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5 Innovative Ways to teach Fables to students — Literacy Ideas

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5 Innovative Ways to teach Fables to students — Literacy Ideas

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Regardless of their cultural background, every student in your class is likely to be familiar with fables. They are often one of our first introductions to the joys of storytelling. Of course, their merit lies not only in their huge entertainment value, but the fact that they are designed to teach us moral lessons.

In Western culture, the influence of fables, particularly those of that wily old Greek Aesop, permeate our everyday speech. Everything from Don't count your chickens before they hatch to Out of the frying pan and into the fire can be traced to the wisdom of fables.

Given they are generally relatively short, very entertaining, and students are likely to have some familiarity with them already, fables make excellent resources for improving literacy skills. Read on to get more 5 interesting ideas on how to incorporate them into your lessons.
1. As Sly as a Fox

Though fables can reveal to us much about human nature, it is interesting to note that the central characters are most often animals. This is true even in more modern versions of fables, such as George Orwell's Animal Farm. This anthropomorphism can provide a great in for some very fun writing activities.

Have younger children match personality traits to animals. This simple animal adjectives task consists of providing a list of adjectives and a list of animals. Students must match each adjective with the most suitable animal based on the fables they have been working on. You can further categorize adjectives in lists relating to size, shape, color, feeling, tone etc. This will open up learning opportunities for punctuation work too.
Differentiation Ideas:
Older students can undertake a similar activity, but incorporate their understanding of poetry techniques to write similes or metaphors based on the animals in the fables they have read. To broaden out their characters, students could also be asked to develop bios for each animal.
2. And the Moral of the Story is...
As mentioned, these pithy little tales convey morals to readers. Indeed, back in the days of togas and scrolls, the Greeks would use fables to teach their society how to live the virtuous life. Encourage close reading skills in your students by having them identify the moral of a variety of fables.

As many of these stories date back over 2,500 years old, copyright is unlikely to be an issue! You can find tons of free versions of Aesop's fables online. Print a selection off, organize your class into groups, give them copies of the tales, and set them the task of reading and identifying the moral of each one.
Differentiation Ideas:
This activity is easily differentiated by the language level of each version. There are numerous versions of Aesop's fables available for download online. Choose the version that best suits your class, group, or individual's needs.

For younger students, or students of lower ability, you may wish to provide the group with a list of morals from which they have to choose to match up with the appropriate fable.
3. Getting Your Ducks in a Row

Sequencing is very important in storytelling; in fact, it's very important in all writing genres. Having a firm grasp of the importance of good sequencing helps students organize their writing at the planning stage.

There are many possible variations of sequencing activities you can set your students. Very young students can be given a series of jumbled up pictures of scenes from a fable you have already read to them. They are tasked with putting the pictures in chronological order and sticking them onto a strip of paper. They can then use these as prompts to tell each other the story in their own words.
Differentiation Ideas:
This activity can easily be modified to challenge stronger students. For example, you may provide a set of corresponding captions that must be matched to the pictures before organizing chronologically. You can further differentiate by introducing non-conventional story structures such as In Media Res where a story starts in the middle. Students will likely have some awareness of this from its frequent use in the movies. Have them play with the sequence of events and try different starting points for effect. This can reap great creative rewards in their writing later.

This HUGE BUNDLE offers a mix of hands-on, printable, and digital media resources. By the time you have finished this pack, your students won't just be able to READ and COMPREHEND fables, but will also be WRITING their own unique fables with structure and purpose. That's it's one our most popular products -Keeping kids excited and engaged for weeks as you work through...

✔ What Is a Fable and Its Purpose?
✔ Who Is Aesop, The Father of Fables?
✔ 12 Famous Interactive Fables by Aesop (Professionally Narrated)
✔ Scripted Fable Theater - Turn These Fables into a Drama Class
✔ Deconstructing Fables for Meaning
✔ Planning and Assessment Rubrics for Writing Fables
✔ Fable Writing Workshop
✔ Character Traits Worksheets and Activities for All of Aesop's Creatures
✔ Digital and Paper Based Resources for Publishing Fables
✔ Fable Glossary and Curriculum Links.

4. Divide and Comprehend!
Just as scientists can understand the inner workings of a frog by dissecting it, students can understand the inner workings of a story through the same process. Hopefully though, the magic of storytelling survives the process, unlike the poor frog!

Use a fable your students are very familiar with to teach the essential parts of a story: character, setting, problem,climax, and resolution. Discuss the characters in the story and have them identify the setting. Discuss the links between types of character and suitable settings. Broaden this idea out to other writing genres such as science fiction, westerns, and horror. What patterns can your students uncover about the relationships between characters and settings?

Now it's time to get scientific! In groups, have students draw a graph with time along the horizontal axis and action along the vertical axis. Have students plot the various parts of the story (introduction of the characters and setting, problem, climax, resolution) as points along the axis. The points should move from left to right as they occur chronologically in the story. The higher the point is, the more dramatic the action. This is a great way for students to see the physical shape of a narrative arc.
Differentiation Ideas:
A simple version of this activity may involve students simply plotting the points and labeling them introduction, problem etc. However, more advanced students can also write captions that describe the action at the different stages.

You may also wish to take the opportunity to make some cross curricular technology links here and have students construct their graphs digitally with a suitable software program.
5. Dragged Kicking and Screaming into the 21st Century

Though many of traditional fables date back to around 500 BC, they have survived due to the timeless nature of their messages and the generality of the characters and settings. Now your students have a good understanding of how they work, have them rewrite the fables for the modern day.

This will require them to get specific. Characters will become human and locations will be defined. This is a great way to reveal to students that the same theme can be given a number of different treatments; stories that seem markedly distinct can share an underlying moral.
Differentiation:
This activity can be differentiated by outcome, whereby more able students will produce more complex stories. While the less advanced students may stick tightly to the original, more advanced students may completely reinterpret the story with only the central moral remaining intact.
A Word in Summary and an Extra Idea or Two
The activities above can be used as one-off lessons or as a series of lessons exploring different aspects of fables: character, moral, sequence, and story structure.

There is also a lot of scope here for continuing work based on the initial fables. Time spent getting to grips with a story can be utilized in other genres and for other learning objectives too.

Perhaps you want to teach the writing of playscripts? You can teach the criteria for the genre and then set your students the task of adapting a fable to the playscript format.

To develop public-speaking skills, have the students engage in an oral retelling of a fable or make a dramatic presentation of the story. There are innumerable opportunities, but don't be in too much of a rush, for if The Tortoise and the Hare have taught us one thing, slow and steady wins the race...

This tool assists students to create engaging fables based upon the model we have been using for generations. It is best printed in a larger format so as your students can visually represent their ideas alongside written ones and is completely free and available here.

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5 Innovative Ways to teach Fables to students

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Regardless of their cultural background, every student in your class is likely to be familiar with fables. They are often one of our first introductions to the joys of storytelling.

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Free Fake News Classroom Poster — Literacy Ideas

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Free Fake News Classroom Poster — Literacy Ideas

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The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has released an excellent poster for your classroom identifying 'How to spot Fake News"

It can be downloaded here

Recently we posted an insightful article about teaching Fake News in your classroom and I can highly recommend reading it here.

Discussions about fake news has led to a new focus on media literacy more broadly, and the role of libraries and other education institutions in providing this.

When Oxford Dictionaries announced post-truth was Word of the Year 2016, we as librarians realise action is needed to educate and advocate for critical thinking - a crucial skill when navigating the information society.

IFLA has made this infographic with eight simple steps (based on FactCheck.org's 2016 article How to Spot Fake News) to discover the verifiability of a given news-piece in front of you. Download, print, translate, and share - at home, at your library, in your local community, and on social media networks. The more we crowdsource our wisdom, the wiser the world becomes.

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The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has released an excellent poster for your classroom identifying 'How to spot Fake News" It can be downloaded here Recently we posted an insightful article about teaching Fake News in your classroom and I can highly reco

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How to write an excellent Procedural Text — Literacy Ideas

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How to write an excellent Procedural Text — Literacy Ideas

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How to write an excellent Procedural Text

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How to write a procedural text. Planning tools, video tutorials and writing prompts and teaching ideas for English teachers, students and parents.

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FlipAnim - create flipbook animations online!

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FlipAnim - create flipbook animations online!

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Stage 3 Unit Starter Our Home is Dirt by Sea

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Stage 3 Unit Starter Our Home is Dirt by Sea

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Website fantastic resource for lessons using rich literature

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Teacher Resource  sample from Reading Australia

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Teacher Resource  sample from Reading Australia

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ABCya’s Word Clouds allows players to type or paste words into a box and then generate a visual representation of their text. Kids can also get creative by choosing a custom font, color, and layout to turn their word clouds into a work of art!

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English Textual Concepts - A new way to design learning in English

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English Textual Concepts - A new way to design learning in English

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english textual concepts - a new way to design learning in english

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English Textual Concepts - A new way to design learning in English

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Junior Primary – Years 3 & 4 | Global Words

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Junior Primary – Years 3 & 4 | Global Words

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A unit of work for Year 3 to explore our common humanity, using books Whoever You Are, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Leslie Staub, Mirror, by Jeannie Baker, and The Little Refugee by Anh Do and Suzanne Do, illustrated by Bruce Whately. View resource

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primary english teaching association australia

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A unit of work for Year 3 to explore our common humanity, using books Whoever You Are, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Leslie Staub, Mirror, by Jeannie Baker, and The Little Refugee by Anh Do and Suzanne Do, illustrated by Bruce Whately. View resource

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A new twist on slow writing for younger students

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A new twist on slow writing for younger students

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Since first writing about Slow Writing back in May 2012 the original post has had almost 12,000 views and I've received regular emails and tweets from teachers who have been inspired to use and adapt what is in essence an incredibly simple idea. Last week I got just such an email from primary teacher, Michael Lomas. His tweak is so simple and so good I thought I should share it with you.
Just thought I would fire off a quick email to let you know that I have been having a go at using Slow Writing in my Year 2 (age 6 and 7) English lessons after reading about it on your blog. My favourite incarnation of this activity starts with pulling apart a model text and getting inside its bones to find out what makes it work. Then we steal the structure, and use slow writing to create our own versions (usually on a different, but related topic).

For the examples below, we unpicked a piece of descriptive nature writing from Under the Sea about life in the oceans. We are studying oceans in science and geography, and this text is surprisingly rich in descriptive language, and is sprinkled liberally with some lovely alliteration - something I wanted to teach last week. It recounts a journey through the ocean. It's factually accurate, but also vivid and descriptive (think Ice Bear by Nicola Davies - if you're familiar with it). I used sentences from the book (and a few of my own lesser examples) to construct the model text and to create the following list of rules:

1. Write a 'did you know' question

2. Start the sentence with a preposition

3. Describe something in the coral reef picture using alliteration

4. Write an interesting simile

5. Write a sentence with two adjectives before the noun and that includes a scientific word

6. Start with an adverb (___ly word)

7. Pick a sea creature from the coral reef and describe how it moves with two powerful verbs.

Every time I have used Slow Writing, in a variety of different forms and contexts, it has always resulted in excellent writing. I find that the younger children especially become freed up a little bit by the rules, and can really focus on their language choices.

Attached are a few examples of work produced in the lesson. Not bad, eh!
I love the idea of using a mentor text to create bespoke writing prompts - so simple and yet so effective. I'm irritated I didn't think of it myself! This could be an essential addition to any teacher's toolkit when teaching students to construct subject specific, high-quality extended writing. And if that doesn't convince you to give it a go, have a look at this post on crafting beautiful analytic sentences.
Of course, Slow Writing isn't complete until after work has been redrafted. Here is a finished example:

Thanks for the continued inspiration and occasional amusement!

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A new twist on Slow Writing - David Didau: The Learning Spy

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Since first writing about Slow Writing back in May 2012 the original post has had almost 12,000 views and I've received regular emails and tweets from teachers who have been inspired to use and adapt what is in essence an incredibly simple idea. Last week I got just such an email from primary teacher, Michael Lomas.

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Slow Writing Archives - David Didau: The Learning Spy

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Style ... is not-can never be-extraneous Ornament... 'Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it-whole-heartedly-and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.' On the

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I first heard about Slow Writing at a #researched session delivered by David Didau, @learningspy when he talked about asking children to slow down when writing, cut the waffle and focus on every single word or sentence that they construct. I went away and read all he had written about Slow Writing on his blog where he has now helpfully grouped all the slow writing blogs.

I have used Slow Writing successfully over and over again. I have recommended it to many schools who also feedback that it has 'transformed' writing for some children.

New to slow writing?

Just start with 6 - 8 prompts. Allow no choice. This makes it a constrained piece and children have to really think about each and every sentence in the paragraph.

An example may be:

1. Your sentence must start with a verb.
2. Your sentence must contain a simile
3. Your sentence must use a relative clause.
4. Your sentence must be 3 words only.
5. Your sentence must use start with a time phrase.
6. Your sentence must use a modal verb.

Don't just copy and paste this one but think about what you want your pupils to achieve in that single paragraph. With slow writing it is about quality and not quantity. Get the children to work double spaced and then go back and edit these six sentences until 'perfect' (or as close as they can get). Once they are familiar with this concept they can choose the order or you can increase the number of prompts and allow them to choose from the list.

You can see an example of it in action here: Chaperon Rouge Blog

"But this isn't independent!" "Moderators won't like it..". You may say. However, this is not for moderators, it isn't for teacher assessment. This is to allow children to practise their skills, which hopefully they will then use in their independent writing.

Slow writing can be differentiated. You could make a number of lists dependent on ability or once children are familiar with the concept you could give them a choice of options. See diagram below.
Green: Y3 objectives.
Yellow Y4 objectives.
Orange Y5 objectives.
Purple Y6 objectives.

The children in this mixed-age/mixed-ability class were allowed to start where they wanted although the class teacher did guide some pupils as required.

As always I look forward to receiving comments.

​Rob
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In addition to David's blog there is also an outline of Slow Writing in his book, 'The Secret of Literacy' published by Crown House and available here ​

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I first heard about Slow Writing at a #researched session delivered by David Didau, @learningspy when he talked about asking children to slow down when writing, cut the waffle and focus on every single word or sentence that they construct.

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online library of books read aloud with video

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The original free site.
​Home to a wealth of short films and animations and related teaching ideas.

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Visual stimuli in various categories

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Visual writing stimuli - a new visual for every day

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The educational resources are designed to help teachers navigate Australian texts within the framework of the Australian Curriculum. The units include curriculum codes, sample classroom and assessment activities, and links to other relevant online resources featuring all the links you need to comprehensively teach and engage your students across a suggested time frame.