Year 1: Hansel & Gretel Narration

This is a narration of the second half of Hansel & Gretel.

Now that Gemma knows she will be expected to narrate every lesson, she sighs and says, "Do I have to narrate it?" If I were grading her narrations since the novelty of "telling back" has worn off, I would have to grade them as poor. 

We read Hansel and Gretel over two days. The first day, I stopped every two sentences, and had her narrate. It seemed ridiculous to me, like I was enabling her in being inattentive.

Looking for a way to improve, the second day, I stopped every half-page, and I wrote down exactly what Gemma said. You'll notice that, at one point, she starts at the end of a section, so I re-read her previous narration and asked, "What happened after that?" 

When the story was over, I read back her entire narration. I think she appreciated that I wrote down her narration word-for-word, really listening to her and valuing her words. Oops, maybe this wasn't coming across before.

Hansel comforted his sister and they were walking for a long time. 

They found a snowy white bird and followed it until they came to a gingerbread house, and Hansel had a bit of the roof, and Gretel had a bit of the window.

The woman said, "Nibble nibble like a mouse, who is nibbling at my house?"the children said, "Never mind, it is the wind." Then a woman came out leaning on a crutch, and she invited them in.

She was really a wicked witch and she laughed - hehehehehe - and then she said, "They will not escape!"

The wicked witch wanted Hansel's finger to make sure it was fat enough. And she wanted Gretel to fetch water and make something nice for Hansel to eat, so she could eat him.

Gretel prayed to the Lord. And since the woman had no good eyesight, Hansel used to hold out a bone so he wouldn't get eaten.

She pushed the woman into the fire and shut the iron door and ran to the stable and said to Hansel, "We are free! The wicked witch is dead!"

They put stuff in their pockets and she filled her apron and they came to a water piece [a piece of water] and could not get over it.

Wait, can I tell the poem first? Now my story is done, and there is a mouse scurrying across the house. He who can catch her shall make a cap out of her fur. How can you make a cap out of a mouse's fur?!

[ME: Now, can you tell me what happened after they came to the water?]

And then they found a duck, and they went separately on the duck's back. And they went through the woods to their father's house, and fell on his neck, and pearls spilled out of Gretel's apron, and Hansel took the stones out of his pockets. And the wife was dead. I was sad and also mad, because she should have been very nice. I'm mad at her because she was really mean. She didn't give them enough bread.