This strategy is useful with second language and second dialect learners because it makes use of concrete materials, dramatization, and other means to make new vocabulary understandable.

Read, Talk, Act, Draw, Write²⁰

• A children's book selected for its language quality and appeal to children
• Props and realia (real objects) related to the story in the book (optional)
• Puppets and/or flannel board and flannel board figures related to the story (optional)
• Paper and pencils
• Variety of art materials such as paint, crayons, coloured construction paper, and/or plasticine/modeling clay.

1. Plan to use the set of activities in this strategy over a number of days. Reread the book on each of those days to increase familiarity with its characters and sequence of events.
2. Read. Select a good children's book based upon some of the following criteria:
   • You like it.
   • You think children will like it.
   • It has good illustrations.
   • It contains a predictable story pattern, rhyming words, or some other device that invites children's participation.
   Read it dramatically, using different voices for different characters; sound effects; gestures; or the props, puppets, or realia that you have collected. All of the devices that you use not only make the story more interesting and understandable for children, but also support their ability to remember the characters and plot. Encourage participation in appropriate moments. Reread the story if the children request this.
3. Talk. Ask open-ended and aesthetic questions that invite children's individual responses. (Aesthetic questions connect children's feelings and personal experiences to the story.) Questions could include ones like the following.

   Sample Questions What was your favourite part of the story? Has anything like this ever happened to you? Tell me about it. Does this story remind you of any other story you know? Tell me which one and how they are alike. What questions do you have about this story? Did anything in this story puzzle or surprise you? Tell me about it. If you could be one character in this story, which one would you like to be? Tell me your reasons. Is there anything in this story you would change if you were the author? Tell me what change you would make. Or, tell me what you would have happen differently. (Give an example the first time you ask this.)

   As children are discussing the story, record some of their ideas on a story chart that has the title and author of the story at the top. Read it to students at the conclusion, drawing attention to important words and vocabulary from the story. Leave this chart visible throughout the activities that follow.

   Remember to keep the emphasis on enjoyment, and to conclude your discussion and the recording of it before the children tire. Two or three ideas per discussion may be all that many emerging learners can absorb.

4. Act. Engage children in dramatizing the story either through:
   • having all the children act out all the parts of the story as you reread it or retell it
   • having individual children take the roles of different characters in the story, and act them out as you and the rest of the children reread/retell it
   • sharing the props you have provided and encouraging individual children to act out their part using the props as needed.
   Tell the children that the flannel board, puppets, or props will be available with the book in the library corner for their own retellings.
5. Draw. Allow children to choose from a variety of art materials and to make a picture of any part of the story that they wish. Circulate around the room as children are making their pictures, and talk to them about the story and how it relates to their picture.
6. Write. Ask every child to print something on their picture even if it is only their name. Encourage them to use the story chart that you created and add some other words to their picture. Encourage all writing efforts; support students' use of invented spelling, the story chart, your Word Wall or other environmental print, and obtaining help from their peers. Display the completed drawings with print or make them into a class book.

When teachers model how to tell a story and provide children with opportunities to discuss demonstrations of the retelling of a familiar story, teachers are providing children with a means to increase their "story sense" or understanding of the parts of a story and how they are related.
























You can develop young children's sense of "true stories" and how to tell them as well. Model this by telling the class about an event in your life that posed a problem for you and how you resolved the problem. Use a noticeable beginning, middle, and end to your story such as "Once when I was little, I got lost in my own neighborhood. I really wanted to go to the store all by myself so I …. The next thing I did was …. Finally, I recognized my own street. I was so happy to get home and I didn't try to do that again for a long, long, time!" Invite children to tell a true story of a problem they had and how they solved it, during Shared Language time. Write "Characters", "Beginning", "Middle", and "End" on the board or a chart, and fill these categories in as the child tells her or his story. Relate the problems in your own or the children's stories to ones in familiar books. Sometimes focus upon a "wish" instead of a "problem".

Retelling as an Instructional Strategy

• Appealing storybooks containing a problem and resolution
• Chalkboard or experience chart
• Props and/or flannel board pieces related to the story used for instruction (optional).

1. Choose an appealing story with a problem and its resolution (or a goal and its achievement). Read the story to yourself and plan your retelling by deciding on the most important events to include, and which details to leave out.
2. Read the story once to your class or small group. Show students the book and read it through. Limit your questioning and discussion, and just let everyone enjoy the story for its own sake.
3. Model retelling. The next day, tell the children you are going to tell them the story from memory without using the book. Show them the book, and then put it away and retell the story with enthusiasm and expression. Sometimes you may want to use flannel board pieces, props, or realia (real objects and materials from the story such as, mittens or grains of wheat) to add interest and make important details more memorable. Flannel board pieces are also useful to strengthen children's abilities to sequence the episodes (important events) in the story.
4. Demonstrate your planning. Using the chalkboard or an experience chart, show the children the parts of the story you wanted to remember. For emerging learners, you may simply want to focus on the characters, main events, and their general sequence. Write "Character/s", "Beginning", "Middle", and "End". Explain to students that the characters are whom the book is about and ask students to help you recall the characters as you write them down. Tell students you had to think about how the book started so you would know how to begin. Write down one or two sentences about what happened first under the heading "Beginning" and read them, or have the children read them with you. Incorporate some of the language used in the book in your sentences (key vocabulary, descriptive words, repetitive patterns, etc.). Do the same for the middle and end of the story. Talk about the idea that telling a story is a way to entertain people and get others interested in reading the book. Explain that this means you want to tell the story with expression and use the language of the book, if the book had interesting words or patterns.
5. Ask one of the children to place the book and any props you used with it in the library centre, and suggest that they may want to use these to retell the story to each other during Center Time.

To extend the abilities of older learners related to the development of story sense, you may want to focus on the concepts of setting, plot (particularly the central problem), and theme in addition to the main episodes and sequence. Use a procedure such as the following:

1. Setting. Describe the setting as where and when the story took place and demonstrate the ways this is often incorporated into the first sentences. For example, Once upon a time; Long ago and far away; One dark and stormy night; In a dark, dark, wood; or Something was wrong at our house. Remind students to pay attention to the setting when they read or when you read a book together. Ask them to note and share interesting ways that authors tell about the setting of a book. Collect examples of opening sentences that give information about where or when the story took place, and write them on a chart labeled "Setting".
2. Plot. Describe the plot as what happened in the story and give examples of ways the plot usually revolves around a central problem. Do this through referring to the central problems in books with which students are familiar. Pick a book they have read and talk with the students about:
   • an important problem in the story (there may be more than one), why the problem was important, and how it was solved, OR
   • identify one character in the book and ask "What problem did ____have? Why was it important? How did ____ resolve it?"
3. Theme. Choose a book familiar to the students that has a recognizable moral or message such as, the message in the Little Red Hen that suggests that "If you want to enjoy the rewards, you should help with the work." Ask a question such as, "What lesson did the animals in this book need to learn?"