Free Story Comprehension & Retelling for Speech Therapy

Build story comprehension, narrative language, and expressive language skills with these free story retelling resources for speech therapy! Designed for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), teachers, and caregivers, these ready-to-use prompts help students understand, organize, and retell important information.

Explore story comprehension questions, retelling strategies, and short narratives to practice identifying key details, sequencing events, and explaining what happened. Connect these skills to everyday communication, such as sharing experiences and describing events.

How to Use

Choose a story, short video, or personal experience. Use the comprehension questions to help students identify key details, understand story structure, and sequence important events.

Then introduce the Somebody–Wanted–But–So–Then strategy to support organized retelling. Use visuals, sentence starters, or verbal cues as needed, and encourage students to apply these skills when explaining real-life experiences.

Browse Activities:

Story Comprehension Questions | Story Retelling Strategy | Worked Example | Short Stories for Practice | Functional Retelling

Story Comprehension Questions

Use these questions to help students identify important story elements, understand events, and explain what happened.

Characters & Setting

  1. Who is the story mainly about?
  2. Who else is involved?
  3. Where does the story take place?
  4. When does the story happen?

Problem & Goal

  1. What does the main character want or need?
  2. What problem or challenge occurs?
  3. What makes the problem difficult?
  4. What needs to happen to solve the problem?

Key Events & Sequencing

  1. What happens at the beginning?
  2. What happens after the problem begins?
  3. What important actions or events happen next?
  4. What happens just before the story ends?

Outcome & Resolution

  1. How does the story end?
  2. Is the problem solved? How?
  3. What changes from the beginning to the end?
  4. What is the final outcome for the main character?

Main Idea & Important Details

  1. What is the story mostly about?
  2. What are the most important details?
  3. Which details could you leave out when summarizing?
  4. How would you explain the story in one or two sentences?

Story Retelling Strategy

Use the Somebody–Wanted–But–So–Then strategy to help students organize and retell important story events.

  • Somebody: Who is the story about?
  • Wanted: What did the character want or need?
  • But: What problem or challenge occurred?
  • So: What did the character do?
  • Then: What happened in the end?

Add More Details

  • Where/When: Where and when did the story happen?
  • Because: Why did something happen? Explain the reason.

Worked Example

Title: The Group Presentation

Maya’s group spent the week preparing slides for a history presentation. On Thursday morning, Maya opened the presentation at school and discovered that several slides were missing. She checked the saved files and realized that her classmates had been working on different versions. Maya contacted her group, and they combined everyone’s slides into one shared file. They finished just before class and delivered their presentation on time.

Example Retell: Maya’s group wanted to finish their history presentation, but some slides were missing because they had worked on different files. Maya contacted her classmates, and they combined their work into one presentation. Then they presented it on time.

Somebody: Maya and her group
Wanted: To complete their history presentation
But: Several slides were missing because the group had worked on different files.
So: Maya contacted her group, and they combined their slides.
Then: They completed and delivered their presentation on time.

Short Stories for Practice

Read or listen to each story. Answer the comprehension questions as needed, then use the Somebody–Wanted–But–So–Then strategy to retell the important events in your own words.

1. The Schedule Change

Ethan was looking forward to attending the photography club after school on Wednesday. That morning, he saw an announcement that the meeting had been moved to lunchtime because of a school event. Unfortunately, Ethan had already made plans to meet his teacher during lunch. He spoke with his teacher and arranged to meet the following morning instead. Ethan attended the photography club and learned how to edit photos for an upcoming contest.

2. The Group Chat Mix-Up

Sofia and her friends were making plans to see a movie on Saturday. When Sofia checked the group chat, she noticed that two friends had suggested different movie times. She assumed everyone had agreed on the earlier showing and bought her ticket. Later, she discovered that the group had chosen the later time. Sofia contacted the theater and exchanged her ticket. Before making future plans, the friends agreed to confirm the final details in their group chat.

3. The Community Book Sale

Jordan volunteered to help organize a book sale at the local library. When he arrived, he discovered hundreds of donated books piled onto tables without any labels. The volunteers needed to organize everything before the sale opened the next morning. Jordan suggested sorting the books by genre and placing signs above each section. The group worked together to organize the tables, and the sale opened on schedule.

4. The Bus Detour

Camila was taking the bus to a weekend robotics workshop across town. When she arrived at her usual bus stop, a sign announced that it was temporarily closed for road construction. She checked the transit website and found another stop two blocks away. After following the directions, she caught the next bus and arrived at the workshop before it started. Camila saved the updated route information on her phone for the return trip.

5. The School Art Showcase

Noah had spent several weeks preparing a photograph for his school’s art showcase. On the morning of the event, he discovered that his printed photo had been damaged while being transported. He was disappointed because he wanted his family to see his work. His art teacher helped him print another copy using the digital file he had saved. That evening, Noah displayed his photograph and proudly explained how he created it to the visitors.

Functional Retelling — Everyday Experiences

Practice retelling real-life events clearly and in order. Use an actual experience or an imagined situation. Include important details, explain what happened, and describe the outcome. Use the Somebody–Wanted–But–So–Then strategy as needed to organize your retell.

  1. Missing Assignment: Explain to a teacher what happened when you couldn’t find an assignment you had completed.
  2. Change of Plans: Tell a friend about a time your plans changed unexpectedly.
  3. Group Project: Update an absent classmate about what happened during your group’s meeting.
  4. School Event: Describe a field trip, assembly, or school activity to someone who wasn’t there.
  5. Transportation Problem: Explain what happened when a ride or bus was delayed or canceled.
  6. Misunderstanding: Describe how a mix-up happened when making plans with someone.
  7. Lost or Damaged Item: Explain to a teacher or staff member what happened to an important belonging.
  8. Sports or Club Activity: Tell someone about a recent game, practice, performance, or club meeting.
  9. Appointment or Meeting: Summarize what happened during a meeting and any important next steps.
  10. Memorable Experience: Share something interesting, funny, or unexpected that happened recently.

Keep Practicing!

Looking for more ways to build narrative language? Explore our 100 Free Problem-Solving Scenarios to practice identifying problems, explaining solutions, and discussing outcomes.

Looking for ready-to-use story comprehension and retelling lessons? Explore my For the Birds video companion and Piper video companion on TPT. Both provide opportunities to practice comprehension, sequencing, and narrative language.