of narration as a powerful way to improve expressive speech in toddlers and very young children. Further, I see it would greatly improve the habit of attention. If a child knew he/she would be asked to narrate after one reading, they might be more likely to pay rapt attention to what was being read.

BTW, you can find Charlotte Mason’s original 6 volumes FREE here http://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html  website. They also have modern paraphrases of her 6 volumes still on the ambleside website here http://www.amblesideonline.org/CMM/ModernEnglish.html.

Oh, Ambleside is currently preparing a topical series of her 6 volumes. Here is the page where all her quotes on narration have been compiled:   http://www.amblesideonline.org/CMM/topicalnarration.html. That should give a quick preview on all she’s had to say on narration. Read that topical summary of narration (it’s in the modern English paraphrase). Let me know what you think.

Best,
Nee

Nee, thank you for this. I heard about Charlotte Mason but haven't got the time to study it. What she says about narration is very useful. I need "how to's" as much as I can get. My parents didn't have time to read to me and I was either alone or in the care of others and they were pretty busy too. Most of my childhood I invented stories with the dolls, even trying to draw them on walls )

[nee1]

Nee, thank you for this. I heard about Charlotte Mason but haven't got the time to study it. What she says about narration is very useful. I need "how to's" as much as I can get.

Hi andreaso,

Karen Andreola also wrote a book on Charlotte Mason's methods. The book is titled 'A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning'. I haven't read the book yet, but I googled Karen up to see if she had a website where she said things about narration. And yes, she does, and here is what she said about the Charlotte Mason method of narration - http://www.homeschoolhighlights.com/02_narration/. Hope that helps.

[seastar]

nee - as usual, you have posted some excellent links, thank you. I haven't read any of Charlotte Mason's writing yet. I tried to read her original work on amblesideonline recently; however, I couldn't make my way through it. I think I'll have to tackle it when I've had a good night's sleep    I just read through the link you posted to Karen Andreola's article and it has strengthened my resolve to use narration more.

Since we have started this discussion, I have been taking more notice of Sophie's language. I have come to the conclusion that she learns so much when I narrate, e.g. over dinner this evening she asked me to tell her a story. When I asked what kind of story she wanted, she said "the story of food" meaning the path food travels through the body. She likes to hear the same things over and over again and I guess it helps to solidify concepts in her mind & her vocabulary.

Up until now, she has not wanted to narrate herself, content to simply listen to me. However, I have noticed a shift over the last few days where she is more willing to narrate, without prompting. One thing that has helped this is for me to 'rehearse' with her, e.g. I used specific questions to prompt her to tell me about her day at the creche today, what she did, what colour paint she used etc. Then, over dinner, she repeated this information to her daddy. With more practice, I feel she will develop this conversational skill.

That's a good idea, thanks andreasro. Have you had your blog for long?

I've had it since May 2011.

You're definitely NOT a beginner-blogger so! Well done 

[nee1]

Seastar,

Here is an update. I increased the number of read-alouds  to 10 chapters of a chapter book. I joined the 2013 book challenge by Tamsyn (http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/new-year's-goal-read-2-013-book-this-year/). Tamsyn calculated the number of books to be 5.52 per day. Since the chapters of the book I read were very long, I equated 1 chapter to be 1 book.

So I thought I was doing quite well averaging 10 books per day. Then, Frukc repasted this old thread (http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/30-000-words-a-day/). I reread the thread, and found that 30000 words per day was equated to 18 and a half reads of Dr Seuss's Cat in the Hat. Cat in the Hat is not a short book. It has 64 pages, though a few of the pages comprise pictures only. So, I'll have to step up my act.

So far, my boy's enunciation has improved. I'll love to see much more  improvement though. So I'll be stepping up my act to 15-20 chapters if I wish to equate 18 and a half re-reads of Cat in the Hat. I remembered what Doman said about Intensity, Frequency, and Duration. Simply put, if you wish to achieve a thing (say crawling or walking) with a child, step up the intensity, the frequency, and the duration. So for example if you want a child to crawl, place him on his tummy all the time (I posted an excerpt here - http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-other-topics/outgrowing-an-infant-crawling-track/msg86927/#msg86927).

In my opinion, 18 and a half reads of Cat in the Hat in one day is surely a step up of intensity, frequency and ration.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

[seastar]

nee - so sorry for the late reply!

My goodness, 18 and a half read of Cat in the Hat a day?!? I am nowhere near that!

You raised an interesting point about increasing the intensity, frequency and duration - so do more, more often and for longer...hmmm...some thoughts on this:

Intensity - reading a wide variety of books from easy to difficult, old favourites to unfamiliar, fiction to nonfiction etc. What type of books do you read? Do you reread some of them? Something that I am doing at the moment, at my daughter's request, is reading a book immediately after she reads it. I think she likes to listen to how I say the words, the expression, voices, etc., it allows her to focus on the pictures (on the page or in her head) and she will often ask questions about punctuation too. We generally only read 1 chapter a day, with lots of picture books thrown in to the mix - it sounds pretty pathetic compared to your goal of 15-20 chapters! 

Frequency - you could go for the HSIYB approach where you read aloud 10 times a day. I keep books everywhere for this - obviously in the children's rooms, by my bed, the kitchen table, the sofa, every room in the house, my handbag, the car, the buggy, and we have a book bag for when we go to cafe's. I usually read while nursing the baby too. (the downside is that the house is very messy with books thrown everywhere!)

Duration - longer reading sessions, never missing a day

What age is your little boy now? It's wonderful to hear that his enunciation has improved! Are there particular sounds he has difficulty with? Is it the start or the end of words? The start or end of a sentences? Or is it overall clarity in general? Does it warrant an assessment by a speech and language therapist?

Have you tried videoing your little boy or getting him to speak in front of the mirror? Sometimes children are unaware of the movement of their mouth and that they can improve their speech by becoming more aware of this.

Are you familiar with the Handwriting Without Tears approach? They advocate that children write one or two letters in their best handwriting, rather than writing the same letter many times of variable quality. Maybe you could try that approach, where at certain times of the day, you focus on one sound you would like to address and play games involving words that relate to that sound.

Sophie loves to read our baby's very simple board books, one or two words per page. Maybe you could ask your little boy to read these books to a younger child, asking him to read slowly and clearly to teach the baby.

Tongue twisters and games like Telephone are great for helping children to realise the need to clearly enunciate to aid understanding. Also, verbal memory games that involve repetition, e.g. I went to the shop and I bought... etc.

Learning poems and songs off by heart - again, repetition helps child improve pronunciation.

Have you read Fowler's book or watched the DVD? You may get some other ideas there.

Just a thought - are there any issues with his palate or tongue (tongue tie)?

[kmum]

Love the narrating your day idea. I'm going to start doing that.

Congrats on your blog!  I'm going to check it out

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