Narration versus Questioning

This is an excerpt from Mrs.Linda Fay's "Narration versus Questioning", to read more, you can visit her blog at: charlottemasonhelp.com.


NARRATION is the very heart of Charlotte Mason's philosophy. It is more important than nature, art and music study because it is a powerful way of learning. Mason learned it from the great classical educators such as Quintillian and Erasmus, who lived before her time. Realizing that this proven method had died out in British schools, she set about to revive it.

Quite simply, it is the art of ‘telling back’ what you just read or heard from a book. It seems simple--almost too simple to be of great value in the schoolroom, but don't judge too quickly. Karen Glass aptly explains the benefits of narration:

“Do not be deceived by the superficial simplicity of this method! When you read a story, paragraph, or chapter to a child and ask him to narrate what he has heard, powerful mental "wheels" must spring into motion. The knowledge that he has passively gathered must now be sifted and sorted. His mind must recall the beginning, and then "what comes next," event by event. He must be sure the order of his knowledge is correct, and that nothing important is omitted. Then, he must find words to give shape to his knowledge. It is not uncommon for children to imitate the vocabulary and style of the author himself. Nevertheless, by using the words to tell "his" version of the story, he makes them his own.”

Personally, I've done the research and have tested it extensively on my own children and I stand amazed at the results. I contemplated titling this post NARRATION CHANGED MY LIFE! It's kind of humorous, but it really is true. It has not only greatly simplified my planning and lightened my workload, but it has enabled my children to really learn their subject matter. Whenever I evaluate my children, I notice that their greatest knowledge and amount of love for a subject always comes from the passages they narrated aloud earlier in the year. Usually, if they didn't narrate to me, then later, they couldn't recall what they read very well. Not only that, but frequent narration has caused their verbal skills to surge remarkably and this has naturally transferred over into their writing. Narration has taught them to organize their thoughts and speak with clarity and style. I challenge those who have never tried this method to look into it.