A Note on Narration

The act of narration is the retelling of a story in ones own words. It is a natural way to tell if a child has grasped the subject matter of the lesson without asking pointed questions, true of false statements, or additional worksheets.

Narration should be natural and student led, however it does take practice to achieve a good narration.

Read a section of the chapter and ask your child if they can tell you about what they heard. 

“She may read two or three pages, enough to include an episode; after that, let her call upon the children to narrate, — in turns, if there be several of them” (Vol. 1, p. 233). Charlotte mason

Be sure to read the passage one time, to enforce the practice of paying attention. It is easy to want to read the passage again if the answer is “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”

“As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should ‘tell back’ after a single reading or hearing . . . A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages” (Vol. 6, preface).

Be sure to give a quite and attentive work space, free from intertuptions. Narrations are an essential part of an education, therefor, they must be treated appropriatly. As the teacher, try not to interrupt your child’s narration. Interuptions can derail the child’s train of thought and lead to a sub par narration. If the child pauses, let them pause while they gather their thoughts and continue on. Most often, children are considering what they’d like to say next.

Children should not simply repeat the last sentence you have said as their narration, however, young narrators may do just this. 

“A narration should be original as it comes from the child — that is, his own mind should have acted upon the matter it has received” (Vol. 1, p. 289). Charlotte Mason

To prepare your child for a successful narration, there does take some advance prep.

Review the last time you read the book: This can be a couple of sentences reminding the child what happened in the previous chapter. You can also allow the child to read their narration journal from the previous week.

Introduce the next chapter: by offering a couple ideas a child will hear during the chapter will give them key points to listen to. This will give a spring board for narration at the end of the chapter.

For example, in chapter 2 you might say: in our reading today we are going to read about how some members of the Kansa tribe are preparing for a buffalo hunt. While preparing the young Kansa boy helps prepare the sapling as well. Let’s read and find out what happens next in the story.

Be sure not to give away any spoilers or too much information that the child could narrate from. You want them engaged and excited for the next chapter but not give away everything that will happen.

Read the Chapter: for some children, they may be able to have the entire chapter read to them, for others, you may need to stop and narrate after a couple paragraphs or a page.

Ask for a narration: Ask your child to narrate the reading back to you. Be sure not to ask for specific pointed questions like “why did the boy pile sharp rocks around the sapling?”

Narrations can take many forms; the most common being written and oral. For students under the age of 8 it is most appropriate narrate orally. A narration notebook may be beneficial for your child, to record their narrations and draw a picture.

Additional Readings to learn more about narration:

Know and Tell by Karen Glass