Tips for Helping Our Children with Oral Narrations

Tips for Helping Our Children with Oral Narrations

Do you want to help your children be successful with oral narrations? I know I do, and I am sure you do too! Well, Heart of Dakota (HOD) has some wonderful tips for helping children become the very best oral narrators they can be. I’ve already posted about what parents can do before children give oral narrations. Now, let’s find out what parents can do to help their children during and after oral narrations!

Tips for During the Oral Narration

So, your children begin to narrate. What should you be doing as a parent during the narration? Likewise, what should your children be doing during the narration? Well, here are some clear-cut simple tips to follow during oral narrations…

1.  Have children tell you all they remember about the reading.  Say, Tell me all you can about what you just read.  Remember, they should not be looking at the book. I know it can be hard, but do not interrupt a narration.  It distracts the train of thought.  Likewise, though it is tempting, do not correct children while they are narrating.
2.  Remember, the teacher is a listener; not a lecturer.  This is the child’s oral narration, so let the child’s mind do the sorting, rejecting, and classifying of what should be shared.
3.  In HOD, children are reading excellent living books. So, keep in mind children may use exact phrasing from the book in their oral narrations. They may pick up phrasing and vocabulary that   strikes them. This allows children to make the language of good living books their own.
4.  Children may definitely share connections they made in their oral narrations. Children may compare what was read to another book, situation, or memory of their own.  However, the   connection should not take over the narration.
5.  The length of the narration is not the point. If children can retell the most pertinent information in a few sentences, that may be enough.  The purpose of narration is the process of ordering   and selecting what to tell.  Every narration doesn’t need to be in full detail.
6.  Remember, there is not one “right” narration.  A dozen children could read the same section and give a dozen different good narrations.  A teacher should not listen for a long list of words to   be shared   from the text.

Tips for After the Oral Narration

So, your children have finished their oral narration. What should you be doing as a parent after the narration? Well, here are two easy tips to follow after oral narrations…

1. Share comments or details.  You can ask questions, correct misinformation, and ask for clarification at this point. However, avoid being overly critical. Limit what you say to a few important points.
2. Do not grade narrations.  Grading a narration gives the impression that there is only one right way to do it.  Children are left searching for the elusive “one right narration”, rather than using their own originality.

Other Helpful Tips for Oral Narrations

Orally narrating is a skill that takes years to fully develop to its potential! Children need time and encouragement to sharpen their oral narration skills. So, here are three more encouraging tips to follow as your children work on improving their oral narrations…

1.  Be patient with your child.  If your child is frustrated or seems to be missing the meaning of the reading, shorten the sections he narrates on or take a turn narrating yourself.  Try to be as   encouraging as possible; make sure not to be overly critical or to give too lengthy advice.
2. Help your children develop the habit of attention to reading.  If your children have been used to “gobbling up” books instead of giving focused attention to their reading, shorten the sections used for narration and focus on what they know – not on what they don’t know.
3. Children begin written narrations at age 10.  Instructions for written narrations are included in this guide’s plans as well. When children begin written narrations, oral narrations are still continued.  Each kind of narration is carefully noted in this guide’s plans, to maintain an excellent balance of oral and written narrations.  For this reason, written narrations should not be substituted for oral narrations in the plans, or vice versa, as these two types of narrations require very different types of skills, both necessary for children to learn to possess.

In Christ,
Julie