Roll and Retell - Building Summarizing, Communication, and Writing Skills

Our principal has really been encouraging us to add more writing into our daily lesson plans.  "They should be writing all day long" he tells us.  The research is there to back him up.

I bumped into this Roll and Retell  page from Fun In First on Pinterest awhile back and finally figured out how to add it to our learning day.

I printed and laminated four copies of the Roll and Retell page to hand out to each of my four table groups.

After a round of Daily 5 I handed them out. I also gave each table one die.  Each student at the table took turns rolling the die and then answering the question based on the number they rolled.  They each used the individual book they were reading to answer the questions.  I felt like it would be a great advertisement for new books for each child to read when they were done with the one they were working on.  I also knew it would be great oral practice BEFORE they started writing.

Once they had a chance to talk about what they were going to write, I set the timer for 5 minutes and let them write.  Then we shared our responses.

Here are a few of their responses.

I had so much success with this activity with my students, that I created versions that cover the standards for 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades.

There are 6 different Roll and Respond Sheets that cover all of the Second Grade ELA Common Core Standards for both literary and informational text.

There are 5 different Roll and Respond Sheets that cover all of the Third Grade ELA Common Core Standards for both literary and informational text.

There are 7 different Roll and Respond Sheets that cover all of the Fourth Grade ELA Common Core Standards for both literary and informational text.

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Dr. Susan Hall, literacy leader and founder of 95 Percent Group, mentions this Roll and Retell Activity as a Reading Comprehension Game that Students Will Want to Play Over and Over!  Check it out for the other ideas there as well!


What have you tried in your classroom lately?  Link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday and share!

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