Narration and Retelling

This monograph discusses the way Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason’s implementation of narration has stood the test of time. The principles Mason articulated in her volumes were based on the conception of the learner as an active participant striving to make meaning of their world. Mason overturned the teacher-centered paradigm of education and handed the responsibility of learning back to the students. All those practices that were once done by the teacher—asking questions, keeping students’ attention, and explaining the readings—were taken up by the students in the act of narration. Through examining the research literature about retelling, narrative form, and oral cultures, I confirm the insights Mason had about the importance of children learning through narrative or literary form. Using my own research in a fifth-grade classroom, I add to that knowledge by offering a fresh perspective on narration that emphasizes the storytelling aspects of it. This shift from narration as a reading comprehension exercise to narration as a creative activity helps students see themselves as storytellers who must craft their retelling in a way that is faithful to the text but allows their perspective and personality to shine through. This practice brings together both reason and imagination so that knowledge engages the mind and heart.