How can I teach my Read Naturally students how to write a better retell?
One way is to have the student write the answer from comprehension question number 1 on the first line of the retell section. The answer for question 1 is always the main idea of the story and provides the student with a good starting point for his or her retell.
Once the student has done this, ask the student to think about information in the story that helps explain that sentence. The student can go back in the story and underline supporting information if necessary. Then tell the student to use the information to write the retell. You can also ask the student to write a summarizing sentence at the end to increase the quality of the retell. Here is a sample using the story “Spitting Cobras” in level 2.5:
"Spitting cobras protect themselves in many ways. [Answer to question number 1.] They play dead to trick their enemies by rolling over. They spit poison up to eight feet away and this poison can blind their enemies. Spitting cobras don’t protect themselves by biting. They only bite what they want to eat. [Information obtained from the story.] The spitting cobra seems very smart because it can trick its enemies. [Summarizing sentence provided by the student.]"