Retelling & Summarizing Skills Pre-Check

What does it mean to "retell" a story?

• Retelling means summarizing the whole story

• Retelling means only describing certain paragraphs with details

• Retelling means sharing the main events and small details of a story in your own words.

• Retelling means only explaining the main events that happened

Answer explanation

Retelling is when students tell you about a text and include everything in their own words (details and some main ideas).

Summarizing is when students tell you about a text in a more concise manner (focusing more on just main ideas.)

Which of these helps you summarize a story?

• Sharing every detail

• Explaining the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

• Explaining the end of the story

Answer explanation

✅ Looking at beginning, middle, and end is a great way to summarize.
❌ Summarizing isn’t about sharing every detail.

Choose the best summary of Paragraph 1 & 2

• Isabel, Maria, and Hector create a shrinking potion and antidote. While the girls work on perfecting the potion, Hector decides to become popular, since he often felt invisible due to his short height.

• Hector used a shrinking potion to prank his classmates and teacher by shrinking them. He has the antidote and then places them inside Rambo's tank.

• Isabel and Mariela created a shrinking potion to win the science fair. Hector invents the antidote and shrinks everyone due to his short height.

• Isabel, Mariela, and Hector created a shrinking potion for the science fair, with Hector also inventing the antidote. While the girls focused on perfecting the potion, Hector saw a chance to become popular, since he often felt invisible due to his short height. He brought special cupcakes to class that secretly shrank everyone—including their teacher—and placed them inside the class pet’s tank.

Answer explanation

• Great job! Hector felt invisible because of his height and used the shrinking potion to get attention and feel powerful.

• Incorrect: Good try! While Isabel and Mariela helped create the potion (D), the story focuses more on Hector's motivation and actions. (B is partly true but doesn't capture the full purpose; C is a detail, not the main idea.)

Why is it important to keep events in order when retelling a story?

• It helps the retelling sound more exciting and creative.

• It makes it easier for the listener or reader to understand what happened.

• It shows the author that you enjoyed the story.

• It lets you skip over the boring parts of the story.

Answer explanation

• Yes! Keeping events in order helps others clearly follow the plot and understand how the story develops.

• Incorrect: Good Try! A good retelling isn’t just about sounding exciting (A), pleasing the author (C), or skipping parts (D)—it’s about clarity and structure.

Why might an author include illustrations or animation in a digital story?

• To make the story longer and fill up space

• To replace the need for words in the story

• To help readers better understand the story’s events, mood, or characters

• To make the story more colorful for younger readers

Answer explanation

• Correct: Great thinking! Illustrations and animations support understanding by showing emotions, actions, and settings visually.

• Incorrect: Great try! While visuals may make a story more colorful (D), their main purpose is to enhance meaning, not just looks or length (A, B).

Which of the following is most important when retelling a story?

• Including the main events in the correct sequence.

• Changing the ending to make it more interesting.

• Describing every character’s appearance in detail.

• Adding your own opinions about the story.