The old saying goes, "If you want to know if you understand something: teach it."

In home education, this is applied to learning as, "If you understand something, narrate it."

What exactly is "narration" then, and why is it beneficial for students both young and old (even adults)?

What is Narration?

Narration is simply that act of retelling in one's own words.

For example, when your child recounts a funny story that happened on the playground that day, they are, in a way, practicing narration. They are retelling what they know.

Formally applied to schooling, then, narration involves reading or listening to some account, and then recounting it in their own words.

For example, a child may read or listen to a chapter from Little Women. Then, they are invited to narrate what happened in their own way.

Why is Narration Important?

Narration promotes synthetic thinking. So instead of isolating facts, the child must view the whole picture, story, or entity. Then, they must present it in all its "it-ness" as opposed to mere recitation of facts.

Narration also stretches a child's mind, preventing passive intake and encouraging active engagement with the subject at hand.

When it comes to religious education, this remains greatly important! Many of us are concerned with apologetics; but what is apologetics if not explaining what we believe as Catholics and why?

If we spew facts, it is hardly convicting.

But if we can relay them in the context of the Story... that can influence hearts.

What Kind of Material Should My Child Narrate?

Narration is best done with living books and rich material. But they can narrate for any subject: religion, history, science, geography, literature, even math!

How Can I Get Started?

Narration can be done at most ages.

Narration can be:

1) Written

2) Oral

3) Pictorial

Younger students may lean toward the latter two, finding that talking about the subject or drawing what happened the most effective form of communication for their development.

As students grow in their abilities, written narrations are immensely helpful in evaluating a child's comprehension. These can be anywhere from 2 sentences to 2 paragraphs, depending on the child and the material.

Narration or Tests?

Tests are important, and all children should eventually learn how to take them.

But we find narration a more useful practice for the developing mind to truly encourage and showcase comprehension.

That's why we don't include worksheets or tests in Level Two or Level Three. Rather, we include prompts for narration (any style of your choosing).

This allows you, as parent, to monitor their progress and them, as student, to really contemplate ideas and figure out how to express them in their own words.

Pretty important for making disciples that make disciples.

If you want to dive more into this idea of narration, I recommend Know and Tell by Karen Glass (it's a continual re-read for me!)

Do you have any questions about narration with younger or older students? Send them my way!

Ready to dive deeper? 

Here are 4 ways to fill your nets... 

 1. Memorize Bible verses with your children easily with our FREE guide: Stocking the Storehouses

 2. Make your dreams of family prayer a reality with The Daily Feast framework, making it possible in just a few minutes a day. This free guide shows you how.

 3. Want to steward your own prayer life? Check out this Scripture prayer journal we made just for you.

 4. Looking to level-up in your family faith formation? Join over 10,000 families that use our resources. We make open-and-go, family-style resources to make your role as primary catechist easy AND delightful. Click here to browse!