Skip to main content

Naomi’s Parsha Narration & Picture: Vayigash

Naomi’s narrations always seem to begin the same way:  “I don’t know… I don’t know anything!”

Here’s how it goes today:  I read the one-paragraph parsha summary in The Shabbat Book.  She sits beside me on the sofa, whining and rubbing against me for a few minutes.  Half-heartedly (knowing I wouldn’t), she asks me to read it again.

I sit there with my pen on the paper.  I write “in this week’s parsha…”  I avoid eye contact.  I avoid showing weakness.  I wait.

And then, finally, she starts…!

Today, there were so many words, I couldn’t keep up, I had to abbreviate and at one point skip a couple of words because she was going so fast.  She brought in far more detail than the one paragraph I’d read her, incorporating facts from this week’s parsha narrative.  I had to continue with a couple of lines on the reverse; we’ve never run out of room before.

narration 002

And her picture!  Here’s Paroh at his palace, greeting bnei Yisrael as they arrive.  The women are in the wagon (pulled by a pop-eyed donkey), and at the bottom of the wagon is Yocheved, the very last of the seventy counted as going down into Mitzrayim.  In the top left corner are two carefully labelled maps, reminiscent of yesterday’s parsha map work.

I am amazed and grateful for this wonderful narration strategy.  Sure, I could bore my kid and myself to tears with endless, tedious Q&As, but in one two-minute narration, she has proven that she really REALLY understands the story. 

Instead of tossing back one or two word answers, narration encapsulates an entire story or concept – and it’s quicker than a quiz, too!

By reformulating the ideas in her own words and pictures, she is internalizing the story, making it her own.  I doubt she will forget these lessons easily, but if she does, we also have a high-quality memento to look back on when we get to this parsha again next year.

Comments

  1. What a wonderful break through! I love all those details in her picture.
    I have to remind myself that my children know much more than they can express! Narration is such a powerful, personal learning tool!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

It's Heart Month: 3 days left to save lives!

Dear Friends & Family: Hi, everybody! Sorry I can’t stop by in person... you're a bit out of my area.  :-) We’re out walking up and down on our street on this beautiful afternoon to raise money for Heart & Stroke.  This cause is important to me (I won't say it's close to my heart , because that would be tacky!).  I hope you'll join me by donating online. Growing up, I watched as every single one of my grandparents' lives were shortened by heart disease and strokes, and my father had a defibrillator that saved his life on more than one occasion.  Heart disease and stroke kill 1 in 3 Canadians and are the #1 killer of women. Please click this link to be redirected to my main page at the Heart & Stroke website: http://tinyurl.com/AtlasHeart Thus ends my personal appeal.  Official information follows.  :-))) ----- Heart disease and stroke is the #1 killer of women - taking more women's lives than all forms of cancer combined. But no one is immune. Th