Differentiation: "The
Sketch Artist" Strategy

Common Core Standards require students in grades K-1 to “retell," students in grades 2-3 to “recount," and students in grades 4-12 to “summarize” text.

Whatever you call it, summarizing is one of the most effective activities for improving both comprehension and language skills. It’s a tricky skill for many ML students (and others). 

This is an eight- to ten-minute strategy to help all students practice retelling a story or passage. (Be sure students have read/heard the story a few times before you try this. During the activity, allow students to access the text, as needed.)

Pair students. Student A is the sketch artist and uses a strip of paper and a pencil/crayon to draw, per Student B’s directions. Student B is the story reteller. (You can support retelling by providing a visual reminder of story elements, like this.) 

Partner B retells until he/she is finished, while Partner A draws. (Partners could switch roles the next day, or whenever your schedule allows.)
As you monitor, you can help “pull” information from retellers. You can also track your students’ communication skills, and note students’ depth of understanding. What you see can drive your upcoming instruction.

Follow-up options (especially good for MLs):
-Students label items/characters in the drawings.
-Students write captions under the drawings.
-Students add dialogue to the drawings.
-Pairs share their work with other pairs, taking turns to retell with picture support.

Pair students intentionally, considering:

*language proficiency levels

*academic levels

*personalities

For pairs of students needing extension activities, you could replace the drawing task with paragraph writing...and even have students type the paragraphs when complete. (This is good practice for the SBA.) 

Reach out to ML if you want more information about this strategy.  Thanks!