Beginning Narration with Aesop Fables

If you've been involved in the homeschooling movement for any amount of time, I am sure you've learned about the idea of narration as a teaching tool or should I say a learning tool.

I don't want to go into a whole description of narration today. That will be an article all by itself. Simply stated  oral narration is just saying back what someone else just read to you or you read yourself. Oral narration can be utilized in children ages 5 and up but starting in 1st grade is best. Never fear, you can start older!

This fall quarter, I decided to start my 1st grade son in some narration by reading some of Aesop's Fables. I would read at least one story to him a day. At least two or three times a week, I would ask him to tell the story back to me, and I would write it out in a notebook for him. I used one of those primary journal notebooks that has lines on the bottom half of the page and blank space on the top half. That way we could record his narration and he could then draw a picture of the story. Occasionally, I would just ask him what is something we learned from this story, and I would write in on the white board and he would record the moral of the story in his notebook in his own handwriting.

We finished our book of Aesop and now have several pages of narration recorded. It is a step toward learning to narrate which is a terrific skill to learn as your children devlop. Teaching this skill at age 5-7 is much easier than even 10-12 (but not impossible). Aesop's Fables are quite short and simple stories, making them simple for your early narrating student to learn these important narration skills. Give it a try. And let me know how it goes.

*Repost of my article on the Homeschool  Weekly Journal blog in 11/10/2010