Retelling Glove Printable | Grade 2 ELA Worksheet

This Grade 2 story retelling worksheet uses the Retelling Glove framework to help students recall and sequence five core story elements — characters, setting, events, problem, and solution — building confident oral and written retelling skills tied to CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5.

At a Glance

• Grade: 2 · Subject: ELA / Reading Comprehension
• Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5 — Students describe story structure using key story elements
• Skill Focus: Story retelling — characters, setting, events, problem, solution
• Format: 1 page · 5 problems · Answer key included · PDF
• Best For: Guided reading follow-up or literacy centers
• Time: 15–25 minutes

The worksheet presents one Retelling Glove graphic organizer — one finger per story element — giving students a concrete visual scaffold. Each finger prompt asks students to write or draw a response: who the characters are, where and when the story takes place, the key events in order, the central problem, and how it resolves. A completed answer key models acceptable responses for teacher reference during conferencing or whole-class review.

• Guided practice: The first two prompts (characters and setting) include sentence-starter frames — "The characters are..." and "The story takes place..." — reducing cognitive load while students build retelling language (2 tasks).
• Supported practice: The middle prompt (key events) provides a numbered sequence box so students order up to three events without free-recall pressure (1 task).
• Independent practice: The final two prompts (problem and solution) remove scaffolds entirely, requiring students to identify and articulate story conflict and resolution in their own words (2 tasks).

This gradual-release structure mirrors the I Do / We Do / You Do model, moving students from supported to independent retelling within a single page.

Primary standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5 — "Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action." Supporting standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3 addresses how characters respond to major events and challenges, reinforcing the problem-solution prompts. Both standard codes can be copied directly into lesson plans, IEP goals, or district curriculum mapping tools.

Before direct instruction: Use as a pre-reading story-elements preview — students fill in what they predict before reading, then revise after. After direct instruction: Assign as an independent check for understanding following a read-aloud; scan completed gloves in under 3 minutes to identify students who conflate events with problem. Expect completion in 15–20 minutes for most second graders; allow 25 minutes for developing readers.

Designed for Grade 2 readers working at or approaching grade-level text complexity. Students who need additional support benefit from pairing this sheet with a story anchor chart listing element definitions. Above-level students can extend by writing a 3-sentence retelling paragraph using all five glove prompts as an outline. Natural pairing: any leveled fiction passage at Lexile 420–520L.

This worksheet targets CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5, requiring second graders to describe story structure through five key elements: characters, setting, events, problem, and solution. Retelling is a high-leverage comprehension strategy; NAEP data consistently show that students who can retell structured narratives score higher on reading comprehension assessments by Grade 4. Fisher & Frey (2014) identify structured retelling tasks as core formative tools within the gradual-release framework, noting that visual organizers — such as the glove model used here — reduce working-memory load and increase accurate recall. This one-page, answer-key-included worksheet gives teachers an immediate, low-prep formative data point aligned to a named CCSS standard, suitable for literacy centers, guided reading follow-up, or substitute lesson plans.