Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading/Writing Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested teachers
are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop and other ideas about
supporting young adolescent writers and readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing
teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion.
Juli also posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.
This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject matter into
her reading and writing workshop approach. In her first
journal of the year, she explains the rationale behind this move and
some of her thinking about how she hopes to accomplish this goal.
Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's Journals,
find out how here.
2003-04 Reading/Writing
Workshop Journal
Week #14
Our Mid-Year Retelling Activity:
Checking for Comprehension
What goes around, comes around.
It's time for the winter holiday and that means another chance for me to
have the kids do a written retelling. (See Journal
#4) We do retellings periodically to check for comprehension of informational
text. This is the second time for us this year. I'm following the progress
on retelling for seven students (Byron, Rin, Loren, Jeannie, Daniel, Juan,
and Viviana) throughout the year. This time Juan is absent.
I've learned that informational text is particularly challenging to retell.
There usually isn't a strong plot line, so the retelling focuses on the
main ideas and details. I choose a selection from Scott Foresman, Science
Grade 4 (1984) as the second informational text for retelling this year.
It includes an idiom, one of a number of colorful expressions that the kids
have been studying, as well as lots of details.
Have you ever heard someone say "busy as a beaver"?
Beavers are very busy animals and they are master builders. This furry animal
spends its life working and building. As soon as a beaver leaves its family,
it has much work to do.
First, the beaver must build a dam. It uses sticks, leaves, and mud to block
a stream. The beaver uses its two front teeth to get the sticks. The animal
uses its large flat tail to pack mud into place. A pond forms behind the
dam. The beaver spends most of its life near this pond.
In the middle of the beaver's pond is a large mound. This mound of mud and
twigs is the beaver's lodge or house. The beaver's family is safe in the
lodge because it is well hidden. After the lodge is built, the beaver still
cannot rest. More trees must be cut down to be used as food for the coming
winter. Sometimes there will be no more trees around the pond. Then the
beaver has to find trees elsewhere. These trees will have to be carried
to the pond. The beaver might build canals leading deep into the forest.
All this work changes the land. As trees are cut down, birds, squirrels,
and other animals may have to find new homes. Animals that feed on trees
lose their food supply. The pond behind the dam floods part of the ground.
Animals that used to live there have to move. However, the new environment
becomes a home for different kinds of birds, fish, and plants. All this
happens because of the very busy beaver.
(Qualitative Reading Inventory, 3rd edition, is a good source for
leveled expository text to use for retellings and running records.)
I adapted a "Retelling
Rubric for Informational Text," and I use it to score their retellings.
This time, in addition, I'm looking at what they include in their retellings
in terms of main ideas and details. These assessments give me an idea of
where the kids are at this time of the year.
Byron's Retelling
December 2003 "The beavers block the streams with mud, leaves,
and sticks. The beaver has fur and is a busy animal in the united States.
The beaver also builds a house for birds also they can make the world a
better place."
Main ideas included in retelling:
-- Beavers are animals
-- Busy animals
-- Builders
Details included in retelling:
-- It uses sticks,
-- Leaves
-- Mud
-- To block a stream
-- Birds
-- A new environment becomes home
-- For different birds
Inference included in retelling:
-- They can make the world a better place.
Rin's Retelling
December 2003 "This story is about Have you ever heard someone
say busy as a beaver. Beaver is a master of builting. First beaver must
built a dam. It uses stick, leaves and mud to block the stream. And beaver
use there teeth to cut down tree. The beaver like to built a dam they got
strongth tail."
Main ideas included in retelling:
-- Have you heard
-- "busy as a beaver"
-- Master builders
Details included in retelling:
-- The beaver builds a dam.
-- It uses sticks,
-- Leaves,
-- And mud
-- To block a stream.
-- The beaver uses its teeth
-- Trees are cut down
Loren's Retelling
December 2003 First, the bevers cut down the trees Then, they get the
mud to put in their branch so their house could get strock.
Main Ideas included in retelling:
-----
Details included in retelling:
-- Trees are cut down
-- And mud
Jeannie's Retelling
December 2003 "Beaver is very busy and they like to cut wood also
they have very strong teeth too. Beaver have families like us people. Beaver
cut wood and now animal that live in tree, they have to move and the food
that animal keep was lose."
Main Ideas included in retelling:
-- Busy animals
-- The beaver uses its teeth
Details included in retelling:
-- As trees are cut
-- Animals have to move.
-- Animals lose their food supply
Inferences included in retelling:
-- Beavers have families like people.
Daniel's Retelling
December 2003 "This story is abouht beaver that work hard some
work on there house for hours but first they have to block the stream to
build there house the door is under water because They don't waht other
animal to come in beaver cute down 100 of tree to build there home. There
are animal that live in the tree and the beaver destroi there home. beaver
get mud, sticks and leaves and pound it to gether to make the house hard
to brake and they are the master builders."
Main Ideas included in retelling:
-- Master builders
Details included in retelling:
-- It has much work to do
-- It uses sticks,
-- Leaves,
-- And mud
-- To block a stream.
-- The doorway
-- Is underwater
-- Trees are cut down
-- Beavers destroy the homes of other animals
Inferences included in retelling:
-- There are animals in the trees.
Juan's Retelling
September 2003 "The beautiful bay with it's shores was a favorite
resting place for many wild water birds. One day ship spilled oil over the
water in the bay. Bob and Gary and pernets made a newscater on televisision
asking to help clean off oil off the birds"
December 2003 -- absent
Viviana's Retelling
December 2003 "The beavers are very bissy animals. They are very
furry animals. When the family goes the bever starts doing hard work. The
bever bilds a dam and It uses mud, stikes, leaves. Sometimes there are no
trees around the pond. Sometimes they need to find new homes. As trees are
cut down brids, squirrels and other animals may have to find new homes."
Main ideas included in retelling:
-- Beavers are animals
-- Busy animals
Details included in retelling:
-- As soon as a beaver leaves its family
-- It has much work to do
-- The beaver builds a dam
-- It uses sticks
-- Leaves,
-- And mud.
-- Sometimes there will be no trees
-- Around the pond.
-- As trees are cut
-- Birds,
-- Squirrels,
-- And animals have to find new homes
After the kids work together in small groups to review and discuss their
retellings, they seem to have a better sense of what a retelling should
include. I think that looking for main ideas and details in their work helps
them identify what they did include and see what was left out. It gives
them a "heads up" about how they can improve on the next retelling.
Here's what the Qualitative Reading Inventory (p. 71) says about
analyzing retellings.
Although the retelling is not used to determine independent,
instructional, and frustration levels (of text), it can provide valuable
information with implications for instruction. For example, if the student
does not retell the central parts of a narrative, the student may not have
an understanding of story structure. Similarly, if the student does not
organize an expository retelling around the main idea and supporting details,
the student may not understand the structure of paragraphs in exposition.
The examiner should use the retellings to answer the following questions:
--Do the retellings of narrative material retain the basic structure of
the narratives? Is the most important information included?
--Do the retellings of expository material retain the main idea and supporting
detail structure of the selection? Is the most important information included?
--Are the retellings sequential?
--Is the recall accurate?
This gives me lots of food for thought as I plan how to use retellings to
help students improve their comprehension. Now for winter break!
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map for Content
Literacy - Unit Two
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