[MOSAIC] retelling

[Sandra Stringham]

I've held off putting in my two cents worth, but I just felt I had to jump in after reading some of the posts about prompts on retelling.
 
Why is there such a negative connotation regarding a prompt?  Think about it....when you read a book you really really like and you are so excited to tell someone about it, do you remember every single detail?  And in having that conversation with the person you are sharing about the book, what happens when they ask you a question about the book, you answer it and sometimes it spurs more of your memory of why you liked the booked so much.  Why spend time teaching kids about a rubric...spend time teaching them what is important and what the big idea of the book is.
 
I'll start right off by saying that is one of the reasons I am not a fan of DRA.  When retelling a story, the student is penalized if prompted.  Many of our students are conditioned from their home environment/culture not to respond unless asked.  Plus, what are we assessing:  comprehension or memory?  They read the book one time and are asked to retell every detail.  
 
I also wonder why we expect every detail when retelling?  I want my kids to tell me about characters, setting, etc, but as an example, if they tell me "all the animals" went into the mitten to get warm (in the book The Mitten) is it wrong as long as they can tell me how it ended?  I've had kids tell the BIG IDEA of books, yet, didn't tell me every single detail that the DRA required.  Technically, they failed the DRA, yet I think they had a deeper understanding of the book than what they DRA assessed.
 
I would like to suggest two alternatives to DRA:
 
1.  Assessment to Instruction:  This is set up by genre and begins with the essential understanding of what the children need to learn in retelling.  In addition to the books and the assessments, scaffold instruction is laid out from the youngest reader to the more sophisticated. Anchor charts, forms, assts. its all there. It comes with a DVD with teachers in conferences or assts. with children.  I'm not doing justice to ATI so I suggest you write to:
    
Dr. Janine Batzle    
A Place for the Child 
16625 Redmond Way, Ste. M533
Redmond, WA  98052
888-487-5924
425-882-6942
janine_batzle at msn.com
 
Many of you may recognize her name as a respected member of this list serve as well as the literacy community.  I have used and continue to use her material in my teaching today.  
 
2.  Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Asst. System:  This just came out in July and in addition to helping you teach for deep comprehension it assesses for deep comprehension.  You are certainly NOT penalized for prompts.  I absolutely love how it lays out how to teach for comprehension in the book, about the book and thinking about book.  It comes not only with the books and asst. but a CD with professional dev.; data forms, and blackline masters;  The reading continuum is an absolute BIBLE for teaching for deep comprehension.  I have been amazed at how much I have learned just from using it these last few months and look forward to delving deeper in it as I learn.  F&P has a book that came out about 2 years ago called Fluency and Comprehension;  I found it overwhelming when I first saw it and let it.  Now that I have the asst kit, the book has opened a whole new world to me in understanding how I need to teach for deep comprehension.  It's certainly not
 overwhelming now and is clarifying so much for me.  The asst. kit comes in to two sets:  A-N and L-Z.  Go on line and take a look.  My entire district has adopted this for our K-2 asst. system.
 
Respectfully,
 
Sandi Stringham
1-2 multiage
Elgin, IL