Kindergarten- Retelling Strategies

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson?

The focus of my Reader's Workshop unit was retelling strategies. During the second week of the unit, the day 2 lesson focused on the importance of incorporating characters' names while retelling. The children first came down to our large group area for a mini-lesson. At this time, I incorporated a story that we had been reading for a few days now (Rosie's Walk), in which the children were familiar and comfortable with. Before demonstrating how to use character's names during retelling, I stressed the importance of using characters' names both when retelling and when writing their own stories, making sure to point out how confusing a story can be if you were to only say he, she, or they. Then I demonstrated incorporating characters' names during retelling, using Rosie's Walk. This was a good story to begin with because there are only two characters in the story (Rosie and the fox) and it was easy for the kindergartners to remember. Before the children went off to practice the strategy on their own, I had them practice retelling a portion of Rosie's Walk with a partner that was sitting next to them. Once this was complete, the children went out on their own for independent reading. At this time, I conferenced with children to see that they were using the strategy we practiced earlier correctly. Once independent reading was complete, the children can down to the large group area for a partner/group share, where they chose one book from their independent reading that they would retell to a partner, making sure to use characters names. One thing that I found all students struggled with that I didn't think about before the lesson was that a lot of their books in their browsing boxes are easy readers, such as letter books or other stories that don't contain any characters. During independent reading, I stressed to the students to choose one of the two books they have from the classroom library that do contain characters, but we also discussed at the end of our group share that not all books contain characters or characters that have names. Even though this might have been a struggle for students in the beginning, by the end of the lesson I think I created another teaching point based on the students' struggles. Another struggle I saw from some of my students that struggle with reading is that they couldn't read the characters names in the first place, so they weren't able to use them during retelling. When this occurred, I explained to the children that it is better to use at least some sort of description, such as if they knew the character was a girl they could at least say "she" or "the girl". I knew this would be a problem, which is why I had the students retell Rosie's Walk after the mini-lesson because this was a story that was read to them multiple times. The children already knew the characters names and could get the experience of retelling a story using character's names.

What are alternate reads of your students’ performance or products?

Although some of my students struggled in certain areas, what I was really impressed with was how detailed their retellings were. Overall my unit was to give students different strategies to use to help them retell a story and I saw my students using other strategies they had learned over the first week to help them retell they story they chose. When it came to using characters names, I think that it helped that I had read Rosie's Walk multiple times throughout the past week, so the children were comfortable retelling the story to a partner. Using a story I had read to them was a great first practice for the children and I think it helped them feel better about using the strategy on their own during independent reading.

What did you learn about your students’ literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

What I learned about my students' literacy practices is that they do a better job of using the strategy if we practice it was a partner before they go off on their own during independent reading. I had the children partner share once before this lesson and I noticed the children participated more during our group share that time, but I was surprised with how well the children responded during the retelling using characters' names lesson. Almost everyone wanted to share their story with the class and during other lessons I did not see this happening. I also noticed that students conferenced with other students without being prompted. During independent reading, I saw students talking to other students sitting next to them. At first, I thought their conversations were off topic, but when I went to listen in I noticed that the children were talking about the characters in their story.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

For students who I know need extra support, I make sure to conference with them individually during independent reading. During this time I can go over the strategy again with them and have them practice it with my support. This way the children are more confident going into the partner share. For students who I notice struggling during partner share, we try to pull these students aside the next day to re-teach the strategy. I also make sure to review the past days strategy during the following mini-lesson and incorporate it into my demonstration. If I notice that the whole class is struggling with the topic, then my C.T. and I rearrange the schedule to add an extra day of practice to re-teach the strategy. For the using characters' names lesson, most of the students were able to correctly use the strategy, so I only reinforced it during the following days mini-lesson.

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students’ learning?

If I were to teach this same lesson again, there are a few things I would do differently. For one thing, I think it would have been beneficial to demonstrate retelling a story without using the characters' names. This way the children could see how confusing a story can be if a person only uses he, she, or they. Once this was complete, the class could have a discussion about what was missing and how it affected the retelling. This is a strategy I heard from one of my 802 classmates and I think it is a great idea! It would improve my students' learning because they would see exactly what it is like if you don't use characters names and how confusing a story can be to others without them. Another thing I would change is I might do the lesson again later in the year once the children have a few more books with characters in their browsing boxes. This way they have more options to choose from and most of their texts won't be without characters. With more books containing characters, the children have more opportunities to identify different characters and retell using their names.