The ability to retell a text not only demonstrates the level of speech development, but also shows how much the child can understand and analyze the text he heard or read. But for children, retelling the text often causes difficulties. How can you help your child overcome them?

There are two main reasons why a child may have difficulty retelling text: problems with speech development or problems with understanding, analyzing and formulating what he heard. In the first case, the emphasis should be placed specifically on the development of speech and this should be done not with the help of retelling, but with the help of simpler games for the development of speech. But in the second case, it is the child’s ability to retell the text that needs to be trained.

We bring to your attention short stories with which you can easily teach your child to retell texts.

GOOD DUCK

V. Suteev

The duck and ducklings and the hen and chicks went for a walk. They walked and walked and came to the river. A duck and ducklings can swim, but a hen and chicks cannot. What to do? We thought and thought and came up with an idea! They swam across the river in exactly half a minute: a chicken on a duckling, a chicken on a duckling, and a chicken on a duck!

1. Answer the questions:

Who went for a walk?

Where did the duck and ducklings and the hen and chickens go for a walk?

What can a duck do with its ducklings?

What can't a hen do with her chicks?

What did the birds come up with?

Why did they say good about the duck?

The birds swam across the river in half a minute, what does this mean?

2. Retell.

SLIDE

N. Nosov

The guys built a snow slide in the yard. They poured water on her and went home. Kotka didn't work. He was sitting at home, looking out the window. When the guys left, Kotka put on his skates and went up the hill. He skates across the snow, but can’t get up. What to do? Kotka took a box of sand and sprinkled it on the hill. The guys came running. How to ride now? The guys were offended by Kotka and forced him to cover his sand with snow. Kotka untied his skates and began to cover the slide with snow, and the guys poured water on it again. Kotka also made steps.

1. Answer the questions:

What did the guys do?

Where was Kotka at that time?

What happened when the guys left?

Why couldn't Kotka climb the hill?

What did he do then?

What happened when the guys came running?

How did you fix the slide?

2. Retell.

AUTUMN.

In autumn the sky is cloudy and overcast with heavy clouds. The sun barely peeks out from behind the clouds. Cold, piercing winds are blowing. The trees and bushes are bare. Their green outfit flew around them. The grass turned yellow and withered. There are puddles and dirt all around.

1. Answer the questions:

What time of year is it now?

What is described in the story?

What is the sky like in autumn?

What is it tightening with?

What is said about the sun?

What happened to the grass in the fall?

And what else distinguishes autumn?

2. Retell.

HEN.

E. Charushin.

A hen and her chicks were walking around the yard. Suddenly it started to rain. The chicken quickly sat down on the ground, spread out all its feathers and clucked: Kwok-kwok-kwok-kwok! This means: hide quickly. And all the chickens crawled under her wings and buried themselves in her warm feathers. Some are completely hidden, some have only their legs visible, some have their heads sticking out, and some have only their eyes peeking out.

But the two chickens did not listen to their mother and did not hide. They stand there, squeal and wonder: what is this thing dripping on their heads?

1. Answer the questions:

Where did the hen and her chicks go?

What's happened?

What did the chicken do?

How did the chickens hide under the chicken's wings?

Who didn't hide?

What did they do?

2. Retell.

MARTIN.

The mother swallow taught the chick to fly. The chick was very small. He flapped his weak wings ineptly and helplessly.

Unable to stay in the air, the chick fell to the ground and was seriously hurt. He lay motionless and squeaked pitifully.

The mother swallow was very worried. She circled over the chick, screamed loudly and did not know how to help him.

The girl picked up the chick and put it in a wooden box. And she put the box with the chick on a tree.

The swallow took care of her chick. She brought him food every day and fed him.

The chick began to recover quickly and was already chirping cheerfully and cheerfully flapping its strengthened wings.

The old red cat wanted to eat the chick. He quietly crept up, climbed the tree and was already at the very box.

But at this time the swallow flew off the branch and began to fly boldly right in front of the cat’s nose.

The cat rushed after her, but the swallow quickly dodged, and the cat missed and slammed to the ground with all its might. Soon the chick completely recovered and the swallow, with joyful chirping, took him to his native nest under the neighboring roof.

1. Answer the questions:

What misfortune happened to the chick?

When did the accident happen?

Why did it happen?

Who saved the chick?

What is the red cat up to?

How did the mother swallow protect her chick?

How did she take care of her chick?

How did this story end?

2. Retell.

BUTTERFLIES.

The weather was hot. Three butterflies were flying in a forest clearing. One was yellow, the other was brown with red spots, and the third butterfly was blue. Butterflies landed on a large beautiful daisy. Then two more colorful butterflies flew in and landed on the same daisy

It was cramped for the butterflies, but it was fun.

1. Answer the questions:

Who is the story about?

What is said first?

What were the butterflies like?

Where did the butterflies go?

What kind of chamomile was it?

How many more butterflies have arrived?

What were they like?

What does it say at the end?

2. Retell.

GRANDCHILDREN HELPED.

Grandmother Nyura's goat Nochka has disappeared. Grandma was very upset.

The grandchildren took pity on their grandmother and decided to help her.

The guys went into the forest to look for a goat. She heard the guys' voices and went towards them.

Grandma was very happy when she saw her goat.

1. Answer the questions:

Who is the story talking about?

Why was Grandma Nyura upset?

What was the goat's name?

What did the grandchildren decide to do? Why?

How was the goat found?

How did this story end?

2. Retell.

SHAME ON THE NIGHTINGALE.

V. Sukhomlinsky.

Olya and Lida, little girls, went into the forest. After a tiring journey, they sat down on the grass to rest and have lunch.

They took bread, butter, and eggs out of the bag. When the girls had already finished lunch, a nightingale began to sing not far from them. Enchanted by the beautiful song, Olya and Lida sat, afraid to move.

The nightingale stopped singing.

Olya collected the remains of her food and scraps of paper and threw them under a bush.

Lida wrapped the eggshells and bread crumbs in newspaper and put the bag in her bag.

Why do you take trash with you? Olya said. -Throw it under the bush. After all, we are in the forest. Nobody will see.

“I’m ashamed in front of the nightingale,” Lida answered quietly.

1. Answer the questions:

Who went to the forest?

Why did Olya and Lida go into the forest?

What did the girls hear in the forest?

What did Olya do with the garbage? And Lida?

Why is the story called Ashamed Before the Nightingale?

Whose action do you like better? Why?

2. Retell.

FRIENDSHIP.

In the summer, a squirrel and a bunny were friends. The squirrel was red, and the bunny was gray. Every day they played together.

But then winter came. White snow fell. A red squirrel climbed into a hollow. And the bunny climbed under a spruce branch.

One day a squirrel crawled out of a hollow. She saw the bunny, but did not recognize him. The bunny was no longer gray, but white. The bunny also saw a squirrel. He didn't recognize her either. After all, he knew the red squirrel. And this squirrel was gray.

But in the summer they get to know each other again.

1. Answer the questions:

When did the squirrel and the bunny become friends?

What were they like in the summer?

Why didn't the squirrel and the bunny recognize each other in winter?

Where do the squirrel and the hare hide from the frost in winter?

Why do they recognize each other again in the summer?

2. Retell.

FABLE TWO COMRADES.

L.N. Tolstoy.

Two comrades were walking through the forest, and a bear jumped on them. One ran, climbed a tree and hid, while the other stayed on the road. He had nothing to do, he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.

The bear came up to him and began to sniff: he stopped breathing.

The bear sniffed his face, thought he was dead, and walked away.

When the bear left, he climbed down from the tree and laughed.

Well, he says, did the bear speak into your ear?

And he told me that bad people are those who run away from their comrades in danger.

1. Answer the questions:

Why is the fable called Two Comrades?

Where were the boys?

What happened to them?

What did the boys do?

How do you understand the expression fell to the ground?

How did the bear react?

Why did the bear think the boy was dead?

What does this fable teach?

What would you do in this situation?

Were the boys real comrades? Why?

2. Retell.

MURKA.

We have a cat. Her name is Murka. Murka is black, only the paws and tail are white. The fur is soft and fluffy. The tail is long, fluffy, Murka’s eyes are yellow, like lights.

Murka has five kittens. Three kittens are completely black, and two are mottled. All kittens are fluffy, like lumps. Murka and the kittens live in a basket. Their basket is very large. All kittens are comfortable and warm.

At night, Murka hunts mice, and the kittens sleep sweetly.

1. Answer the questions:

Why is the story called Murka?

What have you learned about Murka?

Tell us about the kittens.

What does the ending say?

2. Retell.

HOW THE BEAR SCARED HIMSELF.

N. Sladkov.

A bear entered the forest. A dry twig crunched under his heavy paw. The squirrel on the branch got scared and dropped the pine cone from its paws. A cone fell and hit the hare on the forehead. The hare jumped up and ran into the thick of the forest. He ran into forty and jumped out from under the bushes. They raised a cry throughout the entire forest. The moose heard it. The moose went through the forest to break the bushes.

Here the bear stopped and pricked up his ears: a squirrel was babbling, magpies were chirping, moose were breaking down bushes. Isn’t it better to leave? - thought the bear. He barked and gave chase.

So the bear scared itself.

1. Answer the questions:

Where did the bear go?

What crunched under his paw?

What did the squirrel do?

Who did the bump fall on?

What did the hare do?

Who did the magpie see? What did she do?

What did the moose decide? What did they do?

How did the bear behave?

What does the expression gave the go, barked?

How does the story end?

Who scared the bear?

2. Retell.

FIRE DOGS.

L.N. Tolstoy.

It often happens that in cities during fires, children remain in houses and cannot be pulled out, because they hide and are silent from fear, and from the smoke they cannot be seen. Dogs in London are trained for this purpose. These dogs live with firefighters, and when a house catches fire, the firefighters send the dogs to pull the children out. One such dog saved twelve children, his name was Bob.

One time the house caught fire. When firefighters arrived at the house, a woman ran out to them. She cried and said that there was a two-year-old girl left in the house. The firefighters sent Bob. Bob ran up the stairs and disappeared into the smoke. Five minutes later he ran out of the house, carrying the girl by the shirt in his mouth. The mother rushed to her daughter and cried with joy that her daughter was alive.

The firefighters petted the dog and examined it to see if it was burned; but Bob was eager to get into the house. The firefighters thought there was still something alive in the house and let him in. The dog ran into the house and soon ran out with something in its teeth. When the people looked at what she brought out, they all burst out laughing: she was carrying a large doll.

1. Answer the questions:

What happened one time?

Where did this happen, in what city?

Who did the firefighters bring to the house?

What do dogs do in a fire? What are their names?

Who ran out to the firefighters when they arrived?

What did the woman do, what did she talk about?

How did Bob carry the girl?

What did the girl's mother do?

What did the firefighters do after the dog carried the girl out?

Where was Bob going?

What did the firefighters think?

When the people considered what she had endured, what did they do?

2. Retell.

BONE.

L.N. Tolstoy

The mother bought plums and wanted to give them to the children after lunch. They were on the plate. Vanya never ate plums and kept smelling them. And he really liked them. I really wanted to eat it. He kept walking past the plums. When there was no one in the upper room, he could not resist, grabbed one plum and ate it.

Before dinner, the mother counted the plums and saw that one was missing. She told her father.

At dinner my father says:

Well, children, did anyone eat one plum?

Everyone said:

Vanya blushed like a lobster and said too:

No, I didn't eat.

Then the father said:

What any of you has eaten is not good; but that’s not the problem. The trouble is that plums have seeds, and if someone doesn’t know how to eat them and swallows a seed, he will die within a day. I'm afraid of this.

Vanya turned pale and said:

No, I threw the bone out the window.

And everyone laughed, and Vanya began to cry.

1. Answer the questions:

What was the main character's name?

What did the mother buy for the children?

Why did Vanya eat the plum?

When did your mother discover it was missing?

What did the father ask the children?

Why did he say it was possible to die?

Why did Vanya immediately admit that he ate the plum?

Why did the boy cry?

Did Vanya do the right thing?

Do you feel sorry for the boy or not?

What would you do in his place?

The new school year is just around the corner. And we all carefully instill in them important skills that will allow them to easily master new knowledge. One of the most important skills for school is the ability to retell texts, beautifully and consistently present the learned information. Let's talk about retelling.

How to teach a child to retell a text

A retelling is a story about the characters and events of a literary work, conveyed in one’s own words in a certain sequence. There are the following types of retelling:

• detailed (consistent detailed presentation of the events of the text);
• selective (presentation of some part of the text);
• condensed (transmission of the most important thing in the work).

Why is a retelling needed?

First of all, in order to learn how to competently structure your speech, enrich your vocabulary and skillfully “juggle” grammatical structures. And for schoolchildren, the ability to retell texts is simply invaluable, since almost all school education is based on orally transmitting learned information to the teacher.

However, not everyone knows that retelling training should be carried out directly “from the cradle” in the form of constant conversations with the baby and commenting on one’s actions. All such conversations are deposited in the newborn’s head in the form of language images. Such exercises will not only help your child speak early and enrich his speech, but also construct his statements competently and comprehensively, clearly following their logic.

What skills will a child need to learn how to successfully retell texts?

• concentrated attention - to patiently listen to the content of the story;
• a clear understanding of the meaning of the story;
• logical and associative memory - to remember the sequence of events in history;
• ability to systematize and structure information;
• mastery of speech for a meaningful, consistent and beautiful presentation of what has been learned from the text.

As you can see, this is quite a lot for children of primary school age.

The basics of retelling skills are acquired “from the cradle”

So, what will help develop excellent retelling skills at an early age:

• constant conversations with the child (even if it seems that he does not hear or understand you);
• commenting on absolutely all your actions;
• reading to the baby a huge number of books appropriate to his age (“from the cradle”);
• games to develop memory and attention;
• association matching games;
• games for developing creative thinking;
• listening to music (for the development of hearing, rhythm and melody, which also contributes to the development of speech);

As soon as the baby grows up (from 3 years old), it is very useful to show him stories based on pictures, which are arranged in a certain sequence according to the events taking place. When demonstrating visual material, you need to ask the child leading questions, pointing to the corresponding picture:

• what happened first (where does the story begin)?
• what happened next?
• what's happening now?
• how does the story end?

Healthy children, with whom their parents have been engaged in this way since birth, usually do not experience any difficulties with the construction of a retelling: its logic and the comprehensiveness of the transmission of information.

However, do not be upset if you were unable to develop your child’s speech from birth. Immediately before school, any healthy child can be taught to retell texts at home. And, of course, it’s worth starting with stories that provide visual support.

Use stories that your child really enjoys. We recommend listening to folk tales, understandable and fascinating stories by such writers as: Pushkin, Bianchi, Aksakov, the Brothers Grimm, Suteev, Andersen, Nosov, Tolstoy, Prishvin...

Guiding questions for retelling

Ask leading questions, asking your child to present the information in such detail as if he were being listened to by a person who does not know anything about the events taking place in the story:

• where does the story begin?
• who are the main characters?
• what important happened?
• what consequences did this lead to?
• what happens at the end of the story?
• what conclusion can you draw?
• think about whether you conveyed all the important points in your story?
• if not, tell me again, please.

This training plan (not in the form of a lesson) is very suitable for active, restless children. You can engage in such entertaining conversations casually, while traveling by car, bus (home from kindergarten, for example), train, while shopping, walking, etc.

Don’t neglect retelling from pictures. This retelling with elements of an essay broadens the horizons and awakens the child’s imagination.

Text retelling plan

If your child is quite diligent and is not bothered by quiet activities, you can practice retelling purposefully. Take more complex texts and use school requirements for retelling (introduction, main part, conclusion). What do we have to do?

• read the text;
• parse out all the words that are complex and unfamiliar to the child, so that the child understands everything in the story (only under this condition can children retell the text in their own words without much difficulty);
• analyze what you read, determine what is important;
• draw up an oral retelling plan, breaking the text into main stages (teach your child the ability to briefly formulate the headings of the stages of the story);
• discuss the content of each stage, discussing the most interesting points (in this case, you need to ask leading questions to make the task easier for the baby. If at first the baby answers in one sentence, then this is good. Over time, his answers will become more detailed, especially if you ask leading questions);
• discuss the main characters of the story, their actions and actions;
• discuss the sequence of events described in the text;
• connect parts of the text sequentially.

Leading questions are designed to give the child only the opportunity to remember what is happening in the story he read, so avoid giving him hints. Having dealt with the points described above in detail, you should ask the child to retell all the events that are happening in a coherent and step-by-step manner.

If it doesn’t work, invite your child to retell the text with you. During the process, pretend that you forgot something. The child will be pleased to demonstrate a good memory and the fact that he reminded his mother of some event in the text he read.

If your child draws well and enjoys it, invite him to independently draw the sequence of events of what he read. If things are not going well with drawing, then you can draw simple diagrams in the form of arrows, which in turn follow from one thought to another, according to the logic of the events taking place.

Tactics for teaching retelling:

• Before practicing retelling texts, it will be useful to play associative games with your baby. For example, what does a cloud look like? Such a game will teach the child to easily find the necessary associations and memorable images when retelling texts in order to simplify memorization and the sequence of presentation of events;
• texts should be simple and short (about 5–10 sentences, otherwise the child will get tired, lose concentration and will not be able to finish what he started);
• the text should be interesting to the child;
• you need to ask the child’s opinion about the main characters and what he liked and what he didn’t like in the story;
• there should be few main characters in the story, and they should definitely have some striking character traits or appearance for better memorization);
• you need to read expressively, using intonation to attract the child’s attention to significant events;
• use supporting plot pictures for clarity (it is better to arrange the pictures not in order, but so that the child can arrange them himself in accordance with the logic of the story);
• let the baby tell in his own words the way he can;
• use dolls (if your child likes role-playing games, you can practice retelling stories from the perspective of different characters in a playful way using toy dolls);
• after retelling according to plan, you need to start retelling from memory;
• support and praise your child throughout the learning process.

Problems you may encounter:

• violation of the order of the narration (when the child recounts the events that occurred in the text out of order);
• inventing something that was not in the text, mistakes in character names, distortion of facts;
• speech errors - when constructing sentences, incorrect use of cases, repeated repetition of the same words;
• retelling one part of the text too briefly and another in too much detail.

With regular training, these problems will go away on their own.

Parents' mistakes:

• the habit of interrupting the child during a retelling (children often swallow words, make mistakes, and the mother stops without listening to the end, asking the child to immediately correct himself. If the baby is offended and angry at such tactics, he may withdraw into himself and stop striving to master something) something new, especially if it is new, comes from you. Listen first, praise, and then gently tell me what was wrong);
• demonstrating dissatisfaction with a child (will not lead to anything good. Harsh criticism has never contributed to good academic results. Moreover, it discourages any desire to try. Therefore, take your time and remain completely calm. Remember that your psychological state is completely transmitted to your children) ;
• memorizing sentences from the text (you cannot force a child to simply “memorize” information. This leads to a lack of awareness and meaningfulness in the process of transmitting information, without actually developing the necessary skills and abilities of competent speech proficiency);
• lack of praise (the main thing a child wants is the praise of mom and dad. Don’t skimp on it. Initially, kids don’t understand why they study, they don’t have much motivation. And parents’ praise can give them a great push to try their best , the most difficult stages of their school life);
• lack of patience (you should be prepared for the fact that your child will not immediately be able to retell texts, analyze them and make plans. For some this will take 2-3 times, for others more. It is very easy to ruin everything with irritability and impatience at the very beginning);
• “comparing” a child with more successful friends and classmates, especially not in his favor (from early childhood this develops in the child an inferiority complex so deep that throughout the rest of his life it is very difficult to get rid of it);
• choosing literature that is difficult (uninteresting) for the child (during classes, the child needs to be interested in what he is studying. Start with these works, and not with those that you like);
• choosing long texts (a long story can confuse your child, so start with something easier and shorter (about 6 - 10 short sentences) to give your child a sense of success);

The benefits of retelling. Why learn to retell a text?

Retelling a text carries a lot of necessary skills that will be useful in life:

• develops memory;
• increases vocabulary;
• develops the ability to clearly express one’s opinion on any issue;
• develops the ability to easily convey other people's thoughts;
• develops the ability to comment;
• develops the ability to analyze various events and situations;
• develops the ability to process and present any information;
• develops the ability to isolate the main thing from the story and clearly state the main idea;
• develops the ability to formulate correct conclusions;
• develops the ability to evaluate facts and compare them with events;
• develops the ability to make associative connections between events, their causes and consequences, and compare them with each other;
• develops literacy in general.

Therefore, communicate with each other more often, retell daily events, share your impressions, and then there will be no problems with presenting what you read in your child’s school life.

Happy studying!

With warmth,

Lyudmila Potsepun.

We invite you to watch a fascinating video on our video channel "Workshop on the Rainbow"

• Younger preschoolers. Listen and answer questions
• Senior preschoolers. From leading questions to simple retelling
• Junior schoolchildren. We tell it in our own words
• Fifth graders. Learning the principles of note-taking

Retelling is one of the most important learning skills. Some parents groundlessly believe that it is used exclusively in elementary grades, and it is possible to “skip” through this stage of working with the text. In fact, retelling is the basis for essays - admission to the Unified State Exam, for all school essays and student notes.

Since you need to learn to retell before school, it is important that parents pay serious attention to this.

Younger preschoolers. Listen and answer questions

Children begin to retell stories long before they themselves learn to read. When you read fairy tales to your child, ask the simplest questions about the story being described as you read. It is important to do this as you read (it is difficult for a child under three years old to retell the story in retrospect) and ask simple questions that can be answered in one word: “Who hurt the bunny? Who helped the bunny? What did the cockerel say?

” This kind of “interaction” is very popular with children, who turn from passive listeners into active participants in the game.

Senior preschoolers. From leading questions to simple retelling

At five or six years old, a child can retell a simple text. You should start with stories that you read aloud to him, even if he can read himself, because you will read expressively, emphasizing the main points with intonation. Choose simple and very short stories - one and a half to two dozen sentences. Most likely, at first, when trying to retell a fairy tale, a child will try to reproduce it verbatim (and often, thanks to their good memory, they succeed). Therefore, it is important to ask your child leading questions: “Who is the main character of this story? What happened to him? Where did it all start? How did it all end? Let the child retell the story again after some time, for example to his grandmother when she comes to visit.

” At this age, you can begin to analyze works: who is a good hero, who is bad, why they acted in one way or another. You will be surprised how many reasons for thought you will find in the fairy tales you know from childhood!

Junior schoolchildren. We tell it in our own words

If previously the child could not escape from simply memorizing the text (which in itself is useful, since it develops memory), now he needs to learn to retell the text “in his own words.” This is a difficult and important stage that many children cannot cope with without the help of their parents. After all, you need to highlight the main storyline, be able to characterize the characters, but at the same time not simplify the text, not lose the figurative expressions used by the author. There are several techniques that can help you teach your child retelling.

"Increasingly"

Ask your child to retell the text in three sentences. This will force him to find the main storyline. Then in five sentences, ten, fifteen - this will add a description of the characters, a story about their feelings and thoughts. Gradually increase the volume to two-thirds of the original text. This will help the child avoid memorization.

The artistic originality of the text is no less important than the storyline. Ask your child to find interesting comparisons in the text: “an old man who looks like a mushroom,” “clouds like cotton candy.” If he pays attention to them, he will use them in the retelling.

"Write your story"

If the previous two exercises directly teach retelling, then the third teaches creative rethinking. Let the child think about what happened before the story began and after it ended. This will not just awaken the imagination - children at this age easily compose stories, but will make it manageable, because he will have to compose a story in which there are already “specified parameters” - heroes with their own characters and the events that happened to them. Finally, while “finishing” the story, the child is forced to retell the author’s text in his own words.

Fifth graders. Learning the principles of note-taking

In fifth grade, retelling is already an urgent need. Actually, most lessons end with the words “study paragraph No...”.

” At this moment, children who had an excellent memory, memorizing the text word for word, find themselves lagging behind, since memorizing the text is not enough, they need to analyze it, understand it and freely operate with the information received.

If by this time the child has not yet mastered the art of retelling, he needs to start training urgently! Here is an approximate plan of work that needs to be completed after reading the textbook material.

1. Identify the main objects (events, dates, persons, phenomena) that are mentioned in the material.
2. Break the text into logical parts (it’s better if there are few of them, three to five parts). Highlight the main idea in each part. Establish a logical relationship between them. What happens as a result.
3. Make a detailed plan for the textbook paragraph being studied. This is the basis of the future art of note-taking! Tell your child what a reference summary is: a list of the main points of the text that you need to focus on when retelling.
4. Answer the questions given after the paragraph. Try to do it from memory. And not by looking for the right places in the text.

We hope that now you can teach your child to retell the text, and this will help him in his learning!

Often the question how to teach a child to retell a text, parents ask themselves before entering school, because most of school education is based on retelling what they heard or read. However, most teachers agree that the most appropriate time for teaching retelling is between the ages of 3 and 6 years.

By organizing special games in preschool age, you are laying a good foundation for retelling skills, not to mention the influence of such activities on the development of attention, thinking, imagination, etc.

In order to retell, that is, reproduce a text read or heard, a child must be able to:

1. listen to the text carefully;
2. understand its meaning;
3. remember the sequence of events in the plot of the work;
4. remember author's or folk figures of speech;
5. meaningfully tell the text you heard, observing the order of actions and the emotional coloring of events.

In order for a child to successfully master each of these stages, it is necessary to intentionally include each of them in the child’s play activities and your communication with him.

Works for retelling

It will be difficult for a child to retell long texts with complex adverbial phrases, so it is better to choose short texts with a dynamic plot and a clear sequence of events. The characters should be familiar to the child, and their motives and actions understandable. It will be good if the work is educational in nature and brings some moral experience to the child.

It is not advisable for children under 6 years of age to use descriptive works. Poems are also not suitable as a basis for retelling. It is better to memorize poems.

Folk tales, stories by Suteev, Charushin, Tolstoy, Ushinsky and others will fit these requirements.

Types of retellings

In appearance, a retelling can be:

• Closely conveys the meaning of the text. Includes figures of speech characteristic of the work.
• A condensed or brief retelling, when the child needs to isolate the main events and briefly talk about them, omitting other details.
• With a creative addition - when the child is asked to come up with a different beginning, end of the work, or a variant of the development of events at a turning point in the plot.
• With partial rearrangement of the text.

The first option is the main one in preschool age, but you shouldn’t dwell on it, because all sorts of creative additions to well-known works help restore interest in them and contribute to the development of the child’s imagination and creativity.

From the age of 5-6, it is necessary to train in a brief retelling, since the ability to highlight the main thing is an important skill at school age.

What should you pay attention to when a child retells a text?

The most important requirement is meaningfulness. It is important that the child understands what he is talking about, and does not repeat a familiar story like a memorized tongue twister. Other requirements include:

• sequence of presentation;
• absence of significant omissions that distort the plot;
• use of characteristic speech patterns;
• fluency of speech;
• correspondence of emotional accompaniment to the plot of the work.

Of course, this is an ideal to which we should strive. Therefore, when you hear your baby’s first confused and not very intelligible retelling, do not despair - this is normal. Regular training and interesting stories will do their job, and the baby’s speech will become coherent and rich.

The first thing parents encounter when they want to teach their child to retell a text is the poverty of the child’s active vocabulary, which contains mainly nouns and verbs. In order to correct this state of affairs, it is necessary to enrich your everyday speech with adjectives, participial and adverbial phrases, comparisons and phraseological units. In addition, the article “” describes many games that will help saturate a child’s speech with new words.

At first, until you have built your own lesson plan, you can use the following:

1. First, you need to interest the child in the plot of the story: ask a riddle about the main character, show and discuss a picture with his participation;
2. Next, we invite the child to listen and read the work;
3. We ask questions about the work. Questions can be directed: to the order of actions in the work (what is what), to the location of the action and how it is described, to the characteristics of the main characters and a discussion of the motives of their actions, to the use of phraseological units and the author’s turns of phrase in the text;
4. You warn the child that after reading he will retell it, after which you read the work;
5. The child retells it. If he has difficulties with the plot or sequence, we help by asking guiding questions;
6. We praise the child and offer a creative activity based on the work (drawing, appliqué, modeling, crafts, etc.).

Learning to retell at the age of 3-4 years

At this age, the child is capable of retelling only with the help of pictures, a diagram or detailed questions from an adult. Therefore, your best helpers will be a geometric constructor or sequential pictures of the work (they can be replaced by your schematic drawings).

Do you want to play with your child easily and with pleasure?

Once you have read the story and discussed it in detail, ask your child to show the story on the flannelgraph at the same time as you read. Read slowly so that your child has time to act out all the events. If there are no suitable pictures, replace them with figures from the designer (assign each figure a certain value, for example, a large circle is a bear, a small circle is Masha, a small rectangle is a box, etc.). This method also develops memory and imagination.

You can also draw schematic images based on the story, and then the child will recite the entire text according to this diagram. Or use illustrations from books. The latter method has a number of disadvantages. Often the images in books are overloaded with details and distract the child from the main plot line.

Retelling at 4-5 years old

At this age, the most important stage is the discussion of the work. By asking your child many questions about the plot, you thereby help him better understand the meaning of the work and the order of events in it. Start with simple questions. For example, according to the fairy tale “The Cat and the Rooster”: where did the cat go? What did you punish the rooster? what did the fox say? And gradually move on to more advanced ones: how did the rooster and the cat get into the forest? what happened when the cat went to get firewood? Then you can simply ask the child to tell the beginning of the fairy tale, what happened in the middle and the end of the fairy tale.

Thus, the adult helps the child and builds a “scheme” of the fairy tale for him. For a 4-year-old child, it is not obvious that a fairy tale should be told first. He will try to tell it from the most interesting, in his opinion, place, despite the fact that the plot may not be clear due to the missing beginning.

It is important for a child to be able to retell both the entire work and its individual parts. In addition, the baby may miss important details because he is confident that you know the fairy tale, and you don’t need these details. If you encounter such a problem, then try asking your child to tell a story to the toy that just arrived.

This is also a good age to begin a creative retelling. For example, when demonstrating a fairy tale on a flannelgraph, introduce a new character yourself and weave him into the plot. When the child retells it, he can introduce another new character based on your example or replace the main one at his discretion.

The final part of the lesson may be a dramatization of the read work, that is, not a performance with toys or on a flannelgraph, but a production with the distribution of roles between the participants. It’s good to involve family and other children in this. In such a situation, the child tries on the role of a specific hero, learns to express his emotions in voice, posture and gestures, and carefully follows the plot so as not to miss his exit.

Retelling at 5-6 years old

If the skills of detailed retelling are successfully mastered at an early age, at 5-6 years old the task is made more difficult for the child, using poetic descriptions of nature as the main text.

A more difficult task will be a brief retelling of the text, which requires the child to be able to separate the main from the secondary, while maintaining the integrity of the storyline.

To do this, after the initial reading and discussion of the fairy tale, invite your child to break it down into chapters. Explain that chapters are parts of a work that describe a piece of the plot. The chapter can be briefly named so that everyone will immediately understand what it is about. Start reading the fairy tale again, and ask your child to stop you when the chapter ends, then together come up with a title for the chapter, and let the child sketch out its contents. There should be from 4 to 8 chapters. You will have a written and schematic outline of the work. Now ask the child to recite the text based on the diagram drawn and without going into details.

At this age, other questions are used at the discussion stage. Instead of asking questions - where? When? What? Which? - used - why? For what? For what? - which help the child understand the meaning that is not directly revealed in the work.

For an example of retelling activities with a group of children, see this video:

Tell us in the comments what works you use to retell with children?

What play techniques do you use to attract your child to retell the text?