Archive for category How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING
Elementary Reading Strategies vs. Whole Books?
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING on April 12th, 2010
If you are familiar with the main tenets of a classical Christian education, you know that you should read whole books aloud daily to your kids. In fact, books are essential to the effective application of teaching the three skills of the classical trivium.
Well, what you do in your Christian home school is not necessarily what teachers in public schools are doing! My friend recently shared an interesting homeschooling article called “Let Them Read Whole Books” by Joy Hakim, author of the elementary series “A History of US,” which argues that public school teachers spend so much time teaching strategies for reading and analyzing paragraphs that there is no longer enough classroom time for reading whole books! Hakim clearly prefers the reading strategies adopted by homeschoolers:
Today, it is only homeschoolers, and children at a few elite or unusual schools who even read as much as one whole book. Teachers are much too busy teaching reading to actually let their students read a nonfiction book.
I’m sure that you would agree, but don’t let up! Keep reading. No matter how busy you are with daily household chores or teaching the math and science curriculum, make a daily commitment to read aloud to your home school kids. If you need a little bit of encouragement, click on the image above and watch my presentation to the Indiana Association of Home Educators on the real benefits of reading aloud.
Heart of the Matter Homeschool Conference
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING on February 17th, 2010
How would you like to win a free ticket to a fabulous online homeschool conference called “Winter Homeschool Refresher” hosted by Heart of the Matter? Next Monday through Thursday (February 22-24, 2010), sixteen speakers have been chosen specifically for their ability to revive, rejuvenate, and renew the hearts and minds of homeschool parents like you. And, guess what? I have the great privilege to teach on Monday morning on the benefits of reading aloud!
As an added blessing for 5 of my readers, our hosts have given me 5 free tickets to give away. Be one of the first five readers to comment below, and I’ll send you your link. Additional tickets can be purchased for only $ 12.95 each. Learn more at Heart of the Matter. Hope to see you Monday morning at 11am ET where I’ll give you at least 12 new reading ideas that you can try next week. You are sure to walk away motivated and inspired!
Story Prediction Engages the Homeschool Child
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING on November 28th, 2009
“Are we there yet?’ When Meredith and Connor were much younger, we regularly heard this plaintive cry from the back seat of the van on long drives to Chattanooga. This innocent question reveals an amazing fact about the human mind: children think in terms of linear progression. There follows here. Future follows present. Last follows first.
Likewise, you can capitalize on this rule of thought by incorporating prediction when reading aloud to your homeschool children. Predicting content is as simple as asking what is going to happen next. After you’ve read a colorful two-page spread in a picture book, stop before turning the page and ask your child to predict the subsequent content:
“What do you think is going to happen next in the story?”
Demonstrate how to predict content by showing your child how to do it, and watch him imitate your example. Use the illustrations and keywords as clues to how the author plans to develop or unfold the plot line. Ask questions about what has happened previously in the story. If a child expects you to stop periodically and ask him to predict content , he will anticipate your questions by paying closer attention to the reading. The satisfaction of getting the right answer will motivate your homeschool child to really concentrate. If he occasionally messes up, go back and point out the clues that he missed.
To prepare the young child for predicting content in the preteen and teen years of homeschool high school, look at the front cover, back cover, art, title, and any other clues everytime you pick up a book for read aloud time. After a cursory glance, ask your child to think about the total message of the story book. This broad or universal exterior prediction serves to supplement the interior predictions that you request while reading the narrative.
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Are you looking for the best homeschool books for your preschool child? Once your young child passes the toddler stage, look for books with sequencing and ordering like the timeless children’s classic, Caps for Sale, about a peddler and some rambunctious monkeys.
Homeschool Narration by Drawing and Writing
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING, How to Teach Homeschool Skill 3: SPEAKING on November 23rd, 2009
Oral narration is not the only way to improve comprehension and long term retention in your older home school child. For the eight to eleven year old kid and even the high school teen, written narration can be the catalyst for deepening knowledge, intelligent interpretation, and regular note taking. Here are two examples for effectively using oral and written narration in your classical home school.
Eight to Eleven Year Olds
Most kids and preteens working at the late elementary school level can handle written narration without much parental guidance. First start by asking your child to tell you what he has just learned. If he’s reading a book, ask for an oral narration after each chapter. If he’s watching a video documentary, stop the video and ask him to give an oral narration after each segment or module. Once he has spoken his thoughts, it’s time to get them down on paper. For the younger child, this may mean that you have to take dictation as he talks; he can then copy what you have written. If he’s older, have him write his own thoughts in a complete one-idea paragraph.
When my kids were young, I created a narration template for them to use. I took a blank piece of 8.5 x 11 inch copy paper and visually divided it into thirds. I left the top 2 thirds blank so that they could draw a picture from the reading or video. I used a ruler to draw horizontal lines on the bottom third of the page; this is where they either copied my dictation or wrote their own narration of the main ideas of the story. Download your own copy of my homeschool narration template. Drawing for understanding is also extremely helpful, and when you combine the picture with the narrated text, you’ve got a recipe for thinking success.
High School Preteens and Teens
Who says narration is only for little kids? Written and oral narration are perfect tools for improving understanding for homeschool preteens and teens, too; however, you have to reverse the process for those kids doing high school level work. For the older homeschooler, written narration usually comes before oral narration. As the highschooler is reading a text or watching a video lecture, have him take comprehensive notes. Personally, my favorite note-taking method is called branching, but you could capture the main points of the reading or video using a formal roman numeral outline or a mind map. Drawing diagrams to help reinforce understanding of complex concepts like parts of a muscle or a fictional plot line provides an even better layer of learning.
Once your homeschool high school teen has completed his notes, he is now ready to reconstruct his thoughts by writing an abstract or summary of his interpretation. In my experience with my own kids, a typical high school abstract from a 30 minute lecture will run 2-3 paragraphs which is about a page to a page and a half of handwritten text. After the written narration is complete, it is time to share what has been learned with a parent or sibling through oral narration. Explaining his understanding to another person will help with knowledge retention and clarify any areas that he doesn’t fully understand so that he can go back and reread the text or watch that portion of the video. Just imagine how valuable this written narration inventory will be if you have your homeschool high school teen take notes, write a summary, and give an oral narration of his understanding for every chapter or lecture!
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In addition to the new envelope icon below my signature for sending emails to your friends, I’ve just added another feature for my homeschool articles: “print this post.” Now if you want a written copy of the post, you can click on this link, and print the formatted article. Why don’t you start your own ‘Strategies for Homeschooling Excellence’ binder today?
If You Want a Better Listener, Try Oral Narration
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING on November 18th, 2009
Have you ever thought that reading a book in your home school is like having a conversation? The author creates an imaginary universe with characters, plot, and themes while the audience is responsible for interpreting and understanding the meaning of the story. Often an author provides a narrator within the book to serve like a museum docent who points out the interesting events and people along the way. I’m sure that as a parent who reads aloud to your home school children, you also provide an additional layer of understanding by narrating the content as you go along. While the two-fold combination of a narrator within the story and a narrator outside the story (you) is extremely valuable to enriching the child’s comprehension, the growing child also needs a personal opportunity to grapple with the text. Oral narration is just the tool for such a task.
Oral narration is essentially the process of “telling back” what has been heard, read, seen, or learned. You read a few pages of a story, then you stop and ask your child to tell you what just happened. If your child is reluctant or can’t seem to find the words, you can coax some understanding by suggesting something that did NOT happen. This shocking revelation from you is sure to grab your child’s attention, and the outraged (if not smug) child will suddenly remember all the little details.
One of the beautiful benefits of oral narration is improved listening skills. Even as adults, we sometimes find ourselves zoning out during long lectures or even during silent reading. If you knew that you were going to have to give a brief synopsis of what you had just heard or read, you would finely focus your attention in a way that classifies and connects information so that you could confidently summarize what you just learned. A little child will do the same thing if he knows that mom is going to ask him questions at periodic intervals during the read aloud time.
Personally, I have trouble recounting something that I have just heard or read if I don’t narrate my understanding to someone. For instance, I can scan the newspaper for interesting articles, and five minutes later, I have no recollection of what I just read. (I could blame my age, but I know that’s not the only cause of my memory lapses.) However, if I read an article or listen to the news with the intention of sharing what I learned with my husband or kids, then I notice my attention is intentionally focused on finding the keywords, the topic sentences, and the summary statements. I even visually outline what I want to say before I open my mouth to make sure I don’t lose my train of thought. Once I start talking, I realize my weak areas of understanding, and if my husband asks me questions (his perverse joy), I am able to clarify even fuller understanding or lack thereof. This process of oral narration serves me well because it results in increased comprehension and long-term retention. Your home school child and teen will benefit, too, from this essential element of classical homeschooling.
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Have you noticed the new envelope icon under my signature at the bottom of this post? Yes, you can now easily email this post to a friend! Why not send this to someone right now who could benefit from some homeschool teaching tips?
