40 Tell Me About It
Noelle Hale
Strategy Overview
- Read a story aloud to the class or small group, then have students retell what they remember from the story to you, the teacher, or to their peers.
- This strategy allows students to practice putting events correctly in order, use descriptive language, and clearly retell information and events that have been presented to them.
- This activity can be used after any shared reading experience so that comprehension can be measured, or it can be used when students are independently reading, but comprehension will be much more difficult to gauge.
- “Oral Language is the foundation for written language” (Lesaux & Carr, n.d., p. 3). This activity can translate into writing prompts or activities where students need to put events into order. This activity sets the groundwork for the ability to clearly and concisely depict events or stories.
Strategy in Action
I would read the story Creepy Carrots to the class making sure to ask guiding questions to keep students invested in the story. Then after the story I would model how to retell the events. Making sure to use sequencing words such as first, second, third, last. Then I would tell students to turn to a partner and share their own retelling of the story, using the sequencing language that I modeled. While students are sharing I will walk around and check for accuracy.
Related Resources
References
Lesaux, N. K. & Carr, K. C. (n.d.) Science of reading: what is it? New York State Education Department.
