I'm Sonya Shafer with Simply Charlotte Mason.
Have you ever wanted to give your student narration prompts that are interesting and
specific to each chapter he reads, but you haven't had time to pre-read the book?
Or maybe you have time but you’re not quite sure how to raise the bar on narrations as
your student progresses.
Or perhaps your older student is doing written narrations and you need a way to help him
spell the names and places correctly without looking back at the chapter.
Narration Notecards were created for situations just like those.
These handy, book-specific cards are easy to use.
Simply read aloud a chapter from the book or assign it as independent reading.
Then grab the narration notecard for that chapter.
On one side you will find three narration prompts.
Number 1 is a Beginner prompt, number 2 an Intermediate, and number 3 an Advanced.
Select just one of those narration ideas, the one that best fits your child's progress
in narrating right now.
If you have multiple children narrating the same book, you can assign each student the
prompt that will fit him best.
Beginner prompts are perfect for beginner narrators of all ages, but you can also use
them for any level student.
These prompts are mainly asking for narrative composition: tell the story.
That’s where every narrator should begin, and it’s an essential skill to keep practicing
all the way through.
If your student is in grades 1–3, he should tell his narration, not write it.
Older students can write their narrative composition; but if your older student is new to this whole
idea of narrating, he should start by telling and then can gradually move to writing his
narrations as he gains experience.
The Intermediate prompts are designed for students in grade 4 and up who have had some
experience in narrating.
Intermediate prompts will ask for descriptive and expository narrations—describing something
or explaining how something works.
In those grades, you’ll want to assign a variety of written as well as oral narrations.
With students at this level, you can assign Intermediate or Beginner prompts.
The Advanced prompts are designed for fluent narrators in about seventh through twelfth
grade—those who are ready for more of a challenge.
The Advanced prompts will require more critical thinking: comparison and contrast, cause and
effect, stating an opinion and supporting it, persuasive composition, tracing action
to consequence, and evaluating character.
Use the Advanced prompts to raise the bar on your student’s narrations as he moves
into high school, but keep in mind that wide variety is important.
You can use any prompt on the card for this level.
Some days you might assign the narrative Beginner prompt; other days you might choose a descriptive
or expository Intermediate prompt; and sometimes you can use the more complex Advanced prompt.
And just for fun, you might sometimes let the student choose which narration prompt
he wants to do that day.
At this level, keep some narrations oral, but many will be written.
If your child is doing a written narration, hand him the notecard.
The other side of the card contains a word bank of people, places, dates, and vocabulary.
Those lists will help your student know how to spell the names and other details from
the chapter correctly without looking back at the book.
And feel free to add any other words from the reading that your student wants to see
spelled.
You can use those handy lists on the Narration Notecards in other ways too.
Choose a few of the key words from the notecard to highlight before you read.
Write those words on a sheet of paper or a small whiteboard and instruct your student
to listen or read attentively for them.
Use a map to look up any of the places listed.
Use the dates to encourage Book of Centuries entries.
And for an extra challenge, and only every once in a while, you might see if your older
student can include every word on the card in his narration.
Store your Narration Notecards in any index card box and use the handy title cards as
dividers between the sets.
Then you will always have book-specific, interesting narration prompts ready and at hand as your
children progress through the levels.
It’s simple to take narration to the next level—with Narration Notecards!