This past weekend I was able to attend a portion of the Childlight CM conference. When I got home I did what any good CM student would do and wrote my own narration of one of the workshops.
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Bad spelling is usually a sign of not much reading, or sometimes, reading so fast that words are skimmed over instead of really seeing each word.
I will be honest and tell you I am very opinionated when it comes to teaching spelling. I suppose it stems from the long journey my children have taken me on and how I have sorted through those observations. For the most part I strongly agree with Charlotte Mason. Children need to see the words. My oldest daughter came from the public school environment which believed, at the time, in creative spelling. This is the method of allowing a child to continually misspell words with the thought that one day this will all click and good spelling will occur. Year after year we waited for the light to go on. I would protest with the teachers that I didn't understand why we were continuing to allow her to misspell words. At home I would frustrate her by trying to correct everything. We went from "don't worry she will get it" to "don't worry there's always spell check." After bringing her home and frustrating both of us I finally said, "Don't you see the words?" She looked at me exasperated and replied, "No."
This was a profound moment for me as the teacher. She was a veracious reader and I could not understand this confession. Charlotte warns of children not truly examining words and details the bad habit of seeing misspelled words. As my children were young or in remediation, we did take the time to study phonics and understand the true spelling rules of the English language. As that knowledge began to digest, we introduced dictation. In my daughter's case, we studied phonics and spelling rules for almost two years trying to undo the bad habits she had developed. The final stage was the process of dictation. Charlotte describes the process as a time of study for the child; carefully examining each word in the passage and preparing for the dictation. She also suggests allowing the child to choose the passage which develops ownership. For my daughter, it was Pride & Prejudice, her favorite book. She chose chapter 12 and for a year we carefully worked through the words taking note of her problem areas. Because we both had an understanding of phonics and of the spelling rules we were able to dissect each misspelled word.
I began to notice a change. She went from always asking how words were spelled to spelling them for me to see if they were correct to hardly asking at all.
from Our Story in Progress
Last night I read to my 6 year old from Winnie the Pooh. He chose the story "Eyeore loses his Tail." After we finished we got my narration cubes out. First he rolled characters so I had him name all the characters in the story we read. Then he rolled connections. I asked him what were some things he was reminded of while we were reading. Since Owl had taken Eyeore's tail and used it as a bell pull, mistakenly of course, Ben and I were reminded of the bell pull from The Wizard of Oz. Then he rolled on N which meant we could be creative. So I had him take his stuffed animals and create his own version of the story. He called it "Rabbit loses his Tail."
We had such a fun night! I love nights like that!
This product is a companion to Narration in a Jar. Included is a picture study cube with three levels of play, three levels of color-coded activity strips and a booklet to help guide through implementing picture study in your home.
We must trust that his mind is capable of dealing with the nutrition it needs by itself. Charlotte Mason Vol. 1 in Modern English
Today I was reading from Home Education by Charlotte Mason on narration and decided this was a great place to "think out loud." Charlotte speaks of how natural narration is to children. There is nothing that needs to be taught to the child. It is us, the parent, that must be taught to not only allow the child to narrate but also to enjoy the child's narration. It is simply not enough for us to add a smile or an occasional "uh-huh." We are to be engaged in their storytelling. She also speaks of the rich literary diet a child must feast upon. It is our duty to supply a well-balanced diet. (I could write a whole blog post on that but I will save it for another time.) It is the act of narration that creates ownership of the knowledge presented. I have seen this in my own life as I have journeyed down this "new" education. Narration also is as unique and individual as our children. It is not our job to interfere or correct but rather to allow the process to happen. We must trust that when feasting on a rich diet and then digesting it through narration the child will nourish itself.
Quick Tips for Narration:
- Read only an episode at a time
- Spend only a few moments reviewing what was previously read but jump right in to reading
- Do not correct the child while narrating
- Multiple children can take turns narrating
