Curated OER
Gingerbread Man Retell
Explore the concept of retelling a story with the Gingerbread Man. Read various gingerbread man stories with your class. They will create character puppets and retell the story to one another and in small groups. Additionally, they will...
Curated OER
Snow Globe Family
Kindergartners sequence the parts of a story using a snow globe as a setting. They will listen to Snow Globe Family and retell the parts of the story noting the beginning, the middle, and the end. Then they will make their own snow...
Curated OER
Retelling A Story
Looking for a good lesson that teaches the skill of putting events in a story in the correct sequential order? This lesson could be for you! Learners read the story My Red Balloon and retell the story to a partner. They use text details...
Curated OER
The First Strawberries
Young scholars explore Cherokee legends. They read The First Strawberries by Joseph Bruchac, and then do several activities to help comprehension. They discuss the book and answer comprehension questions. In addition, they retell the...
The Kennedy Center
Fairy Tale Variations
Here are two great lessons that work together and are inspired by the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. Young writers and actors will retell the story of "The Frog Prince" through games, improvisational script writing, and song....
Curated OER
"The Three Billy Goats Gruff:" Retelling the Story
Youngsters retell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They write a sentence for speech bubbles for a character in the story, identify the phrases that can be used for retelling a story, and in small groups write a sentence for the...
Curated OER
Retelling Information
This scripted instructional activity suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and...
Scholastic
Tell Us a Tale: Teaching Students to Be Storytellers
Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates.
Curated OER
Teaching Summarization
Examine the process of summarizing a piece of text using the book So You Want to Be a President? Kids review the definitions for main idea, topic sentences, superordinate terms, and supporting details. Next, they work in small groups to...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Second Grade Skills Unit 2: Bedtime Tales
A unit covering second-grade skills reviews 16 letter-sound correspondences, tricky words, and punctuation. Readers provide context for examining story elements, and pupils participate in close reading and write narratives retelling a...
Curated OER
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Second graders participate in guided reading and writing experience in this set of five lessons. They complete a picture walk of Michael Rosen's, We're Going on a Bear Hunt before listening to the story and retelling it. Working with a...
Curated OER
Reading Made Easy with Mindwing Concepts
While this resource is actually attempting to sell a product, the foundational ideas may be worth looking into. Using Braidy the StoryBraid doll, learners will gain a better understanding of beginning, middle, and end, as well as story...
CC Homestead
Summarize
Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
We’re a Family: Challenge Activities (Theme 3)
Focus on family during this themed collection of extension activities for more advanced learners. Class members draw, share, retell stories, create posters, and more during these activities.
Curated OER
Plot the Oysters' Peril!
Use comic strips to teach sequencing in narrative poetry. As homework, each class member selects a comic strip with 4-8 frames, cuts the frames apart, places the pieces in an envelope, and brings the envelope to class. Class members swap...
Curated OER
Polar Express Lesson Plan
Students develop a podcast as they retell the story of The Polar Express. In this early childhood lesson plan, students experience technology by creating a podcast. Students also create illustrations to be scanned for the podcast.
Curated OER
Retelling Main Event in Sequence
Second graders practice retelling events from a fiction book. For this reading comprehension lesson, 2nd graders read Harry and the Lady Next Door and retell the main events of the story to a partner.
Curated OER
Book Discussions in a Reading Partnership
Do you have a lot of different reading levels in your class? Pair kids up by level and have them choose a book to read independently. They will make predictions, ask questions, make connections, etc. Consider creating a general reading...
EngageNY
Determining Main Idea Using Text and Illustrations: Accessing Books Around the World
Ease into informational text with the lesson suggested here. Part of a unit series, the lesson draws from previous lessons and acts as a natural moment to add in informational text. Class members read one section of My Librarian is a...
Curated OER
The Lost Son: Jesus Teaches About Forgiveness
In this bible study learning exercise, students read the story of "The Lost Son" in the Bible to determine what Christians believe about forgiveness. They make a poster, retell the story, and talk about a time when it was difficult to...
Curated OER
Teaching With Pourquoi Tales
Learners read and discuss several Pourquoi tales--legends that explain why certain natural events occur. They complete a variety of activities surrounding each tale and then write their own Pourquoi tale.
Scholastic
Story Board
Invite your pupils to tell and show what happened in a story that they read by filling out this organizer. Using images and words, kids can fill out the six panels provided here to demonstrate understanding of the sequence of events and...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Look at Us!: Challenge Activities (Theme 1)
Challenge your advanced learners with this set of activities based around a common theme. Learners draw, research, share, retell stories, compare and contrast, and more over the course of these activities, which focus mostly on animals...
Teach with Movies
Teaching Students to Write a Narrative
Encourage narrative writing with a clever exercise. Class members watch episodes from movies and describe what happened to a character, including details about the setting, plot, and characters. Writers then craft a narrative about a...