Unit Developed by Diane Luken

The Changing Faces of Story

Unit Overview

The Changing Faces of Story begins with a genre exploration of myth, legend, tall tale, fable, and fairy tale. Students will read the stories, develop genre definitions, and compare similarities and differences between the genres. This is background information for exploring the elements of story through a Zulu folk tale and writing an original story before going into a study of Frank Baum’s classic tale of The Wizard of Oz. Students will learn that Mr. Baum wrote his Oz series as a set of fairy tales for children who were modern for their times.

To more completely delve into The Wizard of Oz, students will be asked to research World War II and The Great Depression. This research will prepare the children for discussing The Wizard of Oz as an allegory and to place the book into its historical context. Students will be asked to read a biography or autobiography of a writer or statesman/stateswoman who lived through the 1930s and 1940s to further deepen their understanding of Frank Baum’s stories.

The unit ends with a student-planned costume party. Costumes, games, and even refreshments must be linked to change. Students will present their costumes, play their games, and share their refreshments with an explanation that links everything to the definition or generalizations associated with change.

*******************************************************************************************

Change: to make or become different

Generalizations:

• 
  Change is everywhere.
  
• 
  Change occurs at different rates of time.
  
• 
  Change can be viewed as positive or negative.
  
• 
  Change can be systematic or random.
  
• 
  Change may be caused naturally and/or by humans.
  

Introductory Concept Lesson

Lesson One

Instructional Purpose: To introduce the conceptual idea of change

Indiana Standards: 3.W.8

Materials:

• 
  1 sheet of chart paper for each pair of students
  
• 
  Markers in an assortment of colors
  
• 
  Dictionaries, encyclopedias, or other reference materials
  
• 
  Concept web (one per child and the teacher)
  

Groupings Arrangements: Students will work independently, in pairs, small groups, and as a whole class.

Activities with embedded discussion questions:

• 
  Discuss the word change with the purpose of developing a definition.
  
  • 
    What is change?
    
  • 
    How do you know when something is changing or has changed?
    
  • 
    Develop a class definition for the word change.
    
• 
  Ask students to independently brainstorm examples of change and list their thoughts on a large sheet of chart paper.
  
  • 
    What words come into your mind when you think of change?
    
  • 
    What are some things that change?
    
• 
  Pair students and ask them to share their examples with each other. After sharing, students will add to their change example lists.
  
• 
  After students have had enough time to generate additional examples of change, instruct them to group their examples into categories. Categories should be listed on the chart paper. Examples that are grouped together must be connected in some way to each other.
  
  • 
    How could your words or ideas put into groups?
    
  • 
    What is it that connects the words or ideas together?
    
  • 
    Are there any ideas that fall into one or more groups? What are those ideas?
    
• 
  After grouping examples into categories, students are to label each category with a title that includes or describes every example in the category.
  
  • 
    What title would you give each group? Why?
    
  • 
    Is there a different way to organize your categories? What would that be?
    
  • 
    Which way of grouping do you prefer? Why?
    
• 
  Ask pairs to share their work with the class and justify category labels and idea placement. After each group shares, discuss:
  
  • 
    What do you think?
    
  • 
    Are there any challenges to this work? Does anyone want to offer suggestions?
    
• 
  Instruct partners to generate a list of non-examples. Encourage them to use available resources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.) if they have a hard time with this step.
  
  • 
    What never changes?
    
  • 
    How do you know that it never changes?
    
• 
  Group three sets of pairs together. Have them share their non-examples.
  
• 
  Refocus to a whole class discussion.
  
  • 
    Ask students to share a great non-example another person in their group shared.
    
  • 
    Lead students to make generalizations:
    
    • 
      What statement can you make about change based on the examples and non-examples?
      
    • 
      What can you say about change itself that might be true most of the time?
      
• 
  Have students work in pairs to complete a rudimentary concept web. Encourage students to try to come up with at least three examples to fit each generalization. Have groups share responses.
  
• 
  Homework: Have students write a paragraph arguing that one of the generalizations is true. The paragraph must include at least three reasons to support the topic statement.
  

Adapted from William and Mary unit entitled “Patterns of Change”


Change occurs at different rates of time.

Change is everywhere.



Change can be systematic or random.

Change can be viewed as positive or negative.

Change can be caused naturally or by humans.

Change


Myths and Legends: Is There a Difference?

Instructional Purpose: To introduce and define the genre of myth

Indiana Standards: 3.RL.1, 3.RL.2, 3.RL.5, 3.SL.1, 3.SL.4

Materials:

• 
  A collection of myths from the public library, personal collections, or readily available stories in school books
  
• 
  Public Domain Materials (All included):
  
  • 
    “The Building of the Wall” (Norse Myth)
    
  • 
    “Iduna and her Apples: How Loki put the Gods in Danger” (Norse Myth)
    
  • 
    “King Midas of the Golden Touch” (Greek Myth)
    
  • 
    “The Story of the First Butterflies” (Native American Myth)
    
  • 
    “The Story of the First Woodpecker” (Native American Myth)
    
  • 
    “Why the Raven’s Feathers are Black” (Native American Myth)
    
  • 
    “How Fire was Brought to the Indians (Native American Myth)
    
• 
  Re-telling maps (Included)
  
• 
  Blank vocabulary maps (2 per child) (Included)
  
• 
  Peer evaluation forms for storytellers (Included)
  

Group Arrangements: Whole class discussion, partners, and small groups

Activities with Embedded Discussion Questions:

Journal Response: “Aim for the stars; if you fall short, you will land on the moon.” –Unknown author (Ask students to respond to the quote in their journals and then share the responses.)

• 
  Ask students to close their eyes and imagine themselves lying on the top of a grassy hill looking at the night sky. The grass is soft and green. The air smells sweet with flowers and grass. A gentle breeze blows through the grasses and whispers over their bodies. Look up. The sky is a deep blue-black with thousands of pinpricks of light twinkling and sparkling. If you watch carefully enough, you might be lucky and see a star shooting across the night.
  
  • 
    Discuss: What did you see? How did it all make you feel to see nothing but sky above you?
    

• 
  Think about the stars and the sky and the earth: How did it all come to be? (Students will probably share the creation story. This is encouraged—it was a story from the earliest Jewish traditions to explain the beginning of the world as we know it. Respect the children’s convictions and feelings.)
  
• 
  Encourage students to share other stories with which they might be familiar, by asking if anyone knows any other beginning times stories.
  
• 
  Re-tell a creation story from another culture. This story comes from a time before we kept time and a place far away called Babylon.
  
  • 
    Once, before light and land existed, there was nothing but darkness and water. In the water lived all sorts of frightening creatures. Some creatures had wings. Some creatures had two or more heads. Other creatures looked like humans with the legs and horns of goats. Yet others had the top of a human and the bottom of a horse. The shapes of the animals were all mixed up and scary to see. To make matters even more fearsome, all of these creatures could shapeshift.
    
  • 
    Over this darkness ruled a queen named Thalassa and a king named Belus. One day the queen angered the king so much that he cut her in two. One part of her became the earth; the other part of her became the heavens. When the queen was cut in two, the creatures of the water were also destroyed. They were broken apart and remade into the shapes we know today.
    
  • 
    Belus, seeing what had happened, divided the day and the night. He set the planets in their orbits and ordered the stars and the moon to light the night.
    
  • 
    The sons and daughters of Thalassa and Belus were angered by the actions of the king. They came and cut off the head of Belus. The head of Belus was held high over the land. Where his blood fell, men and women grew from the earth.
    
  • 
    This is the tale told to the ancient children of Babylonia to explain how the universe and our earth began.
    
• 
  Tell the children that all people everywhere have their own ways to think about the beginning of the universe. This lesson is not to argue about whether or not these stories are true, it is to look at the stories themselves.
  
• 
  Introduce mythology books or use the stories found in Appendix A. Pair students and have them read together. Discuss:
  
  • 
    What does your story explain or tell about?
    
  • 
    What is the original culture of your story?
    
  • 
    Instruct pairs to practice re-telling the story.
    
• 
  Separate pairs and create groups of four, five, or six children. Ask the children to re-tell their stories to each other.
  
• 
  Bring groups together and discuss:
  
  • 
    What did you learn about myths and legends as you listened to your classmates re-tell their stories?
    
  • 
    How are all of the myths or legends alike? Different?
    
  • 
    What is the purpose of a myth? Of a legend?
    
  • 
    How do these stories tie into the idea of change?
    
    • 
      Are the stories about change? Why or why not?
      
    • 
      What changes do you see happening in the stories?
      
    • 
      Identify generalizations about change that might be linked to the stories heard in this lesson.
      
  • 
    Create a class definition for the myth genre.
    
    • 
      Myth: A traditional story about the early history of a people. It explains natural or social phenomenon and usually involves supernatural beings or events.
      
    • 
      Begin to create a vocabulary map for the word “myth”
      
  • 
    Create a class definition for the legend genre.
    
  • 
    Legend: A traditional story that many believe to be true, but it cannot be proven.
    
  • 
    Discuss the difference between a myth and a legend
    
• 
  Extend to a science lesson about the stars.
  
• 
  Extend to research about the early peoples from whence the myths and legends originated.
  
• 
  Extend to a novel study based on Megan Whalen Turner’s book, The Thief.
  

Name: ____________________________________________________ #_______

Date: _____________________________________________

Big Idea Vocabulary Map

Word:
What does it mean?
What it is:	What it is not:
Words and pictures to help me remember the word:

Name: _________________________________________________ # _______

Date: _______________________________________________

Retelling Story Map

Title of the story: __________________________________________________

Story’s Origin: ___________________________________________________

Describe the problem

Describe the solution

What happened first? (Initiating Event)

How was the problem solved? Write the steps in order. (Plot sequence)

What happened last? (Conclusion)

Name: _____________________________________________________ # _____

Date: __________________________________________________

Name of person re-telling the story: _____________________________________

	Needs Improvement	Satisfactory	Excellent
I could tell what problem the characters were trying to solve.
I could tell how the problem was solved.
The story began with an introduction of characters and problem.
The story was logical and made sense.
The story had a conclusion or ending.
I understood what happened in the story.

What the storyteller did well:

Something the storyteller can do to improve:

Myths and Legends

Grammar Lesson: Looking for Nouns and Noun Jobs

Instructional Purpose: To guide students to see that nouns serve many different jobs in a sentence.

Indiana Common Core Standards: 3.L.1a, 3.L.1b, 3.L.1c, 3.L.1i

Materials:

• 
  Highlighters
  
• 
  Noun chart (Included)
  
• 
  Copies of “Iduna and Her Apples: How Loki put the Gods in Danger” (public domain material included)
  

Grouping Arrangements: Whole class instruction interspersed with independent work

Activities with Embedded Discussion Questions:

• 
  Ask students to define a noun: A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.
  
• 
  Distribute copies of the myth, “Iduna and her Apples.” Instruct students to explore the myth’s text with a highlighter. They are to highlight words that name people with yellow, words that name places with green, words that name things with blue, and words that name ideas with pink.
  
• 
  Discuss findings:
  
  • 
    Are all of the nouns subject nouns? Do they all serve as the subject of the sentence?
    
    • 
      Do some sentences have more than one noun? Are you able to describe the purpose of the nouns in the sentence?
      
    • 
      Write the following truncated sentence on the board:
      
      • 
        “The Gods searched for Iduna.”
        
      • 
        Diagram and label the sentence:
        
        • 
          Who or what is doing something? The Gods = Subject noun (SN)
          
        • 
          What is being said about the Gods? The Gods searched; searched = verb (V)
          
        • 
          Searched for whom? Iduna = Object of the preposition (OP)
          
        • 
          “for” = Preposition (P)
          
        • 
          “The” = Article Adjective (A)
          
        • 
          Identify the two nouns in the sentence as nouns
          
      • 
        Nouns can have more than one job. In this sentence a noun serves as the subject of the sentence. It is the subject noun. A noun can also be connected to the sentence by a preposition. This is called the object of the preposition.
        
      • 
        Identify the complete subject and the complete predicate. Draw a vertical line separating the complete subject from the complete predicate. (Between Gods and searched)
        
  • 
    Distribute the noun charts. Ask students to write the nouns that were highlighted in the story into the appropriate columns on the chart. Discuss:
    
    • 
      Are all of the nouns singular nouns? How do you know?
      
    • 
      Are all of the nouns common? How do you know?
      
• 
  Extend to writing:
  
  • 
    Write:
    
    • 
      Choose a noun from the list of people.
      
    • 
      Brainstorm a list of verbs that could follow the selected noun.
      
    • 
      Choose one verb. Write a basic sentence using the selected noun and verb.
      
      • 
        Discuss ways to expand the sentence.
        
      • 
        Guide students to add adjectives, adverbs, and/or prepositional phrases.
        
      • 
        Discuss the reasons for expanding a sentence:
        
        • 
          What would happen if all sentences were written as two or three words only?
          
        • 
          How much detail would a writer be able to include in a story if he/she were unable to use adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases?
          

Lesson adapted from Shurley English

Name: ___________________________________________________ # _______

Date: ______________________________________________

Directions: Highlight words that name people with yellow, words that name places with green, words that name things with blue, and words that name ideas with pink.

Where was Iduna, whose apples would give back youth and strength and beauty to the Dwellers in Asgard? The Gods had searched for her through the World of Men. No trace of her did they find. But now Odin, searching through his wisdom, saw a means to get knowledge of where Iduna was hidden.

Person	Place	Thing	Idea

Tall Tales as Genre

Instructional Purpose: To introduce the genres of legends and tall tales

Indiana Common Core Standards: 3.RL.1, 3.RL.2, 3.RL.5

Materials:

• 
  Blank vocabulary maps-1 per child (Please insert; use the maps used in the myth lesson)
  
• 
  An assortment of legends and tall tales available from the library or personal collections. There should be enough books for each pair of children to share one story from each genre.
  
• 
  Story-retelling maps (These are the same as those from the previous lesson. Please include a copy with this lesson.)
  
• 
  A tall tale version of Johnny Appleseed (This can be found in the library. Steven Kellogg has a clever picture book retelling the tall tale.)
  
• 
  “Billy Beg and His Bull” (public domain story included)
  
• 
  “Hans and the Four Big Giants” (public domain story included)
  
• 
  “Johnny Appleseed: The Ragged Old Hero: A True Story” (public domain story included)
  

Grouping Arrangements: Whole class and small group

Procedure:

• 
  Review the class definitions of myth and legend. Tie the definitions to specific stories that were read in the last class session. Add to the Vocabulary maps if the opportunity presents itself.
  
• 
  Orally read a tall tale about Johnny Appleseed to the students.
  
• 
  Discuss genre:
  
  • 
    How is this story different than the myths we talked about yesterday?
    
  • 
    Would this story fit under the definition of a legend? Why or why not?
    
  • 
    Begin to frame a definition for the tall tale genre.
    
    • 
      A tall tale is an exaggerated, usually unreliable story.
      
    • 
      Begin to create a vocabulary map using the phrase, “tall tale”.
      
• 
  Divide students into small groups. Distribute a set of assorted tall tales, myths, or legends to the children in each group. Ask the children to read one of the stories independently (or in pairs within the group). When the reading is completed, have students complete a story retelling map, determine genre, link the genre determination to the text with proof, and then share their stories with their groups. Group discussion:
  
  • 
    What makes a tall tale, legend, or myth different from each other?
    
  • 
    What makes the stories the same?
    
  • 
    What is it called when someone makes a claim that is bigger than life itself? (exaggeration)
    
• 
  Again, divide the children into an equal number of groups. To half of the groups, distribute copies of “Billy Beg and His Bull”; to the other half of the groups, distribute copies of “Hans and the Four Big Giants”.
  
  • 
    Instruct students to read the stories.
    
  • 
    Discuss whether or not the stories are tall tales, legends, or myths. (No, they are not)
    
  • 
    Instruct students to look through the stories and highlight examples of exaggeration—descriptions of things that are bigger than life.
    
  • 
    Discuss: If tall tales use exaggeration and these tales use exaggeration, what makes them different?
    
• 
  Group assignment: a three-way Venn diagram to compare and contrast myths or legends, tall tales, and the third, as-yet-unnamed genre. (If the children name the third genre as fairy tale, go with the label.) Share.
  
• 
  Discuss the concept of change:
  
  • 
    How do our definitions reflect change?
    
  • 
    How do the stories show change?
    
  • 
    What change generalizations match the stories and ideas we have discussed today? Justify your answer.
    
• 
  Homework: Students are to read “Old Johnny Appleseed: The Ragged Old Hero: A True Story.”
  

Break Point:

• 
  Before continuing the genre study, ask students how they think the story of an old man became the tall tale we now know and love.
  
  • 
    Discuss the oral traditions and tell how stories change over time. (This can be extended to a research question if desired.)
    
  • 
    Add to the vocabulary maps if the discussion leads to ideas that fit with the requirements of the maps.
    
  • 
    Extended study: Make available an assortment of tall tales. Encourage the children to read and discuss them for enjoyment. (This could be extended to a literature circle examination of different tall tales.)
    

Extend: Assign students to write a tall tale. You will be looking specifically for the element of exaggeration.

Tall Tales and Grammar:

Nouns, Verbs, and Pronouns

Instructional Purpose: To review nouns and action verbs; to introduce pronouns and pronoun referents

Indiana Common Core Standards: 3.L.1a

Materials:

• 
  2 different tall tale portions for each child. The first portion will be completed in class; the second selection will be completed for homework or independently in class. (Included)
  
• 
  Highlighters (yellow, pink, and green)
  

Grouping Arrangements: Whole group with interspersed independent work

Activities with Embedded Discussion Questions:

• 
  Distribute a reading selection to the children.
  
  • 
    Highlight all nouns from the first selection with yellow
    
    • 
      Name the nouns and define a noun as a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Double check the highlighted nouns to be sure they name a person, place, thing, or idea.
      
    • 
      Discuss:
      
      • 
        Are there any words that refer back to the nouns?
        
      • 
        Are there any words that substitute or take the place of the nouns?
        
      • 
        Define pronouns as words that take the place of nouns. If needed, make a list of common pronouns on the board.
        
      • 
        Highlight pronouns in the first selection with a pink marker. Go back and determine the noun referents.(What noun does each pronoun take the place of?)
        
      • 
        Draw an arrow from a pronoun back to the noun whose place it is taking.
        
  • 
    Highlight all action verbs in the first reading selection with green.
    
    • 
      Define (for review) an action verb as a word that describes or tells about an action. Double check the highlighted verbs as a class to be sure they name actions.
      

Homework: Ask students to do the second reading selection independently. Instruct students to highlight nouns in yellow, pronouns in pink, and verbs in green. Students will then draw arrows from the pronoun that point to the nouns represented by the pronouns. This is a comprehension and application assignment to check for understanding.

• 
  Review homework together.
  
• 
  Ask students to write two sentences. In the first sentence, they are to use no pronouns. The second sentence is to continue an idea begun in the first sentence. The second sentence is to include at least one pronoun.
  
• 
  Ask students to circle the pronoun(s) and draw an arrow linking the pronoun to its noun referent.
  

Adapted from Shurley EnglishName: _________________________________________________________ # _______

Date: ______________________________________________

Directions: Highlight all action verbs green; highlight all nouns yellow; highlight all pronouns with pink. Draw an arrow from each pronoun, connecting it to the noun to which it refers.

Hans was wild with delight and, turning, hastened to the palace. The very next day he started on his journey to the North Sea. He walked and walked along the way until he was very tired. At length, just ahead of him, he saw a big giant rushing along in the strangest fashion.

The first day, he drove the six cows, six horses, six donkeys, and six goats to pasture, and sat down by them. About noon, he heard a kind of raging sound from the woods, and out rushed a giant with two heads, spitting fire out of his two mouths.A Modern Legend: The Ballad of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Instructional Purpose: To introduce students to the genre of a ballad

Indiana Common Core Standards: 3.RL.1, 3.RL.7, 3RF.4b

Materials:

• 
  Lyrics from “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (These lyrics are copyrighted and could not be re-printed, but are available on line at http://gordonlightfoot.com/wreckoftheedmundfitzgerald.shtml ). The lyrics can also be “googled”.
  
• 
  12 X 18 white drawing paper
  
• 
  Crayons or colored pencils
  
• 
  Quiet music to play during work time
  
• 
  A recording of Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
  

Grouping Arrangements: Whole group with independent work time

Activities with Embedded Discussion Questions:

• 
  Read the poem aloud. Discuss mood. Discuss colors that might determine mood in a piece of art.
  
• 
  Read the poem again more slowly. Ask the children to visualize the story as they hear it (a video that plays in their brains)
  
• 
  Distribute 12 X 18 paper. Ask the children to sketch the story based on what was heard. Allow about 10 minutes.
  
• 
  Re-read the ballad. Have students add details as the ballad is read again.
  
• 
  Students are to color the page so that all white is covered. Remind them to try to use colors that would reflect the sadness of the story. While students are coloring, play quiet music that also reflects a quiet sadness.
  
• 
  Ask students to share their pictures in small groups.
  
• 
  Ask: If this ballad were put to music, what kind of sounds would you expect to hear?
  
• 
  Play Gordon Lightfoot’s version of the ballad.
  
• 
  Ask: Did the music match what you expected to hear? Why or why not?
  
• 
  In what genre would you place this story? Why?
  
• 
  What does all of our discussion and drawing tell you about music, art, and language?
  
• 
  How have your understandings of music, art, and language changed?
  
• 
  What generalizations are you able to match to the song, the ballad, your artwork, or our discussion? Justify your response.
  

Extend: Scan student artwork into a power point presentation accompanied by Gordon Lightfoot’s rendition of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” Present to parents at an open house.

Fables as Genre

Check copyright law with the fables please. I will re-write these if necessary.

Instructional Purpose:

• 
  To explore genre
  
• 
  To learn to use a Literature map as a cognitive tool
  

Indiana Standards: 3.RL.1, 3.RL.2, 3.SL.1, 3.SL.2

Materials:

• 
  Copies of “The Ants and the Grasshopper”, “The Lion and the Mouse”, and “The Jay and the Peacock” (1 copy per child)(Included public domain material)
  
• 
  Literature maps (1 per child)(Included)
  
• 
  Vocabulary map (Please include. This is the same map that was used in the myths lesson)
  

Grouping Arrangements: Independent work time, whole group discussion, partners

Activities with Embedded Discussion Questions:

• 
  Distribute copies of “The Ants and the Grasshopper”. Ask students to read the story silently.
  
• 
  Students are to discuss the story in groups of four. Post the following group discussion questions or commands in a visible place.
  
  • 
    Summarize the story.
    
  • 
    Delve for meaning: What is the story really all about?
    
  • 
    Does this story have a message of some sort?
    
  • 
    Is the idea of change somehow involved in the story?
    
  • 
    What conclusion can you make based on your discussion?
    
• 
  Bring students together. Discuss conclusions as a class.
  
• 
  Begin a vocabulary map for the word fable:
  
  • 
    Name the genre of this little story as “fable”
    
  • 
    Define fable as a short story that often uses animals as characters. Fables often have a special message or moral.
    
• 
  Introduce the literature maps as a tool for constructing meaning. When good readers read, they construct meaning, or make the words mean something to them.
  
  • 
    In the center of the map, write the title (and author or storyteller if the name is known)
    
  • 
    What is the structure or genre of this piece of literature? (fable; short story with a message). Write “fable” into the “Structure” bubble.
    
  • 
    What is the fable’s message? (work hard, play some…) Write the message into the “Ideas” bubble.
    
  • 
    What are the most important words in the story? What words or phrases give away the ideas? (“treasure up food”, “leisure”, “dance supperless”) Write these words into the “Key Words” bubble on the map.
    
  • 
    What feelings does this story cause in the reader? (Sadness for the grasshopper’s foolishness; gladness for the ant’s foresight). Add these thoughts to the “Feelings” bubble.
    
  • 
    What images or symbols does the writer include to make the story more vivid or the meaning more clear? (“fine winter’s day”, “ants drying grain”, “perishing with famine”…) Write these words into the “Images/Structures” bubble.
    
• 
  Discuss:
  
  • 
    When you talked about the story in your small groups, would this map have helped you to better focus your discussion?
    
  • 
    How do you see yourself using this map to better understand text?
    
  • 
    How would this map help you with a harder book?
    
  • 
    How does the literature map change your understanding of the story?
    

• 
  Working in dyads, have students read “The Lion and the Mouse” and complete a literature map together. Require at least two responses in each bubble. A third response will be required by the end of the discussion.
  

• 
  Bring students together as a class and discuss responses.
  
  • 
    Summarize the story
    
  • 
    Go over bubble responses.
    
  • 
    Did having the web help with understanding the story? Why or why not?
    
  • 
    Instruct students to add another response to each bubble on the literature maps.
    
• 
  Look through the lens of change:
  
  • 
    What was the change in our discussion of literature today?
    
  • 
    What change did you find in the stories?
    
  • 
    What generalizations match today’s lesson?
    
  • 
    How are the genre definitions changing? Who is making the changes?
    
• 
  Homework: Students are to read “The Jay and the Peacock” and complete a literature web. They are to be prepared to share the web with classmates.
  

Fables: Homework Review

• 
  Ask pairs of students to compare the literature maps based on the fable, “The Jay and the Peacock.” After comparing the maps, pairs are to add at least one additional element to each bubble. Every bubble must contain at least three responses.
  
• 
  Discuss:
  
  • 
    What did you find when you compared your webs?
    
  • 
    Did the two of you come up with about the same response? Why do you think so? Why do you think not?
    
• 
  In-class writing: Use your literature map to write a paragraph explaining the meaning of “The Jay and the Peacock.” Use words from the map to explain your thinking.
  

Extend this lesson: Introduce proverbs. Ask students to write a fable explaining the origin of an existing proverb.Aesop's Fables

Translated by George Fyler Townsend

The Ants and the Grasshopper

The ants were spending a fine winter's day drying grain collected in the summertime. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him, "Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?' He replied, "I had not leisure enough. I passed the days in singing." They then said in derision: "If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter."

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greekliterature/a/antsgrasshopper.htm

Aesop's Fables

Translated by George Fyler Townsend

The Lion and the Mouse

A LION was awakened from sleep by a Mouse running over his face. Rising up angrily, he caught him and was about to kill him, when the Mouse piteously entreated, saying: "If you would only spare my life, I would be sure to repay your kindness." The Lion laughed and let him go. It happened shortly after this that the Lion was caught by some hunters, who bound him by stout ropes to the ground. The Mouse, recognizing his roar, came gnawed the rope with his teeth, and set him free, exclaim

"You ridiculed the idea of my ever being able to help you, expecting to receive from me any repayment of your favor; I now you know that it is possible for even Mouse to con benefits on a Lion."

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_aesop_lion_mouse.htm

Aesop's Fables, by Aesop

translated by G.F. Townsend

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