Retelling What it is  as instruction  as assessment

Retelling is  an oral (or written) account of a text in the child’s own words.  a way to reveal a particular element that confuses or interferes with a child’s comprehension.  enhances both comprehension and oral reading proficiency.

Through retelling, students learn to:  identify, clarify and organize thinking  identify important events/concepts  make decisions about organizing info  build a base of literal and implied meaning

Through retelling, students learn to  identify literary elements and genres  evaluate use of language and interpret meaning.  talk about language and interpret meaning  increase self-confidence with the acts of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Different Forms of Retelling Oral to Oral Teacher reads aloud/ Students retell orally. Perfect for: Non-reader or non-writer Insight into: Listening and oral language skills

Oral to Written Teacher reads or tells text aloud/Students retell in writing. Perfect for: Immature and mature readers/writers. Insight into: Listening skills, plus control over written language.

Oral to Drawing Teacher reads or tells text aloud/Students retell in drawings Perfect for: Non-readers/non-writers Insight into: Listening skills and control over oral language skills

 Written to Oral Students read text and retell orally Perfect for: ESL or immature learner Insight into: Reading comprehension and control over oral language

 Written to written Students read text and retell in writing. Perfect for: Students who have some control over reading and writing Insight into: Reading comprehension and control over written language.

 Written to drawing Students read the text and retell it by drawing. Perfect for: Students who read but have difficulty with writing. Insight into: Reading comprehension and control of oral language.

Retelling and Critical Thinking skills  Process thinking is enhanced since retelling requires knowing all the the story parts and putting them within the whole context.  Problem solving/Analytical thinking is involved since retelling requires analyzing the story to determine what is important and then organizing it for presenting the retelling.

 Language/communication skills requires the reteller to control the language in order to retell the story. It also requires decontextualized language.  Independent Learning skills are enhanced when the reteller must define the boundaries and self initiate the retelling.

Retelling is on a developmental continuum PRETELLING requires the child to think sequentially.  Child must think backward to retell a story and then forward to put the events in order.  The teacher should hear words like: FIRST, NEXT, THEN, LAST

 GUIDED RETELLING is where the child is retelling in a supported or guided manner, using schema and topic knowledge combined with illustrations or story props to organize and remember the retelling.  Teacher is a guide or coach introducing strategies for organizing and scaffolding the story.

 STORY MAP RETELLING introduces writing AS the child reads.  The child organizes the information from beginning to middle to end.  The goal is to increase the complexity of the retelling.

 WRITTEN RETELLINGS  Now the child expected to interpret the story from the WHOLE to PART to WHOLE.  Then the parts needed to retell are reconstructed in writing.

 WRITTEN RETELLINGS cont. The child interprets story from WHOLE to PART to WHOLE and reconstructed in a piece of writing.