Second Graders are learning to pay careful attention to what we read. To this end, we are practicing to focus on the important parts of a story in order to retell the story. We have learned that most books include a setting, main characters, main parts, a problem, solution to the problem, and a specific ending. We can now recognize these parts of our books and are taking notes about them in our reading journals. We are reading slowly and making sure that our notes provide a clear guide for us to retell our books. Beginning next week, second graders will use the notes in our reading journals to guide us through a recorded retelling of our books. It is our hope that when others hear a telling of the important parts of our stories, it will guide them to understand more about the book as well.