You are so proud of your students. They have just finished reading their very first chapter book. You make sure to tell them how delighted you are with this great accomplishment and explain to them that they should also be very proud of themselves as well! The room is full of smiling students and then suddenly like a balloon being burst in the sky, you take all of that away by saying you want them to write a summary of what they just read. Your once happy students are now saying, 'Is he kidding? Doesn't he know how long that book was?' They do have a point. There is no way they can summarize all that reading, is there?
Of course there is! You open your hand and say, 'It is easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.' Now they remember; you want them you to use the Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy. The Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy is designed to help students recall the five key elements of a story. The five key elements of a story are the setting, characters, problems, events, and solution. When a reader can recall these five key elements, he or she should be able to successfully summarize most stories.
In order to learn the Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy students can use either their hand or a drawing of a hand. The students have to be taught that each finger represents a different element.
Let's pretend that your first graders have just read Cinderella and are now ready to use the Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy to summarize the story. First, you'd point to your thumb and ask students what it stands for. They would say, 'Settings.' Then you could ask students to give different settings from the story. Next, you'd point to your pointer finger and ask students what that stands for. They would say, 'Characters.' Then you could ask students to name different characters from the story. You would point to your middle finger, representing problem, and your ring finger, representing events, asking students to repeat those parts of the story. Finally, you'd point to your pinkie finger. Your students would say that it stands for solution, and you could ask them to explain how the story was resolved.
Once teachers teach students what each finger represents and helps them understand how to use the Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy, students should be able to look at stories that they have read and give detailed summaries. The Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy can be used to help students orally summarize a story or complete a written activity to summarize.
The Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy is designed to help students recall the five key elements of a story. This strategy can be used to help student summarize orally or to complete a written summary. The Five Finger Retell Reading Strategy includes the setting, characters, problem, events, and solution of the story. Once students learn this strategy, they are ready to summarize.
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Literary Analysis: Lesson Plans & Activities4 chapters | 189 lessons
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