Helpful Information on Written Retellings
                                     
1.      Retellings are about recalling and writing the important ideas in complete sentences. 

2.      Decide what is most important.  The color the character’s clothes may not be an important event in the story!

3.      You don’t have to write down all parts of the story; don’t make it too hard on yourself! 

4.      Stick to the beginning, middle, and end.  For example, you could start your retelling like:



“In the beginning of The Three Little Pigs, there were three pigs who wanted to build houses.  Each made a house out of different materials.  They were made of straw, sticks, and bricks.





In the middle of the story, a wolf tries to blow their house down and eat them.  Only the one made of bricks was strong enough.  He ate the other two pigs!

 

In the end of the story, the wolf knew that the third pig was the smartest because he was unable to blow his house down.  The wolf left angry.”

 

The most common mistake I see with written retellings is that students try to tell too much and they become frustrated.

 

5.      Good retellings have the characters, setting, problem and solution.  The above example has the characters, setting, (the three houses) problem, (the wolf) and the solution (the third pig thought things through).

6.      My last piece of info is to pretend you are telling a friend about a book that they have never read.  Write down what you would say to the friend.

7.      There is no automatic number of sentences, but most students need some definite instructions. (Kids want to know exactly what is expected, but there is not a magic number!  I tell them that the retelling needs all the parts and not to focus on the number of sentences.)  My best advice would be to have him check to see if your child has the following parts:

ü    Beginning

ü    Middle

ü    End

ü    Character names

ü    Setting

ü    Problem

ü    Solution

If any student had all of these, I would be most pleased.  You figure there are 7 parts needed, I would guess it would take at least 10 sentences.  More is great, but if you are starting your third piece of paper, you might be writing too much.

I hope this enables you to better understand what is expected in second grade concerning writing written retellings!