Designing Lesson Plans: Common Core State Standards

Goal

Students will become familiar with fables and trickster tales from different cultural traditions and will see how stories change when transferred orally between generations and cultures.

Objective

· Identify the definition and understand elements of fables and trickster stories

· Recognize Aesop's fables and Ananse spider stories

· Identify the specific narrative and thematic patterns that occur in fables and trickster tales across cultures

· Compare and contrast themes of fables and trickster tales from different cultures

· Differentiate between the cautionary lessons and morals of fables and the celebration of the wiles and wit of the underdog in trickster stories

Standards Included

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Materials

Print or online versions of the following stories:

Set A

· The Lion and the Mouse (Aesop)

· Mr. Buffu and the Snake (Ananse)

Set B

· The Fox and the Crane

· Anansi and the Turtle

Introduction

Begin the lesson with a game of telephone. The students will sit in a circle, in close enough proximity that they can whisper to their neighbors. You start the message be stating a one sentence message to the first student (just make up anything but be sure to remember it). Then the first student will whisper the message to the next person and it continues on in this fashion until you get to the last person. Have the last student write the message on the board. You then write the original message as well. They will be different, which is the point. You will then have a conversation about how oral storytelling allows for interpretation and change as it is told from person to person and travels to different locations.

Lesson Development:

Review the vocabulary and elements of folktales from previous lesson: Direct Instruction

· Vocabulary Words: Folktale Fable Trickster Story Oral Tradition Moral Folk Wisdom

· Elements of Folktales: Folktales…  … are very old stories  … have special beginnings (such as "Once upon a time…" or "There once was…") and endings  … often repeat words or sentences  …have characters, settings, problems, and solutions

Guided Practice:

· Read aloud the first two stories (Set A) to students and stop to check for understanding and questions.

· Ask students to compare the animals and their behavior in the fable and the trickster tale. Why do the types of animals change from one culture's fable to the next? How does the behavior change according to the type of animal? What types of behaviors lead to what types of endings in these stories?

· Then fill a Double Bubble Thinking Map that compares/contrasts the characters, setting, problem, solution, and morals/lessons in both stories (you will be modeling the skill that the students will then do in pairs).

Check for understanding- Whole Group (Informal Assessment). Pose the following questions to the students:

· What is a fable, and how are fables different from other types of stories?

· What is a trickster tale, and how is it different from other types of tales and from fables?

· What are the elements common to fables and trickster tales?

· What kinds of wisdom about human nature and human behavior do we learn from fables, and how is this wisdom relevant today?

Differentiation

· Frontload vocabulary with English Language Learners before the lesson

· Seat the two students with attention issues close to teacher and ask for their help with materials

· Plan student groups based on levels: Ensure that the ELL students are paired with a competent student

[These are generic ideas. You will base modification/accommodation/differentiation on the specific needs of your students]

Assessment

(Practice/ Checking for

Understanding)

Independent Practice:

Collaborative Groups:

· Group students in 2s or 3s

· Students will partner read the stories in Set B

· They will create their own Double Bubble Thinking Map using the same elements you modeled with the first set of stories.

· If time permits, students can present their maps and discuss any similarities and/or differences between the groups

Written Response:

· The students will write a journal response answering the following question:

· Describe a real-life situation that applies to one of the morals presented in the four stories.

· Student work will be graded based on a rubric. Students may share their journals as the introduction to the next lesson.

Closing

Close lesson with a review of vocabulary, elements of folktales, and the following questions:

· Which characters did they like best?

· Which did they like least?

· Which story had the best ending and why?