Retelling Strategy

The newest strategy we have been focusing on is retelling.  It can be very difficult to replay a story back to someone.  The better we can retell a story, the better our comprehension is.  We have learned a catchy way to hit the main points of any fictional story we read:

somebody -- wanted -- but -- so -- then -- after that -- finally -- in the end

We first started this practicing this strategy with the book, Grandpa's Teeth.  It was a comical book about a grandpa who loses his false teeth and has the whole town torn apart searching for them.  We worked together to slowly piece back each main part of the story.  A few days later, we read Chicken Big (possibly our new favorite) to further practice retelling.  This was another comedy but was about a large chick who does not quite fit in with the other chickens.  Throughout the book the chickens try to decide what exactly the chick is.  We just LOVED it!  It was a little easier to fill in the blanks of our organizer this time around.  We will continue to practice this strategy over the next week!