Retelling and summarizing are both essential skills for reading comprehension. By understanding the differences between these skills and practicing both, children gain a deeper understanding of texts and improve their ability to convey information. Learn more about each of these skills and their differences, as well as summarizing and story retelling examples that can be easily implemented in the classroom.
Retelling vs Summarizing
Retelling and summarizing are reading comprehension skills that are commonly used in the classroom. While these skills are related, they serve different purposes and involve distinct approaches for implementation.
What is Retelling a Story?
Retelling is recounting a story or text in detail. When children retell a story, they include the main events, characters, and specific details, often following the sequence of events. Retelling helps children solidify their understanding of the text, recall important information, and make connections to their own experiences.
What is Summarizing?
Summarizing involves condensing a text to its main points, leaving out most details. A summary highlights the key elements and main ideas without following the exact sequence of events. Summarizing helps children identify the most important aspects of a text, enhance their critical thinking skills, and communicate information concisely.
Differences Between Retelling and Summarizing
Both retelling and summarizing are essential for developing reading comprehension skills. Retelling helps with memory retention, understanding story structure, and expressing their thoughts. Summarizing enhances their ability to distill information, focus on key points, and communicate effectively.
Other differences between these skills include:
- Details: Retelling Involves recounting the story in detail, including main events, characters, and specific details. Summarizing involves condensing the text to its main points, leaving out most of the details.
- Sequence: Retelling follows the sequence of events as they occur in the text. Summarizing may not follow the exact sequence of events, focusing instead on overarching themes or main ideas.
- Purpose: Retelling aims to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the text by including as many details as possible. Summarizing aims to convey the essence of the text in a concise manner, highlighting key points.
- Length: Retelling is typically longer because it covers more content. Summarizing is significantly shorter than retelling.
Summarizing vs Story Retelling Examples
A student retelling the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” would include the journey to grandmother’s house, meeting the wolf, the wolf’s deception, and the rescue by the woodsman. A summary of “Little Red Riding Hood” might state that it is a story about a girl who encounters a wolf while visiting her grandmother, and the wolf is ultimately defeated.
Retelling Activities and Tools
There are various tools and strategies that can be used to help students retell a story.
Sequencing Graphic Organizers
Students can practice retelling a story using graphic organizers or story maps with sequencing words. They can retell using a Beginning, Middle, End structure or First, Then, Next, Last.
Five Finger Retell with Story Elements
Five Finger Retell uses story elements to retell. Each finger prompts students to recall the five key story elements: characters, setting, problem, events, and resolution. Students love playing this Story Elements Game!
Plot Mountain
Upper elementary students can retell using the Plot Mountain visual. They retell the elements of: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution.
Retelling Activities
There’s a large variety of engaging retelling activities and strategies you can implement with students to practice this essential skill.
- Picture Cards: Using a series of images that represent different parts of the story to help students retell it in order.
- Retelling Dice: Retelling dice mats with prompts such as “Who are the main characters?” or “What was the problem?” to guide the retelling process.
- Role Playing: Students act out the story, which helps them remember the details.
- Story Retell Apps: An app where students can create digital books and retell stories with text, images, and audio (such as Wixie, Book Creator, ChatterPix, or Canva).
Find out more about these activities and additional Retelling Story Activities.
Summarizing Tools and Activities
There are various tools and strategies that can help students summarize a text.
Somebody Wanted But So Then
Somebody Wanted But So Then is a strategy to help students identify the key elements:
- the character (Somebody)
- what they wanted (Wanted)
- the problem (But)
- how they tried to solve it (So)
- the resolution (Then)
Story Map
A Story Map can identify the key elements: setting, characters, problem, and solution. But it does not require a complete retelling of events.
Main Idea Graphic Organizer
Students can use a main idea graphic organizer as a structured template with sections to record the main idea, supporting details, and conclusion.
Summarizing Activities
There are plenty of other summarizing activities students can use to practice the skill.
- Bullet Points: Writing key points in bullet format helps condense the information and highlight the main ideas.
- One Sentence Summary: Encourages students to summarize the entire text in one concise sentence.
- Stop and Jot: With Stop and Jot students record the most essential information.
- Paragraph Shrinking: Students gradually reduce a paragraph to its most essential information by removing less important details.
- Summarizing Apps and Tools: Some online tools are available to condense text and summarize key points (such as QuillBot, Scribbr).
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What other retelling and summarizing activities do you use? Are there other retelling and summarizing tools that are beneficial for your students? Share in the comments!
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