Greedy Cat
Retelling a Story Sequence to Build Comprehension
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 0: Foundation for LiteracyStage 1: Beginning Literacy
Ages:
4-7
Grade Range:
K 1stFood Groups:
Primary: Reading Comprehension Strategies
Transcript
In our kindergarten class, weve been learning to retell stories, both orally, and in writing. Our learning target has been very simplified we are learning to retell stories. The children will know if theyre successful if they can tell the beginning, the middle, and the end. For the children who are still in the oral stage and are not yet reading, weve used the train pictures the engine for the beginning, the car for the middle, and the caboose for the end, so that they can put that in their mind when theyre retelling their stories. Weve been working on the story of the Greedy Cat, which the children just loved. So over the course of a few days, the children have been painting their wonderful pictures. They chose their favorite part of the story and they painted lovely pictures, and they did some writing. Some of the children are capable independently to do their writing, and some of the children needed some help, so we did it interactively. I would sit down beside them, and we would stretch the words out, and put the sounds down they heard, and any words they couldnt get, I would just quickly write in. Theres a combination of independent and interactive writing. The children did a fabulous job of telling their part of the story, and then when we had all the pictures and all the stories ready we came and we assembled it together, and we put the arrows to show what happened next. So, "The first little boy, the Greedy Cat was hungry, he ate a lot of food", and then we go along when he visits the old man, and they put a little twist on it "The old man was pouring coffee and the Greedy Cat ate the old mans omelet." So they added some more information, which was wonderful. We went all the way down... he visits the little girl, the boy, and the dog next door "The Greedy Cat wanted to eat the dogs biscuits, and he did." Finally, we come down to the part where Greedy Cat is far too fat to fit in his own door. The children have certainly captured the meaning, and the gist of the story.
Related References
Activity Objective
The goal of Greedy Cat: Building Reading Comprehension is to help students develop their reading comprehension skills by asking them to retell a story. The teacher explains that asking students to retell stories both orally and in writing helps them structure their retells with a beginning, middle, and an end. The teacher works with students who have difficulty writing independently by having them sound out the words and at times, writes them in for students as needed.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- As an introduction to story retell, don't be afraid to ask them to retell what happened in some of their favorite movies. - Think about videotaping student retells to playback to them. This will allow students to self-critique how they might improve in the future and to identify any missing parts in the retell sequence. - After every read aloud, you can ask students to talk about the beginning, middle, and end for practice.
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