Retelling a Story

Core Idea

Retelling a story means saying what happened in your own words. You try to remember the important parts -- who the story was about, what happened first, what happened next, and how it ended. Retelling helps you understand and remember stories better, and it lets you share stories you love with other people.

How It's Best Learned

After hearing a story, try to tell it back to the person who read it to you. Use the pictures to help you remember. Start with short, familiar stories. A grown-up can prompt you with questions like "What happened first?" and "Then what?"

Common Misconceptions

• Thinking you have to remember every single word exactly; retelling is about the big ideas, not word-for-word memory.
• Believing you cannot retell a story unless you can read it yourself; retelling is about what you heard and understood.
• Assuming retelling means just naming what happened last; a good retelling covers the beginning, middle, and end.

Explainer

Retelling a story means saying what happened using your own words. It is like being a storyteller yourself! After you hear a story, you remember the important parts and tell them back to someone else. You say who was in the story, what happened first, what happened next, and how it ended.

Retelling is different from reading a book. You do not have to remember every single word perfectly. You just need to remember the big ideas and the important events. If the book said, "The princess walked through the castle hallway," you might say, "The princess walked around the castle." Both mean the same thing! You are telling the story, not trying to memorize it word for word.

Here is something wonderful: you can retell any story you heard, even if you cannot read the words yourself! When someone reads a story to you, you listen and understand. That understanding means you can tell the story back. You do not have to be able to read to be a storyteller.

Retelling helps your brain in important ways. When you try to remember and tell the story, you are thinking about what was important. What was the problem? How did the character feel? What happened to make things better? These questions help you understand the story much better than if you just listen and forget.

Retelling also lets you share stories you love with your friends and family! You become the reader, the teller, the one bringing the story to life. A grown-up can help by asking questions like "What happened first?" or "Then what?" or "How did it end?" These questions help your memory work and guide you to tell the whole story from beginning to end.