Do you require your grammar stage kids to narrate their literature selections?

[gandpsmommy]

When we do "Reading" we just read. Right now dd is reading The Little House on the Prairie. I don't require her to narrate what we have read. If she happens to read a chapter to her dad, instead of me, I ask her what I missed and she can summarize it well, but we certainly don't have her summarize on a regular basis. Is this something I should be doing? She has excellent reading comprehension skills and can give good summaries of what she has read when we ask her about books she is reading for free reading, so I guess I haven't seen the need to force her to do this for every book we read. But I was thinking that narration is an important skill, and maybe we should start doing it. We have taken a break from SOTW for awhile, so she hasn't been getting narration practice there, but we will be resuming this soon. What do you do?

[Mrs. H.]

Is this free reading, or "school" reading? I don't require the kids to narrate their free reading selections, but I do ask them if they liked the book, what their favorite character was, etc. to see if they "got it", or if the book was too much/too little for them

For school-related reading, I would ask for narrations, but probably not every day, and I often just ask questions throughout the week just to see if they're retaining the information.

[Amy in Orlando]

I rarely had the boys narrate literature, just history and science work.

[Michelle T]

I ask DS what is going on in the book he is reading. I don't have him do formal narration.
MIchelle T

[Colleen]

nt

[Brenda in FL]

I begin the school year with good intentions of doing maybe one a month - but by the end of the year - there is maybe one in theor portfolio!

I figure we do enough with history and science (when that gets done!)

[Colleen in NS]

Once a week, I have my grammar stage kids tell me, in a few sentences, the most interesting or what they think are the most important parts of the story or chapter (if it's a long book like the Little House books). I write the sentences down (or have the oldest write his down), they illustrate it, file in the literature section of their English notebooks, and that's it.

I feel it's an important writing skill, so they can learn to organize their thoughts into words, and eventually get their words down on paper. It also tells me what they got out of their reading or my reading to them.

EDIT: Also, I don't have them narrate every book they read. Just a narration of their choice from Mom-selected books, once a week.

[Beth in Central TX]

I didn't have my boys narrate every book they read, but I would ask questions every now and then about where they were in the book or what their favorite part had been so far. Sometimes I would ask for a narration in the form of a book report or an oral report. I didn't do this to make sure they were reading the book or to test their reading comprehension; my goal was to make sure they could verbalize (in their own words) what the book was about.

[Mrs Mungo]

I don't require any kind of narration/notebook page/book report for their free reading. Sometimes they would rather do one for their free reading than their structured reading and I allow them to do so.

[Rhondabee]

it sounds like your dd is reading out loud, whereas my 4th grader (and last year, 3rd grader) reads his literature selections silently (or, well, as silently as that child can do anything - :lol:)

So, yes, I do have him narrate orally (Or answer questions) while he's reading. Then, once the book is finished, we discuss it, try to pinpoint the most important event, and talk about how the characters changed.

Then, he writes a narration (his narrations are always longer than what I would require, so this isn't really a chore for him). Sometimes he does the whole book, sometimes just his favorite part.

[emelsha]

I don't have my dd narrate each time I read to her. Depending on how old your dc is would determine the amount of narration and the quality. Two to three sentences is enough for a first grader I believe. Plus, when you are first beginning, make sure to only have your child narrate books that peak their interest. :001_smile:

[Chris in VA]

We don't require narration, but sometimes dd gets so excited she has to tell me about her book!
With our read aloud, I sometimes ask her what was happening as we left off.

[mcconnellboys]

We do what you do, and I thought that this summarizing *was* narration, although I don't write it down to keep. Ds will begin doing more writing regarding his reading next year, for fifth grade, but I'm not making him do that this year.

Regena

[WTMindy]

but they seem to love to tell me all the details, anyways!! :-)

[MelissaMinNC]

Just a casual - "Hey, what was that book about?" sort of discussion, and sometimes not even that. I'd never be able to keep up with narrations of everything she reads in her free time.

For school reading...well, I don't have a good system for this. We narrate history and science, but rarely lit. Not always history and science, either. I mean, if we read history and science in the same day, I usually only have her narrate one or the other. Ugh. I really need to be better organized. How do people do this - do you have your kids narrate each reading selection they do, for history, art, science, lit, etc? I'm afraid I would drown in narrations and never see my 3yo. :tongue_smilie:

:)
Melissa