Listening and story time
English · Early Years · The School
Stories have a shape
Every story has a beginning (we meet someone), a middle (something goes wrong or changes) and an end (it is sorted out). After a story, try saying it in three sentences using those three parts. Retelling is not remembering every word — it is finding the shape underneath the words.
Who, where, what
Three questions unlock any story. WHO is it about? WHERE does it happen? WHAT happens? Ask them out loud after every book. Children who can answer these three become children who can answer comprehension questions later, because those questions are these three wearing longer words.
What happens next?
Stop halfway through and ask: what do you think happens next? There is no wrong answer — but a GOOD prediction uses a clue from the story ("he looked hungry, so maybe he eats it"). Saying the clue out loud is the beginning of inference, the skill that carries all the way to GCSE.
Stop halfway through Little Red Riding Hood, just as the wolf reaches Grandma's house first. Ask: what will happen next? A guess is "they have tea". A PREDICTION is "the wolf will trick her, because he already lied to her in the wood". Say the clue out loud after the guess. Then read on — and if the prediction was wrong, ask which clue misled you, because that is the interesting part.