Let’s face it—terms like retell, recount, and summarize are tossed around in ELA standards like confetti, but their meanings can blur. If you’re an upper elementary teacher, you’ve likely scratched your head wondering, “Aren’t these all basically the same thing?”
Short answer: not quite.
Let’s unpack each term, explore the skills students need at different grade levels, and look at how to build strong summarizing habits as students move from retelling simple stories to synthesizing complex texts.
📥 Download the free Retell, Recount, and Summarize Handout here.
🗣️ Retell (Grades K–1)
In the early grades, students begin by retelling stories. This means repeating what happened in the story in the correct sequence without leaving out the important stuff. Think of it as a beginning-middle-end recap in the student’s own words.
Teachers often use story maps or anchor charts asking:
- What happened at the beginning?
- What happened in the middle?
- What happened at the end?
At this stage, students are not expected to analyze the story just get the key ideas across. Even in upper grades, you may notice that some students still struggle to retell effectively, especially when it comes to identifying what really matters in the story.
✍️ Recount (Grades 2–3)
As students move into second and third grade, the expectation shifts. They’re no longer just retelling; they’re asked to recount.
So what’s the difference?
A recount is more than a beginning-to-end summary. It’s a structured, detailed account of an event or series of events, often organized chronologically, and sometimes includes the writer’s personal thoughts or reactions.
Here are examples of different kinds of recounts:
- Personal recounts: A student writes about a vacation, not a full itinerary, but a detailed description of one key event and their feelings about it.
- Factual recounts: Students recount a historical event or a news story, organizing information in paragraphs that list events in order.
- Procedural recounts: A science experiment can be recounted step-by-step, including results and conclusions.
- Literary recounts: Students retell parts of a fictional narrative, focusing on key actions and their consequences.
🔄 Bonus twist: You can elevate this skill by turning factual recounts into imaginative narratives.
For example:
“Write about flying with Amelia Earhart across the Atlantic.”
“Describe the moment you helped rescue a family from a burning building.”
When students recount stories from a fictionalized perspective, they begin thinking like authors, an essential step toward developing narrative writing skills.
📚 Summarize (Grade 4+)
By the time students reach fourth grade, it’s time to take things further with summarizing. Unlike retelling or recounting, summarizing requires students to:
- identify the main ideas
- eliminate the fluff
- condense the information clearly and concisely
A good summary should:
- state what’s being summarized (the source)
- include only essential information
- be significantly shorter than the original
- avoid opinions (unless it’s an evaluative summary, more on that in a minute)
💡 Important note: Summarizing is not the same as paraphrasing. Paraphrasing keeps the length but changes the words. Summarizing trims the fat.
Teaching Students to Summarize
I teach students that summarizing is like packing for a weekend trip in a backpack. You only bring what’s essential. If it doesn’t fit or isn’t necessary, leave it behind.
Steps to Summarizing
- Identify the most important ideas.
- Ignore minor details and examples.
- Replace lists or specific details with a general statement.
📌 Different Types of Summaries (Yes, There’s More Than One)
Use this anchor chart to teach the six types of summaries your upper elementary students might encounter. Each serves a unique purpose depending on content and audience.
These definitions are also available in the downloadable handout.
Need More Strategies?
Here are other posts you can explore for hands-on summarizing strategies:
Includes six techniques including:
- Who, What, Where, Why, and How
- Somebody Wanted Because But So
- GIST Summaries
- Two-Column Notes
- Jigsaw Reading
- Webbing
Using Animated Shorts to Teach Summarizing
Engage visual learners with film and free printable resources.
Learning Log – A Teaching Strategy
Includes $2 Summary, 3-2-1 Strategy, and Square/Triangle/Circle reflection tools.
Inverted Pyramid Story Writing
Teach students to organize nonfiction articles using a journalistic structure.
Final Thoughts
Teaching the progression from retell to recount to summarize helps students grow as readers, thinkers, and writers. Use anchor charts, handouts, and hands-on examples to clarify the differences.
Keep it practical, make it visual, and sprinkle in creativity like flying with Amelia or saving the day in a fire. Kids remember lessons when they get to be part of the story.
Download the full handout here.
See the product that inspired this post.
Help your students move beyond “It was about a dog” with this engaging, standards-aligned unit on summarizing! Whether you’re teaching in person or online, this resource gives you everything you need to guide upper-elementary learners through the key skills of retelling, paraphrasing, and summarizing effectively.
1 comment
You are a rock star!!! Thank you so much for sharing!