6 5 Finger Retell
Samantha D'Amico
Strategy Overview
- “The 5 Finger Retell” is a strategy used to help students summarize a text by picking out key details. Each finger represents an important story element (Ursino, 2022).
- Summarizing is important because it teaches students how to focus on the most important information that is necessary to comprehend the story (Meir, n.d.).
- “Research has found that retelling promotes comprehension and vocabulary development” (Kelley, n.d.) The “5 Finger Retell” is an engaging and hands-on way to help students master this skill.
- In the classroom, students can use the “5 Finger Retell” during independent reading or when summarizing a read aloud as a whole class.
Strategy in Action
To implement this strategy, the teacher should start by explicitly teaching and discussing each story element in isolation. Then, the teacher will model the “5 Finger Retell” to students using a class read aloud. Eventually, students will practice the “5 Finger Retell” using their knowledge about each story element. Then, they can transfer this skill to use during their independent reading as a way to increase comprehension of texts. The goal is for students to internalize this skill overtime and use this strategy to summarize texts.
Video Example
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_V7EvaGOScQ%3Fsi%3Dy5FiXhZO7GBLfTZz
Related Resources
References
Kelley, S. (n.d.). Retelling: An evidence-based literacy strategy. Understood. https://www.understood.org/en/articles/how-to-teach-retelling#Understand:_Why_this_strategy_works
Meier, J. (n.d.). Alternatives to oral retellings. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/sound-it-out/alternatives-oral-retellings
Ursino, L. (2022, January 28). 5 finger retell. 1st Grade Blog. https://www.thesummitprep.org/1st/2022/01/27/5-finger-retell/
