Retelling Stories

We want to be readers who are actively engaged with the text.  We don't want to be curmudgeon readers - readers who don't really care and read on auto-pilot.  We want to be readers who dive into our stories and really experience them.  One strategy that can help us do this is retelling.  If we're able to retell what we've read, we have to be able to think about the big events and important parts of the story.  Retelling actually helps us understand the story in new ways.  When we're retelling with a friend, new ideas about the plot have a chance to grow.  I showed the kids how to retell their stories by literally taking "big steps" as they told the big ideas.  The kids really got into it, and I was able to capture some video footage of the kids retelling their stories with their partners.