Retelling Gloves! Fun fun fun

One of the things our K-2 teachers are working on is increasing student accountability for comprehension. This can be difficult for students when practicing independently, such as in daily five stations. We found this adorable and simple strategy to use with kids to help them remember how to retell. It’s called the Retelling Glove and it’s great for fiction. Our teachers got to make one today during an after-school meeting.

They’re super easy to make! You take a glove (they’re on clearance now – I got a bunch of pairs for 50 cents each, and you only need one per class!) And you print out an image representing each item necessary for a good retelling. 

These are the images, where they go, and what they represent:

The thumb: a picture of people. This represents the characters.
Pointer finger: a picture of a house/scene. This represents the setting.
Middle finger: a picture of a lock. This represents the problem.
Ring finger: a picture of a key. This represents the solution.
Pinky: a picture of a ladder. This represents beginning-middle-end sequence of events.
Palm: A light bulb. This represents the main idea.
Back of the hand: A heart. This represents a personal connection the kids have.

I got great instructions for it here:
Retelling Glove

The teacher models using the hand to retell during a read aloud or shared reading. After the students have become familiar and received lots of practice, the teacher can put it in their read to self or read to someone station and have students wear the glove to retell. What a cute and easy way to encourage retelling and grow comprehension!

By the way, I just started watching The Tudors today on netflix, and I’m super hooked.