Comprehension Strategy - “The Retell”
Guided retelling and reflection of a story has the dual benefit of teaching comprehension as well as providing a format for assessing it.
During the retell, the student is responsible for integrating information from the text in in order to provide a personalized summary. Unlike answering specific questions after reading, retelling requires reprocessing large segments of text, thinking about the sequence of ideas/events and their importance.
Elements of the "Retell":
Retelling should include the main idea, the characters, the setting, the most important events (in the right sequence), the problem and the solution,
Steps to help students to develop retelling skills:
1. Tell the students why retelling is important. They need to know how a retell helps them as readers and as effective communicators. Explain that the purpose of retelling is to recreate, as close as possible to the original, something that has been read (or heard, or viewed). Remind students how they engage in retelling when they talk about a favorite book, movie, or event.
2. Demonstrate retelling to your student. Model retells that encompass key elements as part of the read aloud experience. As in all learning, "think aloud" about how you reviewed the text and decided what to say helps students to understand the cognitive processing they will need to implement. Model a retell with a short selection. If the selection is familiar to the students, they will be able to make comparisons between the original and retold version.
3. After the retelling, discuss what they heard. Talk about and list the elements of a retell.
4. Guide your students in a retell by providing them with a short selection to read. After reading, have them prepare for their retell by referring to the elements of retelling. Listen to your student and provide feedback.
5. Praise your student.
Good Luck!
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