Secular Charlotte Mason

I do believe we can trust the narration method for more than just testing/evaluation. Valuable skills are also learned with copywork.  The ages and expectations show  how challenging it can be to learn this skill. A student new to CM should not be expected to be on age level and should start with narrating one paragraph.

The following quotes are taken from this article by Karen Andreola: http://www.home-school.com/Articles/AndreolaNarration.html

"Knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced."

"Certainly we should drill children on the simple facts they need to memorize -- arithmetic facts, important historic dates, Bible verses. Short daily drills will not overshadow the children's school day. ***However, narration should be our main learning tool.***" (emphasis mine)

"What we may not see is how narration strengthens and challenges all the powers of mind. Attending, remembering, visualizing, comprehending, synthesizing (seeing the whole from the parts), and articulating are the result of placing our trust in this method."

"...his mind does for itself the sorting, arranging, correlating, selecting, rejecting, classifying..."

After age of six "Young students should begin by narrating paragraphs."

"By age eight, part or all of a short chapter can be narrated (about seven minutes' worth of a teacher's reading aloud)."

"At the age of nine or ten, children who have been used to the effort of narrating stories can easily go on to narrate whole chapters of history -- historical fiction, biography, myths and legends -- as well science and nature investigation, and Bible."

"The wonderful "art of telling" carries over to a child's writing. Because narration was the primary way Charlotte's students gained knowledge from books, composition (first oral, later written) was an integral part of a variety of subjects -- not a separate subject. During the years of oral narration the mechanical skills of writing are progressing so that by the age of ten a child is ready to begin the effort of lengthy written narrations. You could call these "book reports" and "essays," if you prefer."

I made this list to show what can be learned with Narration and Copywork.  Please post anything I've forgotten or add your comments.  (Do we really need additional curriculum to teach these skills?)

NARRATION:

Attention

Memorization

Visualization

Comprehension

Ability to synthesize (seeing whole to part)

Ability to sort, arrange, correlate, select, reject, classify

Articulation

Vocabulary Building

Composition Skills (written essays)

Critical Thinking

Means of Evaluation/Testing

Art/Drawing Skills

Drama/Dioramas/Stage Sets

Imagination

COPYWORK:

Penmanship

Spelling

Vocabulary

Punctuation

Memorization

Grammar in context (parts of speech can be learned after age 10)

Poetry Appreciation