Homeschooling 101

Lesson 4: Insider Secrets

Narration

The other day, someone asked me how to introduce book reports to their homeschooled child. My children have never done a book report. Instead, they have done something most college students can honestly say they have never done. Narration.

Having my child narrate back to me the story they just heard, or the information just learned proves to me that they understand the information. A book report is simply a tool a teacher uses to prove the child read the book… but not necessarily that they understand the book.

There are many ways for your child to narrate. Have them design a travel brochure for the country they have just read about. Have them chart the travels they just read about on a map. Make a poster for the movie they would write about the book. Design a book jacket for the book. Write and illustrate a comic book about the topic.

When asking your child to do a narration, you want to keep in mind the age of the child. I expect a much more in-depth narration from my ten year old than I expect from my six year old. (I am happy if my six year old gives me two sentences and a picture!) I also stop more frequently and have my six year old narrate back to me more often.

Here are some narration starters you can use to help your child get the hang of narration. These have been collected over the years from various message boards and email loops.

Narration Starters Tell me all you remember about the passage.
Tell it in your own words.
Wasn't it funny when.........! Tell me what you remember.
Explain how.......
Describe ..........
Describe anything NEW you just learned from the chapter.
Tell me five things you learned about......
Tell me about (one of the characters). (Analyzing Character)
How did Character A behave differently than Character B? (Parallel Characters)
Tell me about Character A. (Analyzing Character)
Why did Character A do .......? (Character Point of View)
What did you learn about (Character name) in this chapter?
Tell me all you know about ......(Location).
Tell me all you know about .......(Occurrence).
How did ........ feel?" (Analyzing Mood)
What makes this story pretend? (Fantasy vs. Reality)
What clues told you that ........ was about to happen? (Making Inferences)
Why do you think .......... happened? (Drawing Conclusions)
Tell me exactly what happened in order. (Sequence of Events/Steps in a Process)
What do you think of .......? (Making Judgments/Decisions)
Describe the person telling the story. (Narrator's Point of View)
Tell the most interesting thing about ...... (Fact vs. Opinion)
Describe what happened because of ....... (Cause and Effect)
Tell me all the ways ....... and ....... were the same/different. (Compare and Contrast)
Is the ending/chapter good or bad and why? (Making Judgments)
Compare the actions of two characters (Comparing/Contrasting)
Compare book with another by the same author. (Comparing Works of Same Author)
Why did the author write the story this way? (Author's Purpose)
How did the author know about these kinds of things? (Author's Point of View)
What was the author saying about ........ ? (Author's Point of View)
What do you think is going to happen next? Why? (Foreshadowing)
Is there a hero? Who is it? (Finding the protagonist)
What is the problem? Who is it between? (Helps to find the antagonist)

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