At the end of the story, students should again be asked to retell the story using open-ended questions like “What did the boy experience?” It is also important to ask about what the meaning of the story was, which was that the tiger was not trying to be annoying, he was simply scared to go to sleep and needed support. Ask an open-ended question about why the tiger stayed awake in the closet eating chips or doing cartwheels, and see if the students could retell the reasoning for his actions. 
Have the students summarize by writing briefly about the story or, if they would like to, drawing a picture that addresses the overall meaning of the story. Bring them back together into a group to discuss each of their paragraphs or drawings. Use these as a basis to discuss how they have successfully summarized the story or where they were missing details, if applicable. Refer back to the model of your summary of a different, familiar story and make the connection between the types of things you included there and the types of things they included in theirs. Reinforce what they did right, and explain what they should have included if anything was missing. Discuss how they can always write down key ideas as they read a difficult text in exactly this way to help them understand and remember what they are reading. 
This brings us to another strategy that can be especially effective for younger kids who are still learning a lot of vocabulary, imaging. 
Imaging can be an effective skill for many different texts because it causes the reader to slow down and to think about what they are reading. Imaging is, simply, when the reader stops to form a mental image in their mind about what they are reading. This image could be about what a character is doing, an object that is in the story, an action that is taking place, an image of the setting, or anything else that the reader can picture in their heads. It helps clarify the events of the story, as well as the vocabulary, and it lets the reader know if they should read something again if they are struggling to picture what is going on. Imaging has been shown to increase comprehension very quickly, and it is an effective way to make gains in their overall comprehension of texts without having to spend a lot of time on instruction.
The best way to begin teaching imaging as a strategy is to model it by using a text that uses language that is very easy to picture. For example, this is a short passage I have written as an example of something that could be used. 
Sarah is walking to school in the rain. The puddles splash underneath her, and the water ripples as she moves to the next puddle. The rain drops sound like small pops as they bounce off her rubber raincoat. Sarah thinks she hears thunder in the distance, and she is happy that she is nearly to the school. 
