Retelling Stories with Structure
Retell stories including key details in sequence, describe characters, settings, and major events using evidence from the text, and describe the overall structure of a story (beginning, middle, ending)
What a learner can do afterwards
- Retell a familiar story in order, including at least three key details from beginning, middle, and end
- Describe a character's appearance, actions, or personality using details from the text
- Explain how the beginning of a story introduces the characters and setting, and how the ending concludes the action
1 · Read
When you retell a story, tell its key events again in your own words. Use beginning, middle and end to plan. Start with what happens first. Follow the events through the middle, then tell what happens last.
In this version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks finds a house in the woods. In the middle, she tries the porridge, chairs and beds. At the end, the bears return and she runs away. The ending closes this telling. Some stories end with a problem still unsolved.
Help your listener meet the main characters and setting near the start. Tell the key events in order, in your own words. Keep details that explain what happened or how things changed. You can leave out small details when the action stays clear. Do not add events the story never tells.
Describe a character using details from the story. Look at the author's description and what the character says or does. If you call a character kind, name a moment that shows kindness, such as sharing a last bun. Liking a character does not by itself show what the character is like.
Retell key events in your own words and in story order. Use beginning, middle and end to plan. Support character descriptions with story details.
Lesson, questions and flashcards written for this dataset. The Goldilocks example is an original short retelling of a traditional tale.
These three short stories and reading notes were written for this dataset.
More to read
Keep the detail that explains
Lena's paper crown tore before the school play. She taped the torn edge. Then she wore it on stage.
First the crown tears. Next Lena repairs it. Last she wears it in the play.
The repair matters. Without it, a listener would not know how she could use the torn crown. A retelling can be shorter than the story. Keep the events and details that help someone follow what happened.
Keep places with their events
At sunset, Emil found a shell on the beach. Later, at home, he put it beside his bed.
The story gives two places and a time clue. Emil finds the shell at the beach at sunset. He puts it beside his bed later, at home.
Keep each setting with its event when you retell. Do not say he found the shell beside his bed. If the story leaves out a detail, you do not need to invent it.
Tell the ending that is there
Wren found a note outside her burrow. She followed the path named in the note. At the last tree, she found her friend waiting with a picnic.
You can plan this retelling with three parts: finding the note, following the path, and reaching the picnic.
Another story might end before Wren finds her friend. You would still retell its ending as written. An ending can leave a question open. Do not add a picnic unless the story gives one.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Optional connections
Where this leads
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.