Telling Back as a Learning Strategy
Narration is a cornerstone of a Charlotte Mason homeschool. Forget workbooks, expensive craft kits, and complicated busy work. Narration is a learning method that can be used for any age and for any subject. And it requires no purchases or special training. All you need is an understanding of this method to begin using it immediately.
NARRATION
simply put,
is
telling back.
What is Narration?
What if your child could tell you back in his own words what you just read to him? Would that convince you?
Generally, we consider a child to have grasped something if he can retell the concept or events in his own words. That retelling demonstrates that the information is now his own. This is narration.
We are all naturally narrators. Think about it. When your child comes inside from playing in the yard, you ask, "What did you do?" She proceeds to explain all her activities, retelling them with great detail and emotion. That same process occurs with academic narration. You ask a leading question ("What did Napoleon do?") and listen to the child's story.
Narration Starters
- What did I read?
- Tell me the story back in your words.
- Tell me what happened in order.
- Tell me all you remember.
- Tell me what you understood.
- Tell me four/five things you learned from this page/chapter.
- What do you think about ____?
- Why did _____ ?
- How is this page/chapter/story like ____(another page/chapter/story read earlier)?
- Do you agree with ____ (an action, quote, or concept from the reading)?
- Describe ____ (person).
Unfortunately, the natural tool of narration has too often been replaced with worksheets full of multiple choice, true and false, or fill-in-the-blank questions. Rather than digesting the material of the lesson (as required for narration), the child simply chews on tiny, often unrelated, bits of it.
Since it is quite difficult to fake a narration, the child must pay attention to the lesson. If your child did not, you will immediately recognize it from their incomplete or inaccurate narration.
A weak narration can also be the result of simple misunderstanding. There may be key vocabulary words that your child is not understanding. Or maybe a key event was not grasped. It's up to you as the teacher to explore the problems and correct them. It may mean asking some probing questions to identify where the problem lies. It may necessitate rereading the passage in question.
Narration is also a foundation for good writing skills. At first, the child gives oral narrations. But later, those exact same skills of articulation, analysis, application, and comprehension are used in writing expository paragraphs and essays. Generally, you can begin transitioning into written narrations (instead of verbal narrations) around age 10 or 11.
Narration Obstacles Poll & Freebie
After looking at the results of this poll, it seems that we mothers are pretty forgetful people! We understand how to narrate, for the most part, but we simply neglect to implement this important practice.
To help you (and myself), I've created a free PDF with printable bookmarks that you can put inside the books you're currently reading. Hopefully seeing their gentle reminder to narrate will keep you in the habit.
Another great narration tool are these printable narration cards, created and offered for free by another homeschooling mother. She lists variously worded narration questions on cards. Draw one after your reading, and answer the question you've drawn.
Bloggers Speak about Narration
- A System of Narration
- This is a must-read! Barb from Harmony Arts shares how her children's narrations have evolved over the years. Her children are teens, and her perspectives are quite valuable!
- What is Narration
- Melissa Telling, a homeschooling mother, offers a concise definition of narration and gives a great analogy of submarine sonar.
- Lapbooking as Narration
- This is a blog entry I wrote explaining how I use lapbooking as narration. Despite objections that lapbooking is "just busy work," I contend that it can be used for effective narration, especially with a creative and crafty child.
- Successful Narration
- A great, short overview of narration from Charlotte Mason and Home Education blog.
- Method: Narrations
- Okay, this isn't a blog entry. But it's a very helpful article written by a homeschool mom. She explains how she incorporates narration into various topics -- Bible, history, and science.
- Ship Full O Pirates on CM Narration
- A great how to that includes her children's reactions to narration.
- Dioramas for Narration
- Leslie Valeska shares how making dioramas from shoeboxes can be used for narration.
- Oral and Written Narration
- A list of narration options used in their CM homeschool: Oral, Notebooks, Lapbooks, Timelines, and Mind mapping. For each method, she links to relevant blog entries as examples. This same blogger again addresses narration in this article More on Oral Narration.
Acting Out Narrations
Getting Into the Lesson
Browse these ideas and find some that suit your children. And remember, variety is the spice of life. So if your homeschool days are getting dull, change your narration technique and ignite the fun!First, I offer some Acting Out Narrations. These activities are especially good for young students, for kinesthetic learners, or for those whose fine motor skills make writing a chore.
Consider taking photographs of the acting out. Then assemble the photos in order and print them for a record of the narration.
- Play the characters in the story and act it our yourself. Add costumes and props for more detail.
- Use paper dolls, finger puppets, shadow puppets, toys, or dolls to act out the story. The objects can be homemade especially for the narration or can be things you already have on hand.
- The parent and child can alternate taking the part of character and an interviewer. The questions and answers will reflect the child's understanding of the material.
Creating Narrations
3D, Paper and Scissors Projects
- Make a diorama.
This can include characters, events, and setting. - Make a mobile.
This can be of characters and/or events. - Make an illustrated timeline of the events in the order they occurred.
- For an older learner, design a board game complete with board, playing pieces, cards, questions, even money!
- Make a salt dough map of the area covered in your lesson. Remember that fictional areas can also be mapped!
Creating Narration Photos
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea game
Crispin: The Cross of Lead game
navaho village diorama
pueble village
Lapbooking as Narration
If the child has a great amount of ownership in the creation of the minibooks, without too much direction from an adult, then they can be a good reflection of his understanding.Just as you ask your child a starter question for a verbal narration, you can make a request for a mini-book:
- Make a mini-book that lists the events we just read about.
- Make a mini-book the explains how the Hopi Indians lived.
- What did we learn from that motion experiment? Put it into a mini-book.
- Write and illustrate the 3 most important ideas from these two pages.
- So, what should we put in a minibook about Pizarro?
After several narrations are made in different mini-books, those are gathered together into a lapbook that will be kept and looked at again and again.
Lapbooking and Notebooking
Click on the images to see these great examples more clearly.
Still not sure about lapbooking and notebooking? Visit Lapbooking versus Notebooking for more details about these two types of narration.
Notebooking as Narration
Notebooking can be very versatile and include a child's own perspective on the lesson. Besides the text written by the child, consider including drawings, photographs, postcards, recipes, newspaper clippings, lists, maps, papercrafts, and brochures. You may also consider a commonplace book, a variation of notebooking.Anything that allows the child to demonstrate his understanding of the lesson can be considered narration. And like lapbooking, notebooking results in a lovely end product that can be reviewed time and time again.
Beyond Oral Narrations
Assuming that most of the time you use oral narrations, how often to you use other forms of narration?
Narration Ideas
Better Than Book Reports (Grades 2-6)
Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009) 
Used Price: $1.32
Awesome Hands-On Activites for Teaching Literary Elements
Amazon Price: $9.37 (as of 07/06/2009)
Used Price: $5.24
Creative Book Reports: Fun Projects With Rubrics for Fiction and Nonfiction
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/06/2009)
Used Price: $11.25
Advantages of Narration
- Easy -- all you need is a voice to retell orally.
- Affordable -- all you need is paper and pencil for a written narration
- Requires no special materials, workbooks, or training.
- Requires that children listen or read carefully.
- Can be done by all learners from preschoolers to high schoolers.
- Helps the child "own" the material and make it his own.
Narration Online Articles and Helps
- The Charlotte Mason Educational Review
- Download Volume 2 Issue 2- Winter 2007. In this issue, you want to read the article "Is Sequencing and Ordering the Curriculum Important for Scaffolding Learning?" It doesn't sound like an article about narration because it is really much broader in scope than merely narration.
But skip ahead (or patiently plod through) to pp. 14-17 where the Six Steps of the Narration Sequence are described. These are great how-to's for effective narration! - Ambleside Online Narration Ideas
- This is a Yahoo group devoted solely to using narration in a Charlotte Mason homeschool. Search the archives or post your questions.
- Narration by Catherine Levison
- Levison explains narration in easy to understand terms. These two articles are essential reading!
- We Narrate and Then We Know
- A short but meaty article from 1967 about what narration is and how to use it.
- Yahoo Groups -- AO Narration
- AOnarration means Ambleside Online Narration Ideas. If you like the interaction of an email list, join up and ask your questions about narration. There are also some valuable resources in the files section.
Charlotte Mason Helps
A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 07/06/2009)
Used Price: $7.99
When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today
Amazon Price: $10.87 (as of 07/06/2009)
Used Price: $8.49
Educating the Wholehearted Child Revised & Expanded
Amazon Price: $20.95 (as of 07/06/2009)
Used Price: $14.19
Guestbook
Thanks for visiting. I hope that you leave with some new ideas to enrich your homeschool experience. Feel free to share your own great ideas here.
And don't forget to get your free bookmarks. Just click on the image and a PDF will open.
TheMedievalNun wrote...
Wow, what an interesting concept. I recently came across a quote from one of the Greek philosophers (I think Plato) who said that, while the written word had its uses, it was generally to be considered inferior to oration.
In the middle ages, most people didn't read the Bible, but still everyone knew stories from the Bible and the lives of saints because they were acted by traveling performers (even school children) on many holidays; they were collectively known as the Mystery Plays.
If you look at the Laura Ingalls books, you will notice that recitation was a major component to their educations. And I think that's because they understood that most (even all) poetry and certain prose pieces (like the Gettysburg Address, or our founding documents) were meant to be read aloud and were written so that they sound impressive--when read aloud.
Shakespeare is always easier understood when acted by good actors, than read.
Posted December 14, 2008
HarmonyArtMom wrote...
I love Better than a Book Report! It has been on my shelf for YEARS...I think all four children have worked with that book and I highly recommend it.
Great lens Jimmie.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Posted November 13, 2008
JaguarJulie wrote...
Ah, what an excellent learning principle! I think this works well in business as well when one can repeat to the leader or boss what they have heard as a narration. Or to my husband or vice versa! Great job in presenting this concept.
Posted October 20, 2008
LilliputStation wrote...
Jimmmie, The CM Carnival this month is on narration. I believe it will be out tomorrow.
Posted September 14, 2008
Betsy wrote
Thanks for creating this. It is very helpful and I will let my fiends know about it!
Posted September 08, 2008
Traci wrote
What a great post! I love the pictures of the diorama and game. Great ideas!! Thank you.
Posted May 06, 2008
LilliputStation wrote...
This is awsome, Jimmie! Love this lens.
I just finished one on how I teach my children to read. Stop by and let me know what you think. I'd like some of your honest criticism on it. Melissa
Posted May 05, 2008
by Jimmie
Hello! I am a homeschooling mom who loves to teach and learn. I love the flexibility of Squidoo lenses for showing off our homeschool projects. Bloggi...
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