Narrative - Inversion on the Final Draft

[MBentley]

We are trying to get our footing in Narrative and so far, it's going okay. Where we struggled for Lesson 1 was the inversion of the sequence of events on the final draft. I noticed that Lesson 2 will do the same. What struck me was that this inversion was not in the student samples for Lesson 1 that I saw in the Teacher Training. Is this inversion an optional aspect - or one reserved for older students as an additional challenge in Narrative? Should I skip it for now and pick it up later?

Thanks! We LOVE the videos with Abigail Johnson!!

[igalloway]

Others may be able to provide a more comprehensive response (for instance, I'm not sure exactly what was in the Teacher Training materials, or why), but we would encourage you to do the Inversion exercise. There are several different methods we'll ask you to do throughout Narrative, but we wouldn't recommend skipping it.

[Abigail Johnson]

Hello!
I can understand that the concepts in the inversion skill set may be challenging the first few times. It is a skill set that will take some repetition to master, and that is exactly what we do here! Since the Fable books teach the introduction to inversion, that is a skill set's use is built off of the Fable book practice. So, the training videos from the July conferences, etc., do not re-teach that skill set for narrative. Instead, Narrative students practice the new skill for Narrative, which is a perspective change.
However, in order to clarify where the inconsistency is with what you are seeing versus were expecting, would you just confirm with me that what I am thinking based on your post is correct. I believe you said that the July Teacher Training recording on Narrative does not teach about inversion, but inversion is a required skill. I am also seeing that you said Lesson 1 had inversion. You said that you are enjoying the videos, and I thank you so much for the kind words! I did not do the Teacher Training in July, over Narrative, but only the "upper" levels, so I just want to make sure I am seeing and thinking the same things, so we can resolve this for you. It can be confusing, with different year's videos, trainings, and lesson streaming resources, and I want to make sure I understand clearly where you are coming from .
Could you just confirm some of the details for me, and we will get everything squared away! If there is an edition change or updates that need to be made to previous DVD/Streaming lessons, I can absolutely ask the editors to look into them.

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Abigail

[MBentley]

I watched so many videos - some were from the Classical Latin teacher training - I may be wrong if it was part of the July Conference or my own deeper dive in the teacher lessons on Classical Latin. I did both in July at the same time.
I have a copy of a Word Doc that you sent out for this training class (and I don't know if it was Conference or Classical Latin long training course). The title of the word doc is : Composition-The-Early-Years-Johnson-Rackers.docx.
Under Composition Appendix B*, there are 3 versions of student written final drafts covering the story of The Rose. The first two (Variation Only and Developing Mastery) do not appear to invert. Only the final example "Mastery Achieved" seemed to invert. For this reason, I was wondering if it were optional to include the inversion along with the perspective change.

[Abigail Johnson]

Hello!
I completely understand. It's either feast of famine, and it can get all mixed up.
I DID have the ability to ask the office about this, and we did also have an edition change, that focused the first few narratives, for paraphrase 1 and paraphrase 2, on amplification and reduction. The Final Draft instructions DO occasionally include the inversion. May I ask what was the difficulty of inverting in Lesson 1? Is it because that skill is unfamiliar to you, or because it was not included in the step by step instructions for the student?
I often tell families that if completing THREE different essays per lesson is too much, consider a Mastery Final Draft for only some of the lessons. (This can help with pencil fatigue at times!) Some students really excel and can go through the lessons more quickly, while others need to go more slowly, due to the effort it takes to process and understand one story and apply the skills.

In this way the TM give lots of options for using a particular story in 3 different paraphrases. As the beauty of homeschooling demonstrates, each parents is able to use the TM to apply the best and most proper rigor to each student; a more rapid pace, focusing on fewer drafts per lesson, but getting through more lessons, or a slower pace that goes through more skills for each story before mounting a new one.

Let me know where the inversion hang-up is happening, and why your student struggled with it, and we can figure out how to help him!

[MBentley]

I have 2 (5A and 6) both in Narrative. Inverting is an unfamiliar skill. We took some time going over perspective change, and I think they were so happy to get to the end of that understanding, they wanted to re-write the Paraphrase 1 essay with the edits we did - thinking they were done. Then I turned it on its ear with the inversion. I don't remember the videos going deeply over inversion like it did with perspective change - but that could be that I was helping a different kiddo out at the time and missed it.

Being completely honest, I did not do all of the lessons in Fable, and I'm guessing I picked lessons that did not do inversion ( we only did about 8 of them). Basically, in Lesson 1 Narrative, I threw perspective change and inversion at them. They could not understand why they had to change the story a 3rd time. Now, I get why, and I agree it's a good practice, Beyond that, I plan to keep doing them. I guess, what I'm thinking is that inversion seems more like a Paraphrase 3, rather than a Final Draft - because there is no rough draft since it isn't represented in one of the Paraphrases. What would you think about adding an extra day - call it Paraphrase 3 day - then Final Draft where I pick one that we edit and proof to call a Final Draft. Or...like I think I understand you to say, only pick a few lessons to create a polished Final Draft of one of the paraphrases. Just thinking out loud here.

But to be sure I understand, the goal truly is for the student to actually write 3 different paraphrases for each story. Should the goal of the Final Draft be to include all the variations, all the enhancements (Dendrographia, etc), inversion, and ...anything else?

[Abigail Johnson]

Hello!
I would recommend going back to the Fable for a few lessons, if you missed that skill, and catching up on that skill with the smaller, more easily managed Fables versus the longer narratives. In the Fable editions, the old edition reduction is introduced right away in Paraphrase 2 of Lesson 1, but in the new edition introduces this skill in Lesson 5, for your reference.
Remember that each lesson gives the opportunity to practice skills. "Final Drafts" are the students' opportunity to create a polished, perfect draft, free of mechanical and spelling mistakes, and a true "best" example of the work. In Fable, this is always just perfecting either paraphrase 1 or paraphrase 2.
For Narrative, since these some narrative skills are review, students will add another skill of paraphrasing, or the addition of more figures, to the Final Draft, which they should be able to easily use, having practiced them in Fable. I can understand why your students were confused, as it is a change from fable. But, it is like practicing 3 kinds of basketball shot instead of 2, each re-figuring of the story is just practicing the skills more. If additions to the final drafts are too much extra detail for you, simple take one of the paraphrases for using as a final draft, without any extra additions or changes.
To your last question about should the final draft include everything, the answer is NO, not necessarily, because a reduced story cannot have amplification at the same time. Final drafts may be amplification plus inversion, or reduction plus inversion, or just amplification with extra figures. Each lesson is unique. Final drafts are just the opportunity to do a 3rd paraphrase and take it beyond the initial drafting and creativity to a fully polished, finished product.

*I will note that I have asked for a revision of a few lessons that ask for extra figures in the final draft when the final draft is of a reduction. We never use figures in a reduction; that would be counter-productive. I have also asked that in Lesson 10 they remove the figures of speech from the Final Draft instructions, as we do not teach those anymore until Chreia/Maxim. I think these were a small printing error between editions.

I hope that the Fable videos are helpful to you in going over the inversions so you can add this skill to your writing!

Abigail

[MBentley]

Abigail Johnson This is very good advice - and I sincerely thank you for taking the time. It really does clarify a great deal. Might I trouble you for one more question?

I love doing the variations, but I noticed in both Fable and Narrative, Variations Part 2 is after having completed both Paraphrase 1 and 2, but prior to Final. Since Paraphrase 1 often wants variations included, what is the reasoning behind Variations pt 2 being completed after P 1&2? Is it just to add extra detail in the Final so that it gives an even more elaborate write up and to set it further apart from Paraphrase 1? Is there ever a good reason to move the order and do Variations Pt 2 the day after Variations Pt 1, and just before Paraphrase 1, allowing all variations to be readily available to be a part of Paraphrase1? Or, am I overthinking it, and it is done this way so that if time is too limited, it is dropped? Just trying to understand the intent and methodology.

[Abigail Johnson]

Hello,
Variations are exercises. You can use them in ANY order, really. They are at the end to provide more practice. The second set can be used to prepare students to be ready for the final drafting .OR, as I do, one variation sentence may be used, 1 per day, for 4 days of each lesson, as a warm-up to get the brain into thinking about writing. The exact order of your use of them is not necessary and is up to you. The TM has a laid out direction of Visitor Messages for Variations 2, before the FD, but if you prefer to use them in a different order, you are free to.

Remember this is a SKILL practice book. To use an analogy, it does not matter too critically if you start your basketball workout with stretching, a brief run, a team talk, or a few shots at the hoop, so long as all those things happen eventually. Now, naturally, you may learn that the team REALLY does BEST starting with stretching, and then a small talk, and only then a run and hoop shots. In this manner I have personally learned that variation gets my students' brains into writing mode at the start of class. But, my team and my approach may be different from your team. Making adjustments to the routine of the skills practiced is just fine, again, so long as the skills are being practiced. The TM makes sure all those skills ARE all practiced, in a given format, but it is not the only method. I hope this help you to see both the purpose and the freedom within this approach.
Abigail

[MBentley]

Abigail Johnson Thank you so much for that. I like your method of warming up - like Math Drills do before the lesson, and Latin recitations before the worksheets. This approach makes so much sense. I appreciate your patience with me!