Book Review: Know and Tell by Karen Glass
Know and Tell: The Art of Narration by Karen Glass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Super helpful introduction to narration and how it can lead naturally into composition. We’ve always done narration in one form or another but had gotten stuck in written narration and not transitioning well to more formal writing. Chapter 7 is all about this, and will be a huge help when we start school again in January 2021.
Glass includes many samples and some charts, I find the charts especially helpful for my needs and the samples, while a wonderful treasury of narrations for someone getting started, more distracting to the flow of the narrative for me.
I plan to use the “To the student” readings in Morning Time as we begin a journey more deeply into composition and I hope to help, especially my now 10th grader, my students to grow in their ability to think deeply and communicate well regarding the ideas they’re grasping hold of.
“As teachers and parents, we want to open doors for the children, so that they have every chance to make connections to the things they are learning and to communicate what they know. With a little creativity, we can find ways to make it possible for almost every child to narrate.” p 151
All this said, Know and Tell can be a great resource for the educator who wants to use narration in her home or school setting with students of all sorts of capacities. I’m frustrated with myself for not prioritizing reading it as I should have sooner. Highly recommended.