📘 The book just closed. Your mouth is still open.

What you’ll learn

1. The book is shut. Now you talk.Tell a familiar story in your own words so a listener who missed the page can follow the main points.Retelling is not rereading and not 'I liked it.' Common Core and England both want familiar tales given back aloud. IES: main points, your words, to a partner.
2. Beginning, middle, endGive a story a spine: the beginning introduces, the middle holds the trouble, the ending concludes the action.RL.2.5 names the two ends. LibreTexts names the three parts. Jack's giant lives in the middle. A retell that skips it snaps.
3. Who, where, the troubleName characters, setting, and the problem that made someone act, using Little Red as the worked example.IES Table 5 walks Little Red from who to theme. Kindergarten can live on who, what happened, how it ended. Grade 2 adds the lesson.
4. First, next, then, lastKeep events in order, use sequence words, and keep key details while dropping leftover bits.Year 2 wants sequence. IES: ask what comes next. The pot is key. A daisy is not. A broken order is a different story.
5. The picture is a map. The mouth is the story.Use illustrations to keep a story's events in order.RL.1.7 and a picture-walk carry the order. Aesop holds a moral. Tonight: who, where, trouble, end — and one question left standing.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Common Core State Standards Initiative, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.2 — With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. RL.1.2 — Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. RL.2.2 — Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral. RL.K.3 / RL.1.3 — Identify or describe characters, settings, and major events, using key details. RL.2.3 — Describe how characters respond to major events and challenges. RL.2.5 — Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. RL.2.7 — Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot. SL.2.2 — Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. SL.2.4 — Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/K/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/1/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/2/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/SL/2/
• Department for Education (England), National curriculum in England: English programmes of study — Year 1 reading comprehension: becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics. Year 1 notes: finally, pupils should be able to retell some familiar stories that have been read to and discussed with them or that they have acted out during year 1. Year 2: discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related; becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales. Spoken language, Years 1 to 6: give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
• Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide: Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (Shanahan, Callison, Carriere, Duke, Pearson, Schatschneider, and Torgesen), September 2010, NCEE 2010-4038. Recommendation 1 — Teach students how to use reading comprehension strategies. Retelling: students briefly describe, orally or in writing, the main points of what they read; ask a student to describe the text in his or her own words to a partner or a teacher; if the student has trouble, ask 'What comes next?' or 'What else did the passage say about [subject]?' Four studies found positive effects in instruction that included retelling; only one focused closely on retelling itself, while the others combined it with other strategies. Recommendation 2 — Teach students to identify and use the text's organizational structure. Understanding how stories are organised helps students distinguish major from minor events and predict how a story might unfold. Teach structure first through familiar stories such as Goldilocks or Little Red Riding Hood. Kindergarten clues: When and where? Who? What happened? How did the story end? Table 5 narrative elements: characters, setting, goal, problem, plot or action, resolution, theme(s), with Little Red Riding Hood examples. Story-mapping and paying attention to story structure during retelling improved comprehension. Sequencing activity: rearrange a scrambled list of pictures of major events, https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide/14 and https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/Docs/PracticeGuide/readingcomp_pg_092810.pdf
• LibreTexts, Social Sciences, Methods of Teaching Early Literacy (Gurjar, Meacham, and Beecher), Chapter 7 — Fluency and Comprehension. Kindergarten standards include, with prompting and support, retell familiar stories including key details, and identify characters, settings, and major events. A narrative text is often organised in a descriptive or problem-solution structure with a beginning, middle, and end. Fictional narratives have literary elements: setting, characters, plot (problem, events, solution), and theme or main idea. Retelling stories with their beginning, middle, and ending parts reinforces those structures. Setting is when and where; illustrations and word choices contribute to the feeling of place. Plot involves the problem, sequence of events, and solution. Theme indicates the main idea and is generally written as a sentence (for example, slow and steady wins the race). After reading, students can summarise stories by story mapping: setting, characters, problem, sequence of events, solution, and theme, https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Early_Childhood_Education/Methods_of_Teaching_Early_Literacy_(Gurjar_Meacham_and_Beecher)/01%3A_Chapters/1.07%3A_Chapter_7._Fluency_and_Comprehension

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