The Art of Narration
Dear Mama,
“Narrating is an art, like poetry-making, or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.”
-Charlotte Mason, School of Education, p. 231
Charlotte believed that narrating was a better way of collecting information from a child’s reading rather than say multiple-choice questions. Narrating is learning how to retell what one has read in one’s own words.
Narrating begins with an oral retelling of the lesson. It does not look the same for every child because they are born persons. The mother-teacher reads the lesson one time. Then she leads the narration with prompts like the following:
* Tell me all you know about...
* Describe...
* Compare or contrast...
* For what purpose...
* What can you tell me about...?
* What do you like/dislike about...?
* Tell me three things...
Narration requires higher thinking skills, such as attentiveness, visualization, and memory, to retell a story and later make connections.
When the child is young, an oral narration will suffice. As the child grows the oral narration will become copy-work, and eventually the child will be able to write narrations with little to no help.
Narrations should be done daily, but not all need to be written down. In our family, we have an oral discussion after every lesson. However, I only require “The Feast” lessons to have a written narration.
Narrating individual reading stories is a great way to build a strong relationship with your child. Ask him:
- How do you think Lucy felt when she entered the wardrobe?
- How would you have responded when Edward lied about not being in Narnia?
When narrating is done daily, it ensures the child will grow, learn, and ponder as they read their books.
What questions do you have for me about narration?
Warmly,
Mirley
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