What Is Retelling? Why Use Retelling? Retelling Tips Use the Strategy Practice the Strategy

Retelling: Summarizing the Plot

What Is Retelling?

Why Use Retelling?

Retelling Tips

Use the Strategy

Practice the Strategy

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To retell a story is to tell it again.

What is retelling?

First, you read the story as the author tells it.

Then, you tell the story again.


When you retell, you don’t repeat the whole story.

Instead, you summarize: you provide only the most important information from the story.

What is retelling?

That would be like packing all your clothes for a short trip.


Is this a good retelling of “The Three Little Pigs?”

It doesn’t try to tell the whole story—which is good.

Some pigs built some houses, and a wolf came to blow down their houses but couldn’t. It’s a story called “The Three Little Pigs.”

What is retelling?

However, this retelling does not provide enough important information.


This is a better retelling of “The Three Little Pigs.” You’ll find out why in the Retelling Tips section.

This is the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” No one knows who first told this story. The main characters are three pigs and a wolf. The three pigs each decide to build a house. The first one makes his house out of hay. A wolf comes along and blows it down, and that pig has to rush to the next pig’s house. He had made his house out of sticks. Next, the wolf goes there and blows it down, and both pigs run to the third pig’s house. The third one has made his house out of bricks. Finally, the wolf goes there and tries to blow it down, but can’t. The wolf climbs down the chimney and falls into a pot of boiling water. He runs screaming out the front door and never bothers the pigs again. The three pigs live happily ever after.

What is retelling?

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Why use the retelling strategy?

There are two main reasons.

1. Retelling helps you communicate with others.

If you give too many or confusing details about a story, people might stop listening—even though it’s a good book.


Why use the retelling strategy?

There are two main reasons.

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2. Retelling helps you understand complicated stories.

When you retell, you strip the story down to its bones—the basic facts.


Retelling Tips

Start by stating the title and author.

Explain who the characters are.

This is the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” No one knows who first told this story.

The main characters are three pigs and a wolf.


Retelling Tips

Explain the conflict, or main problem.

The three pigs want to build their houses and live safely in them, but the wolf wants to blow the houses down and eat the pigs.


Retelling Tips

Name the main events, keeping them in order.

Use words like first, second, next, then and finally to keep everything in order.

The three pigs each build a house. The first builds a house of hay, the second a house of sticks, and the third a house of bricks. First, the wolf blows down the hay house. Then, he blows down the stick house. Finally, he tries to blow down the brick house, but the house is too strong.


The wolf climbs down the chimney of the brick house and falls into a pot of boiling water. He runs screaming out the front door and never bothers the pigs again. The three pigs live happily ever after.

Explain what happens at the end.

Retelling Tips


Tell what you liked or didn’t like about the story.

I liked this story’s happy ending; the wolf gets what he deserves.

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I didn’t like that the wolf goes hungry and looks like the villain.

Retelling Tips


As you read “The Wise Old Woman,” stop at each open-book sign and think about what you have just read.

These questions will help you learn how to use retelling as a reading strategy.

Stop and

think.

Answer the

question.

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Use the Strategy


The title of this story is “The Wise Old Woman.” It is a traditional Japanese tale that has been retold by Yoshiko Uchida. It takes place in a small Japanese village a long time ago. The main characters are the cruel young lord, a young farmer, his mother, and Lord Higa.

What parts of the “retelling summary” are included in this paragraph?

Here’s how one student started a retelling of “The Wise Old Woman.”



Now finish the retelling. Use the Retelling Guide on page 14 in your textbook to organize your retelling.


The cruel young lord decides that all people in his village who are seventy-one years old and older must be sent to the mountains to die. Anyone who does not do what he says is severely punished. One young farmer loves his mother so much that when she turns seventy-one, he cannot send her away to die. So . . .


As you listen to your partner retell the story, decide whether he or she covers each item a little, to some extent, a lot, or not at all.

Use the Retelling Rating Sheet on page 15 in your textbook to rate your partner’s retelling of “The Wise Old Woman.”

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What Is Retelling? Why Use Retelling? Retelling Tips Use the Strategy Practice the Strategy