Retelling and Summarizing

1
Retelling and Summarizing

• A quick guide for teachers

2
Overview

• Retelling and summarizing are two important
  strategies and activities for reading
• Retelling and summarizing share some key
  similarities
• However, its important to consider their
  differences when planning classroom instruction

3
What is retelling?

• Retelling is an oral activity in which a reader
  explains the main ideas of the text
• For example, after reading a story, a reader
  retells the story by putting it into his or her
  own words

4
Why use retelling in the classroom?

• Retelling is a powerful classroom tool for
  building comprehension
• Retelling fiction requires students to think
  about characters, setting, conflict,and important
  events
• Retelling nonfiction requires students to
  consider key ideas and important information

5
How do we use retelling in the classroom?

• The simplest way is to use partner retelling
• After modeling how to retell, pair students up
  with directions to retell the story to one
  another
• Providing props such as pictures, toys, or even
  paper figures builds interest and adds a
  manipulative element

6
Try this!

• Photocopy pictures to go along with a story. Have
  students cut out individual pictures. Then, as
  they retell the story, they can use the pictures
  to depict the action

7
What does the teacher do while students retell?

• While students are retelling the story to one
  another, walk around to listen
• Are students
• Using character names?
• Showing the links between key ideas in the story?
• Putting ideas into their own words?

8
Using retelling for assessment

• Retelling is an aspect of many primary reading
  assessments, including the DRA and DIBELS
• Try listening as a student retells a story.
  Listen for specific details from the story, key
  events, and important ideas

9
Some key aspects of retelling

• A retelling of a story can be longer than the
  original
• Retelling can be a great tool to build
  comprehension of fiction and nonfiction
• Retelling works with students of all grade
  levels. Even non-readers can learn from retelling
  parts of a story to one another

10
What about summarizing?

• Like retelling, summarizing is an important
  reading strategy that builds comprehension
• Like retelling, the reader needs to put ideas
  into his or her own words
• However, there are some important differences to
  keep in mind

11
Key Differences

• Retelling is oral
• Summarizing is written
• In a retelling, the more details, the better
• A summary should include only the most important
  details

12
Why use summarizing in the classroom?

• Summarizing is a key reading strategyif a
  student cant summarize, chances are that full
  comprehension didnt occur
• Summarizing requires a reader to think about the
  important ideas of a text
• Many standardized tests require students to write
  summaries

13
What makes a good summary?

• A summary of fiction should include
• Names of important characters and locations
• Important events from the story
• A sentence or two that points to the theme of the
  story
• A summary of fiction should not include
• The readers opinions (This was a great book!)
• Trivial details

14
What makes a good summary?

• A summary of nonfiction should include
• Key words from the passage
• Main ideas from the text
• A reflection of the text structure of the text
• A summary of nonfiction should not include
• Trivial details
• The readers opinions

15
How do we help readers learn to summarize?

• Begin with retelling. Students cant select the
  most important ideas until they can explain ideas
  in their own words
• Have students choose the best summary from
  several choices. Discuss what makes each summary
  a good example or a bad example

16
How do we help readers learn to summarize?

• To improve fiction summaries, help readers locate
  important events from the story
• To improve nonfiction summaries, teach students
  how to identify text structures (compare and
  contrast, problem solution, chronological order,
  cause and effect, etc)

17
Looking for more information?

• Check out Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and
  Retelling by Emily Kissner

http//books.heinemann.com/products/E00797.aspx