In 4th grade, we are learning about the difference between retelling and summarizing a story. Retelling has lots more details and may contain dialogue, like the students' retelling of "Cinderella" below.
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| Ms. Moore's favorite retelling is "Ever After," starring Drew Barrymore. Photo from thewonderfulworldofcinema.wordpress.com. |
Retelling
Once upon a time, Cinderella (C.) was cleaning her house and getting her stepsisters ready for a party. She slipped on the wet wood and broke her foot. She couldn’t go to the party / ball, because she had to do chores. And now she has a broken foot, so she definitely can’t.
Her stepmother made C. work all night with no sleep. The next day, she got her stepsisters ready for the ball, and they went. C. was crying because she wanted to go. Then her fairy godmother (FG) came and gave her a wagon and stuff out of pumpkins and rats made into horses.
Then her FG gave her a very pretty dress and breakable glass shoes (one was a boot for her broken foot). More rats got made into people to whack the horses to move (aka coachmen). Then one of the horses slipped in the mud, and the whole wagon toppled over.
The FG tells C she has to come back before 12 o’clock, when everything will disappear.
She was going to the ball and when she was there, she was picked to dance with the prince. She forgot about time and had to rush to the carriage and go home at midnight. She accidentally threw her slipper when she thought she was getting rid of trash.
On the way home, chickens blocked the road, but they ran over the chickens. C got out of the wagon and she went to her house, looked back at the wagon, which had tipped over again, and said, “Welp, there goes my wagon.” But then it rolled towards her and ran over her other foot.
She looked behind the carriage and saw the prince chasing after it. But then all he saw was a giant pumpkin, because the carriage lost its magic. Then cows ate the wagon. Which was a pumpkin again.
The prince thought he saw her horse, but it was really C., and he tackled over her. Then the prince came inside the house and saw a rat and went screaming away.
The prince finds the glass slipper when he is running back scared from the rat. He recognized it from C. (even though he hadn’t recognized her when he thought she was a horse).
C. at home hears a ding dong from the door. But she can’t open it because her stepsisters locked her up. The prince has come with the slipper. C. finds a key and when she comes out, the stepsisters push her out of the way and try on the slipper, but it doesn’t fit them. C. tries it, and it fits her perfectly. The prince brings her to the castle and they get married.
Summary
After we retold Cinderella in 444 words, it was time to summarize it in a couple of sentences. The method I taught the 4th graders is Somebody Wanted But So Then. Here are some of the summaries they came up with:The stepsisters
Wanted C. to be their slave while they went to the ball
But C. got to the ball.
So the prince asked her to dance.
Then she had to leave at midnight.
The Fairy Godmother
Wanted C. to go to the ball looking nice,
But C. lost her slipper.
So the prince found it.
Then he gave it back to C.
