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Have students sort a few books from the classroom library into piles of nonfiction and fiction stories. Explicitly describe the characteristics of a nonfiction text compared to a fiction text.
Intermediate

Explain to the students that fiction stories are not real, and ask them to think of an example of a fiction story they've read in the past or find one in the classroom library.

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Read and Retell a Classic Story | Lesson Plan | Education.com

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Have students sort a few books from the classroom library into piles of nonfiction and fiction stories. Explicitly describe the characteristics of a nonfiction text compared to a fiction text. Intermediate Explain to the students that fiction stories are not real, and ask them to think of an example of a fiction story they've read in the past or find one in the classroom library.

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Retelling a Story | 3 RETELLING STRATEGIES

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Retelling with Paragraph Frames | Lesson Plan | Education.com | Lesson plan | Education.com

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Help your EL students retell a story using a paragraph frame and transition words. This lesson can be used as a stand alone activity to reinforce comprehension of texts or used as a support lesson for Read and Retell a Classic.

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Today I wanted to share a few strategies and supports I have used for teaching sequencing in my special education classroom over the years.
Teaching order, continuance, sequel, consecutiveness is so important in our world and lives today.
SEQUENCING IS PUTTING THINGS(events, ideas) IN ORDER.

WHY
Why learn sequencing? It is the basic stepping stone to other more complex skills and concepts in multiple subjects. Just a few places sequencing is imperative to understand include:

1. Sequencing events in a story
Sequencing is part of comprehending and understanding what is being read.

2. Sequencing is important in learning math.
Remembering steps to completing mathematical problems, even addition and subtraction with regrouping requires sequencing of steps.

3. In daily living- sequencing of activities and steps in order to complete activities is vitally important.

Picture Sequencing
Start at the picture level. Cards such as this from my Goldilocks and the 3 Bears set with only pictures on them can be extremely helpful in starting to put things in order.

Using pictures from magazines, photos, picture books or comic books are extremely useful for sequencing. When working with materials at the picture stage, be sure and include the use of key sequencing words so the students get use to hearing them. Pictures depicting how to make a sandwich, giving the family dog a bath, planting a flower or the stages of the growth of a flower all make excellent places to begin.

Pictures and Word Sequencing

Once the student is successful at sequencing pictures, try incorporating words that correspond with the pictures, such as with familiar stories. Below you will see a page from my Goldilocks Sequencing Card Pack.

First I have included a picture only card and then next to it the same picture is accompanied by the text for that picture. This way the pictures can be used to help put the cards in order when reading the text.

Sentence Sequencing

Following pictures and/or picture and text, putting sentences in order would be a logical next step.
First start with 3 sentence stories that focus only on first, then, finally. Cut apart sentence stories and have the students place them in order.

The example above is a 3 sentence store about Dad working on his car. It uses the keywords of first, next and finally. Once you know a student can read the text of this mini story, you can cut apart the sentences. Then you put magnets on the back and cookie sheets or use hook/loop fasteners to fasten them at a learning center. The students can then put the sentences in order and get them checked.

From here you can of course increase the difficulty of the text and add pictures to this.

Here is an example of 2 stories. They are very
simple with basic sight words. Each story has limited illustrations that depict what the story is about. Each story also has 3 multiple choice sequencing questions underneath. The questions can be used with the text enabling the student to look back at the story or you could fold the page so that only the questions are visible.

Below is an example of visual picture cards that match these two stories. They can be used for extra prompting if needed to determine the events in the story. When the story is read to the student, the picture card could also be used as the answer cards the student used to sequence the story. This sequence packet is available by clicking here.

Increasing text difficulty and adding details to the story can be extremely beneficial in building sequencing skill difficulty.

Thanks for joining me today as we talked a little about the topic of sequencing.

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Today I wanted to share a few strategies and supports I have used for teaching sequencing in my special education classroom over the years. Teaching order, continuance, sequel, consecutiveness is so important in our world and lives today. SEQUENCING IS PUTTING THINGS(events, ideas) IN ORDER. WHY Why learn sequencing?

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Special Education Story Retell Worksheets & Teaching Resources | TpT

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Browse special education story retell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Foster your first graders' reading comprehension, math, and writing skills with printable activity sheets, lessons, mini-books, 1st grade worksheets, and learning centers. Engaging resources cover all subjects and topics: science, social studies, sight words and decoding skills, basic addition and subtraction, and more.

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Foster your first graders' reading comprehension, math, and writing skills with printable activity sheets, lessons, mini-books, 1st grade worksheets, and learning centers. Engaging resources cover all subjects and topics: science, social studies, sight words and decoding skills, basic addition and subtraction, and more.

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Once my beginning English language learners have built some vocabulary and are able to decode their emergent level books, it is time to tackle the skill of retelling. It truly is the basis of reading comprehension. Plus, it's an excellent way to build their oral language skills!

My upper elementary newcomers have been in school here for seven months. They've been busy building their knowledge of basic (and content) vocabulary, focusing on spelling patterns in Word Study and learning many sight words in context. It is now officially spring (YAY!), and the school year is on a fast downward-slope.

To get my beginning ELLs ready for their end of the year reading assessment, the one that measures their reading progress for the year, they must learn how to retell a fictional story.

Over the past few months I've been introducing and reinforcing the various parts of a story. My students have learned about "characters" and "setting," and we've talked about story "problems" and "solutions."

The next step is to retell a story from beginning, middle and end. Depending on my students, I may need to scaffold the activity by using picture cards. They use these cards to sequence events and recall details. Although I am giving them the important events in pictures, they will use their oral language skills to recount the events.

Once I feel that they have a solid grasp on retelling a story, I have a couple more questions that I need to teach how to respond. Students have to be able think beyond the text, so I want them to be able to 1- describe their favorite part in the story and explain why it's their favorite, AND 2- make a meaningful connection to the story. This usually doesn't take much more than me modeling for them. Usually;)

During this past quarter, each time we finished a guided reading book, I'd ask them to orally share their favorite part and explain why, AND make a connection to the story. Sometimes they share whole group, and other times they turn and tell a partner.

My "newcomer group" practices the skill of retelling frequently, but we do it in different ways in order to keep it fun, engaging and challenging. An additional activity I like to use is this "Read and Roll" activity.

They love it, I think, because they get to roll big dice! Once big dice enter the picture, somehow it turns into a game! I love it too because it gets them talking about the various parts of their book. I'm always looking for ways to get my students TALKING about their reading. I know that this solidifies their understanding AND builds their oral proficiency skills, plus they get a lot out of hearing their group members talk about the story too.

My students also love these retelling cards. I pass one or two cards to each student and they take turns asking each other questions about their story.

A super easy way to get students talking about their books is by creating a "Discussion Starters" anchor chart. Sentence starters are a great support for your beginning ELLs.

When I first introduced the chart, I asked the questions, but once they had some practice with it, I turned it over to them to ask each other the questions. They always start with the person's name they are directing their question to. The person responding always starts their response with the person's name who asked the question. For example...

Angie - Student 1: "Michael, tell me about your favorite part."
Michael - Student 2: "Angie, my favorite part is..."

Since Michael was the one who just answered a question, he is the one to ask the next student a question. I'm telling you, they love this!

I'm going to be honest here... I had zero time to prep a detailed lesson on this day, so I grabbed a bag of books and off I went. Luckily, I always have big and small post-it notes in my caddie, so I grabbed these BIG neon colored post-it notes and wrote a B-M-E on them. Viola! My students slapped these into their reading notebooks and we were all set! Sometimes, lessons off the cuff turn out to be really good lessons, right?!

I also like to use a Story Map graphic organizer to help students organize the parts of their story. They use this to "share out" at the end of our lesson. Usually I'll have each student pick one part to share out. They might share out to the group, while other times they might share out with a partner, depending on the time.
There are lots of ways to develop retelling skills, and I recommend using different strategies and methods to get students comfortable with the various components of this skill. For beginning ELLs, of course they are just learning this new language while simultaneously learning the skills needed to orally retell a story, so lots of scaffolds and supports along the way are a must.

We know that the achievement gap can be great for beginning ELLs, and that their reading comprehension skills moving forward will depend on their ability to recall and retell stories, and other types of texts. Focusing on this skill from the get-go is essential in getting our newcomers to where they need to be in a few short years. As soon as they have enough vocabulary to talk about their emergent level books, start explicitly teaching and reinforcing "how to retell."

Here are some of the resources I use to teach retelling skills. (My intermediate ELLs love the Retelling Practice for Fiction cards and the Read and Roll activity as well.)

Credit: the "dot dudes" graphic in the title is by
Sarah Pecorino.

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Teaching Beginning English Language Learners How To Retell

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Once my beginning English language learners have built some vocabulary and are able to decode their emergent level books, it is time to tackle the skill of retelling. It truly is the basis of reading comprehension. Plus, it's an excellent way to build their oral language skills!

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When I moved up from Kindergarten to 2nd grade, I discovered something a little shocking: not all of my 2nd graders were able to retell stories! Since we worked on that skill so much in Kindergarten, I assumed that kids would have mastered it by 2nd grade. But...not so much.

As I found out, retelling is something that kids have to practice again...and again...and again. But how do you keep it interesting if students must practice retelling year after year? In this post, I'll describe 7 engaging ways to practice retelling - that won't put your students to sleep!

1. Give students a purpose for retelling.

Kids need to understand why we're asking them to do things, and retelling is no exception. When I talk about retelling, I use language like:

"Retelling is a great way to share information about a text with other people."

"Retelling is a good way to remember what you've read and check to make sure that you really understand a text."

"If you just finished this story and wanted to tell your friend all about it, what would you say to explain the most important parts?"

"If your Mom/Dad asked you what you were reading about, what would you say about the beginning, middle, and end?"

2. Provide a predictable structure to set students up for success.

Having kids "mentally organize" the parts of a story makes it easier for them to retell it. You can teach them to think about beginning, middle, and end, and have them write or draw a picture for each part (graphic organizer from my retelling unit for K-1):

I've also seen teachers use a structure called "Somebody-Wanted-But-So" to help students structure their retellings. You can read more about that strategy here.

3. Let kids practice retelling in ways that respect their individual preferences.

Some students may want to draw, write, or talk it out with a friend. As long as they all arrive at the same place (learn to retell a story), why not let them choose how they get there? Providing choice is a great motivator, too!

(Another idea - if you want to have the whole class create an illustrated retelling, grab some butcher paper and have them create a class mural to retell a story.)

4. Provide props.

How much more fun is retelling when kids get to use props?! One of the first retelling activities I do in Pre-K or Kindergarten is to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Martin & Carle) and have students retell it using craft stick puppets.

To create the puppets, I adhered a picture of each type of animal to a large craft stick. Students took turns retelling (using the props) as a whole class, and then I set it up as a center.

Stuffed animals and other "realia" are also fun for retelling. In Kindergarten, we often read a big book multiple times throughout the week, and then students got to use props to retell the story on Friday.

If you have a flannel board in your classroom, students can practice retelling using felt pieces. I have a tabletop dry erase board that also has a flannel board side, and I totally love it! You can check it out here:

5. Use photos.

A couple of the basal reading series I've used came with photos for retelling. Even if you don't have access to these types of materials, you can create them yourself! Use your phone or tablet to take photos of different illustrations in the story (just make sure that you don't distribute or sell the images - that would be violating copyright!).

You can then print the images or display them on an interactive white board. Have students put them in order, and then retell the story from those photos.

6. Use sticky notes.

I have never met a child who doesn't love sticky notes. Put kids' obsession to sticky notes to good use, and use them for retelling activities!

You can give young students 3 sticky notes and have them draw a picture for the beginning, middle, and end of a story. Children who are beginning to read chapter books can write a few notes about each chapter and place them in their book as they read. When they finish the book and it's time to retell the story, they can take out the sticky notes and use them as the basis for their retelling.

7. Try a retelling rope or bracelet.

Using a retelling rope or bracelet is a fun, hands-on way to help kids practice! These activities have students physically touching and moving small items as they retell different parts of a story.

To read more about making a retelling bracelet (it's so simple!) click here. To read more about using a retelling rope (and get some free printables), click here.

And...if you're looking for complete lessons that guide students with retelling, main idea, and story elements, check out my unit (for K-1):

Do you have any great retelling strategies to add to this list? Please comment below!

Happy teaching!
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

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7 Ways to Practice Retelling That Won't Put Your Students to Sleep! - Learning at the Primary Pond

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When I moved up from Kindergarten to 2nd grade, I discovered something a little shocking: not all of my 2nd graders were able to retell stories! Since we worked on that skill so much in Kindergarten, I assumed that kids would have mastered it by 2nd grade. But...not so much.

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Retelling is an important literacy skill. For English Language Learners retelling a story gives them the opportunity to practice their oral language skills. Here are some ideas for incorporating retelling into your classroom.

Retelling Center

Create a retelling drama center. This works especially well for younger students. It can be as simple as printing out character pictures and gluing them onto popsicle sticks or a full-blown play center with props. Have one book that you have recently read or create boxes with a book and the props that go with that book.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click on an Amazon link and make a purchase. This does not cost you any extra money.
Partner Retelling

Have students work with a partner to retell a story. One partner can retell the story while the other partner listens and then adds in details that were missing. Or the two partners can split up the story and retell it together. For older students/those with higher language levels they can create their own reader's theater scripts to retell the story.

Story Picture Cards

Visuals are helpful for language learners. Some students might struggle to retell all of the key details from a story but if they have pictures include many more details. Consider giving a nonreader the picture book and letting them use the pictures as they retell the story.

I have created sets of Speak then Write Retelling Packs with images from popular stories. Students can use the pictures to retell the story and then write down a summary of the story using the pictures.

Student Engagement

Create opportunities for students to retell stories that they have read or heard. When they practice retelling in an engaging way they will gain practice in listening and speaking. Young children can be given the opportunity to play while they are practicing academic skills.

Retelling as Part of Reading Comprehension

Retelling combines many aspects of reading comprehension. To retell a story students summarize and infer. Learn more about the skill along with some great sentence frames on Reading Rockets.

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Retelling with ELLs - A World of Language Learners

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Retelling is an important literacy skill. For English Language Learners retelling a story gives them the opportunity to practice their oral language skills. Here are some ideas for incorporating retelling into your classroom. Create a retelling drama center. This works especially well for younger students.

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Interactive Story Retelling: Encouraging Retelling with Picture Supports

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Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell a story