The three small group sessions are centered around the children's story Miss Nelson is missing! by Harry Allard. The sessions are designed to give you the flexibility to redirect or ask further questions to meet your students’ learning needs and readiness to learn. 

The brief outline below includes the primary session objective and the steps of the session. All session plans and other resources are available in the downloadable practice booklet in the resources tab below.

Each session document includes the learning objectives, key vocabulary, materials, session plan, and the story retelling script and questions.

1. Teacher outlines the session
2. Teacher reads the story
3. Teacher asks questions from the Story Retelling Script
4. Teacher models retelling the story using the Story tool
5. Each student retells the story using the Story tool
6. Teacher summarises the key skills learnt in the session
7. Teacher concludes lesson and gives a brief overview of the next session

The first step in being able to retell the story is to know who the characters are and what the characters are doing. This step provides students with a scaffold so they can then look at the characters in more detail.

With this step, students will:

• learn to identify and select relevant information about the characters and the story
• make connections between characters, actions and events
• become more familiar with the main characters
• build their knowledge and understanding of the story
• develop their confidence in story retelling

Complete the Story Character Map (Miss Nelson)

1. Teacher outlines the session
2. Teacher reads the story
3. Teacher asks questions from the Story retelling script
4. Teacher models the character map (Miss Nelson)
5. Each student completes a character map (Miss Nelson)
6. Each student retells the story using their Story tool
7. Teacher summarises the key skills learnt in the lesson
8. Teacher concludes lesson and gives a brief overview of the next session

The second step is focusing on one of the main characters from the story. It is best if the teacher selects the character for the class to focus on.

Using the story character template, students will explore and describe the characters':

• physical appearance 
• personality (likes and dislikes)
• mental states (thoughts and feelings)
• reasons for their mental state (why they feel this way)

This step provides the scaffolding for students to work more independently on their own character map in the next session. The students can use the character story template to support their own oral or written retell of the story. 

It is important that all students are supported to complete their own story map.

This session provides an opportunity for students to complete the story character template independently for a different character (Miss Swamp). It enables students to practice what they have learnt so far and where they may need further support. 

When students can demonstrate their understanding of the character, they can move on to the next practice Story Grammar II: Improve social perspective-taking. 

Complete the Story Character Map (Miss Swamp)

1. Teacher outlines the session
2. Teacher re-reads the story
3. Teacher asks questions from the Story retelling script
4. Each student completes a character map (Miss Swamp)
5. Each student retells the story using their Story tool
6. Teacher summarises the key skills learnt in the lesson
7. Teacher concludes lesson and gives a brief overview of the next session

Teacher Story tool

Your version of the Story tool has the same graphics as the students but includes questions for you to ask. You can use your Story tool to model retelling the story. The teacher Story tool can be found in the downloadable practice booklet in the resources tab below.

Student Story tool.

Your students’ Story tool resource is smaller and designed to fold out so that they can focus on the section of the story that they are retelling. There are no questions written on the student version. The student Story tool is in the downloadable practice booklet under the resources tab below.