What is one of the main purposes of assessing children's oral retellings of stories?

Assessing children's oral retellings of stories serves primarily to gauge their understanding of narrative structures. When children are asked to retell a story, they must demonstrate their grasp of key components such as characters, setting, plot, and sequence of events. This process not only reveals how well they have comprehended the story, but also highlights their ability to organize thoughts and make connections between different elements of the narrative.

Understanding narrative structures is vital for children's overall literacy development, as it underpins their ability to comprehend and produce coherent texts. While fluency, handwriting, and comparative performance can be important in other contexts, they do not directly assess a child’s capability to interpret and articulate the structure of a narrative. Thus, evaluating oral retellings is a strategic way to focus on comprehension and narrative understanding in early literacy education.