I love Charlotte Mason's philosophy on narration and have been working to incorporate more and more of it in our school! I have been learning a lot in the Charlotte Mason companion book I have mentioned before and am really enjoying it. I have so many things highlighted but one of my favorite parts is a quote from H. Clay Trumbell in his book Teachers and Teaching where he says...
"You cannot fill a bottle with the cork in...you may pour your stream of knowledge upon them till you drown them, and not get a drop of it into them because their mouths are shut."
I just love that. Basically narration is teaching kids to tell back what they know about something. They learn to think things through and pick out important parts and Charlotte Mason is quoted as saying "what the child digs for becomes their own posses ion." It forces them to use their own mind and form their own judgements which I am seeing clearly come out. I believe it be more effective than multiple choice questions or even filling in blanks and I am truly loving the results. Even though Brody is not of age to be pushing it, he is taking to it real well too. So, we do a few things, I will ask the boys to just tell me everything they learned about _____. Or, I will ask them to tell me 5 things they learned about _____. They really like the number ones and I will usually type either one on the computer, but not always.
This week we went through a book on Martin Luther King, Jr. to celebrate the holiday. I explained to both of them about the first black man being nominated President when the election took place. I also told my mom that I thought it was neat that because they haven't "studied" any of the history yet, they didn't really "get" the big deal! I think after studying about Martin Luther King, Jr. they have a better understanding and we even snuggled up and watched the inauguration together...it was a neat time to be living history with them.
So, all this is leading up to what I want to share. I want to give an example of narration and post the ones they did on Martin Luther King, Jr. Connor asked to "tell me 10 (we usually do 5!) things he learned" and I always ask them to end it with their opinion about that person or to tell me why they think we studied that person to begin to with. Brody came up with 4 but as you will see they are good ones. They both took a couple days to do this and there was no pressure put on them. I simply ask them to "tell me what you know" and this is what I got. They are not in the same room when one is giving a narration when I am going to have Brody do it too! I hope you enjoy!
Connor Narration - MLK, Jr. 1/22/09 - 2nd Grade
1. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia.
2. He was a negro because he had black skin.
3. He died in the fight to stop unfair laws.
4. The Jim Crow laws were very bad and rude because they couldn't drink at the same fountains, eat at the same restaurants, go to the same schools, or sit next to white people in movie theatres.
5. He won 10 battles and lost 1. He fought with words and ideas to stop the Jim Crow laws.
6. He lost the battle in Birmingham Alabama to fight the Jim Crow laws.
7. Now the Jim Crow laws are gone forever because of Martin Luther King, Jr.
8. Martin Luther King day was 3 days ago.
9. He skipped 9th and 12th grade when he was a boy because he was so smart.
10. He got put in jail 30 times when he was alive and then while he was in his motel a bullet blasted through the window and he fell to the ground. He was dead in about an hour.
I think God liked Martin Luther King because he fought really hard for freedom for all the blacks.
Brody Narration - Martin Luther King, Jr. - 5 years old - Kindergarten
2. The Jim Crow laws were very bad because black people couldn't drink from the same fountains.
3. He got shot by a gun and fell down in an hour he was dead.
4. He got put in jail 3 times because they didn't like what he was doing.
I think Martin Luther King, Jr. did the right thing.
They are both doing so well in school and I am proud of what they are learning. I am SO grateful to be able to home school and try different things. I know we will be working to get better at this as we move forward and I am even trying to use it for myself when I read something. For I believe that "Whatever a child or grown up person can tell, that we may be sure he knows, and what he cannot tell, he does not know." (Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education)
1 comment:
well, it does help that you are an AMAZING teacher as well! I tto had Morgan & Ryanne watch our new president being sworn in. We talked all morning about the different events and such. Very fun to be able to talk with them about these things taking place.
Post a Comment