Story Retelling Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A Grade 3 contest in which a child tells a known story back in English in their own voice, marked out of 100 for how well the story is remembered, how it is spoken and how the child carries themselves.

Story Retelling asks a young learner to tell a story back, not to invent one. The child takes a story they have been given, keeps its important details and its order, and tells it aloud in their own words and voice. In the template it is a Grade 3 item, so it sits at the early-primary stage of a Philippine learner festival, where children are still building the habit of listening closely and speaking in front of others.

Each child enters on their own, boys and girls together, and the retelling is in English. The template sets no time limit for this item, so the length of a round, and how the story is presented to the child before they retell it, are for the organiser to announce. Check that brief before the day rather than assuming a format.

The 100 marks are split three ways. Half of them, 50, go to mastery of the story: the significant details and story elements, told in the right sequence. Voice projection carries 30, covering correct language, enough volume, stress, intonation and the pauses between phrases. Stage presence carries the last 20: confidence, posture, expression and gestures.

Organisers run it because retelling checks listening, memory and spoken English at once, without asking for any writing. A child who can say who was in the story, what happened first and next, and how it ended has shown the sequencing skill that later underpins reading comprehension and written narrative.

Where Story Retelling is run

In the data this item belongs to one template, a Philippine government-run learner festival held at division, regional and national levels with the same events and criteria at each level. Story retelling is also a familiar classroom and literacy-programme activity in many countries, though the rules for a competition round differ from event to event.

• Philippines

Key facts

• Individual entry, open to boys and girls alike.
• Grade 3 only; the template maps this to ages 7 to 8, but entry is by grade level, not age.
• Told in English.
• Marked out of 100: mastery of the story 50, voice projection 30, stage presence 20.
• The template sets no time limit; the organiser announces the round length and how the story is given.
• Ideas (not rules) for practice: a short folk tale, a fable with a clear lesson, or a picture-book story with three or four main events.

On eTalenter, Story Retelling is filed under Literacy and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Story Retelling is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100.

What judges look at in Story Retelling

What a Story Retelling panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Mastery of the story, 50 marks: the significant details and story elements (characters, setting, problem, ending) told in the correct order; skipping the middle or muddling the sequence is where most marks go.
• Voice projection, 30 marks: correct language, loud enough for the back of the room, with natural stress and intonation and clear breaks between phrases rather than one flat run of words.
• Stage presence, 20 marks: confidence, upright posture, a lively face and simple gestures that match the story without distracting from it.
• Because half the marks are for the story itself, a calm, accurate retelling beats a loud, dramatic one that changes the plot.
• Fluency matters inside every criterion: long freezes and restarts weaken the sequence, the voice and the presence at once.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Story Retelling under Scoring Setup, or start from the judge scoring and tabulation guide.

How to prepare for Story Retelling

How entrants and their teachers usually get Story Retelling right on the day:

• Practise listening first: read a short story aloud twice and ask the child to say what happened before attempting a full retelling.
• Teach a simple frame (who, where, the problem, what happened next, how it ended) so the order stays fixed even when nerves strike.
• Tell the story to a different listener each time, such as a parent, a classmate or a teacher, so speaking to an audience feels ordinary.
• Work on voice separately: read one sentence in a whisper, a normal voice and a projecting voice, and practise stressing the important word.
• Use gestures sparingly; choose two or three that fit the story and repeat them the same way each time.
• Practise with several different short stories, because the story on the day may be new; a child who can retell any story is safer than one who memorised a single tale.
• Rehearse the walk in, a pause, a smile and the first sentence, since a steady start steadies the rest.
• After a lost round, ask the judges’ feedback if offered and work on the weakest of the three areas, details and order, voice or presence, first.

Frequently asked questions

Is Story Retelling judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

Is Story Retelling the same as storytelling?

No. Storytelling usually means telling a story of your own choice. Story Retelling is marked on how faithfully the child tells back a given story, with 50 of the 100 marks for mastery of its details and order.

What language is used?

English. A separate item in the same template, LikhaWento (wordless story retelling), is set in Filipino.

How long does the child have?

The template sets no time limit for this item. The organiser announces the round length in the brief.

Is it judged individually or as a team?

Individually. Each child retells the story on their own.

Which grade can enter?

Grade 3 only in the template, shown with a working age range of 7 to 8 that eTalenter maps from the grade.

Want the full judging picture? Read the judge scoring and tabulation guide, or browse every literacy competition item.