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Assess understanding during group activities by observing vocabulary use.

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Vocabulary Formative Assessment Ideas | Resource Library | Cox Campus

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Resource Library Vocabulary Formative Assessment Ideas Several formative assessment ideas teachers use to assess explicitly taught vocabulary words Download We are glad you want to access all that Cox Campus has to offer! Please login or create a free account to access 30+ accredited training courses and more than 1,000 science-based resources, all at NO…

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Students will be able to define and use five new vocabulary words related to world tales in context.

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Students will enhance their understanding of cultural differences by analyzing stories from various regions.

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12 Traditional Folktales from Around the World - the Online English Teachers

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Take a look at these traditional folktales from around the world that you can read at home with your children. Learn what folktales are and the benefits of

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Introduce five key words related to world tales: folklore, tradition, moral, hero, myth. Briefly explain their meanings and provide examples.

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Read a short world tale and identify the new vocabulary words in context. Discuss as a whole group.

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Stories for children, folktales, fairy tales and fables from around the world

Welcome to World of Tales!

Step into the wondrous world of folk and fairy tales!

Whether a student, a parent or a teacher, here you can take a magical journey, filled with adventure, or just remember what it feels like to be a kid again. There is a little something for everyone among these pages, starting with the classic fairy tale stories by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault, going on to the morally edifying fables of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, and ending with the wisdom, gathered by the people: the folktales from different parts of the world.

The folktale is a story passed down verbally from generation to generation. Each storyteller added something new to the stories, making them more interesting and fascinating as the ages passed. Different folktales bear the characteristics of the culture, folklore and customs of the people from which they originated.
Read more on Wikipedia

Africa is the second largest continent in the world. The people from Africa included unique characteristics in their folklore, showing their way of life and the animals and plants that surround them. African stories sometimes include trickster animals and spirits.

The collection of folktales from Africa consists of four books with 88 stories: 28 South African folktales, 40 Nigerian folktales and 10 Tanzanian folktales.

Asia is the world's largest continent. A place with unique cultural heritage, Asia is home to more than 3.8 billion people, making it the most populous continent on Earth. Even today people around Asia hold festivals celebrating the deeds of heroes and animals from ancient folklore.

The collection of folktales from Asia consists of fourteen books with 353 stories: 55 Arabic folktales, 104 Chinese folktales, 69 Indian folktales, 69 Japanese folktales and 61 Filipino folktales.

Australia is a country that includes the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and other smaller islands. Indigenous people are living in Australia for over 40000 years. Their stories are tightly connected to the Australian outback and its plants and animal inhabitants.

The collection of folktales from Australia consists of one book with 31 stories.

Europe is the second smallest continent on Earth. The birthplace of western culture, Europe is a land with tremendous cultural and ethnic diversity.

The European stories are divided into four groups: the Celtic, the Germanic, the Romanic and the Slavic.

North America is the third-largest continent on Earth. North America was discovered while Christopher Columbus was looking for a route between Europe and the Orient. Prior to the Europeans there were numerous indian nations living in North America.

The collection of folktales from North America consists of six books with 136 stories: 50 Native American folktales, 60 US folktales and 26 Canadian folktales.

Native American folktales

South America is the fourth largest continent on Earth. Before Europeans discovered it, South America was the home of many ancient civilizations numbering millions of people.

The collection of folktales from South America consists of two books with thirty Brazilian stories.

People have been telling each other fairy tales since ancient times. A very significant literature genre, fairy tales are present in all cultures around the world. In comparison to myths and legends, the time and place of occurrence in fairy tales are not defined. The characteristics of fairy tales include the appearance of fantastic elements in the form of talking animals, magic, witches and giants, knights and heroes. It wasn't until the 17th century that fairy tales in Europe were written down and preserved for future generations.
Read more on Wikipedia

Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 - 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic. Born in Selkirk, Lang was the oldest among eight siblings. After graduating, he began to publish his works, showing he was a gifted journalist, poet, and writer.

Notes: The first of a collection of twelve fairy tale books, gathered by Andrew Lang from various sources. Published in 1889, the Blue Fairy Book contains 37 stories.

Notes: The third book from Andrew Lang's collection was first published in 1892 and contains 42 fairy tales.

Notes: The second book from Andrew Lang's collection was first published in 1890 and contains 37 fairy tales.

The Brothers Grimm are probably the best known storytellers in the world. Many years have passed since the time Jackob and Wilhelm Grimm released their "Children's and household tales". The first edition and was very modest, both in appearance and capacity - there were only 83 fairy tales, compared to the 200 we know today.

Notes: Translated by Margaret Hunt, this is the only book that contains the complete collection of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales - 200
fairy tales and 10 legends.

Author: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Published: 1884
Translator: Margaret Hunt
Publisher:George Bell and Sons, London
Ages: 10+ years

Notes: Translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Contains 62 fairy tales.

Author: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Translator: Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes
Published: 1876
Publisher: R. Meek & Co., London
Ages: 3-10+ years

Notes: This book contains 25 fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.

Author: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Translator: Unknown
Published: 1922
Publisher: Cupples and Leon Company, New York

Notes: This fairy tale collection contains 52 of the Grimm's fairy tales.

This new Dover edition, first published in 1963, is an unabridged republication of the work first published by Macmillan and Company in 1886.

Charles Perrault was a French writer who lived in the second half of XVII century. He was one of the first writers in European literature who turned his eyes to folklore. Born in 1628 in a clerical bourgeois family, Perrault received legal education and had high royal office. In the second half of XVII century there was...

Notes: The first edition of Perrault's famous collection of fairy tales.
Author: Charles Perrault
Translator: Charles Welsh
Published: 1901
Publisher: D.C. Heath & Co., Boston; New York; Chicago

Hans Christian Andersen, born April 2, 1805 in Odense, was a Danish writer and poet. In his early days, Andersen wanted to become an opera singer. In 1819 he went to Copenhagen to pursuit that dream. His voice, however, was too weak and he was accepted as a dance student at the Royal Theater.

Notes: "Andersen's fairy tales" contains 18 of H.C.Andersen's most notable fairy tales. This is not the original cover.

Notes: This is the first of two volumes of Andersen's fairy tales edited by J. H. Stickney.

Notes: This is the second volume of Andersen's fairy tales edited by J. H. Stickney.

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World of Tales - Stories for children, folktales, fairy tales and fables from around the world!

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Welcome to World of Tales - a collection of children's stories, folktales, fairy tales and fables. Read the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the folktales from around the world or the fables of Aesop.

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Divide students into small groups to match vocabulary words to sentences. Share findings on Padlet.

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466 Vocabulary matching English ESL worksheets pdf & doc

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A selection of English ESL vocabulary matching printables

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Have students write their own short tales using at least three of the new vocabulary words.

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Download FREE teacher-made resources covering 'Short Story Writing'

What is short story writing?

Short story writing is a literary form that is characterised by its limited word use. In terms of word count, short stories are usually between 1,000 to 10,000 words. Ultimately, it's a story that can be read in one sitting. It's prose fiction, but it can belong to any genre, whether that is crime or fantasy, as a large aspect of the short story is its aim to create a specific mood or atmosphere.

Short stories use all the same literary techniques as novels do, such as character, plot, and setting. However, this is to a much more constrained degree. With the word count being only a fraction of the length of a novel, short story writers are tasked with deciding on every word with specific intent.

The contemporary short story form only developed in the 19 th century. Prior to this, short story writing existed around the world in different histories and cultures in the styles of fairy tales, legends, myths, fables, and anecdotes.

Characteristics of short story writing

While there are countless numbers of techniques that characterise a short story, here are a few listed, so you can get a better understanding of the form:

Character: Characters are the people who exist in the stories. It is through these characters that a lot of the plot is experienced. Characters are both active and reactive, and they are a useful tool in moving the story forward or expressing certain themes.

Plot: Plot is often confused with the story, but they are two very different things. The story is more about what happens, when it happens, and where it happens. However, plot is more about why and how it happens. Plot is the series of events that create the story.

Setting: Setting is where the story takes place, both geographically and in terms of time. This is a very useful tool if you want to convey a certain mood or atmosphere in the story. If you wanted to create a scarier mood, you might have it set at night, in an isolated wood with no one around.

Theme: Theme is the overarching concept or idea for a story. It is a subject that the author may have wanted to explore. A story which is about two individuals who cannot be together may explore the theme of love, or more specifically, forbidden love. Theme is a fantastic way to interlink different narratives and portray the author's intent.

Point-of-View: Point-of-view is the perspective from which the story is told. There are three main perspectives. First-person perspective, which is from the point of view of a character. Second-person perspective, which uses the reader as the point of view. Third-person perspective is a non-character narrating the events. Point-of-view is an essential technique in storytelling and drastically impacts the way in which the events of the story are described.

Symbolism: Symbolism is the use of objects, motifs, and even characters to represent an idea or concept. This is a useful way to incorporate more subtlety and nuance into your story. For example, if a story was concerning time, there may be a lot of imagery of clocks and watches to represent the larger theme at hand. This is especially effective for short story writing, where these techniques can add underlying meaning and depth to your story without exhausting the word count.

Structure of short story writing

While short stories, like other literary forms, have a degree of artistic freedom, many pieces follow a similar writing structure. This structure is known as the dramatic structure, and it allows for the author to create tension, stakes, and resolution within such a limited word count. The dramatic structure is split into five parts, as follows:

Exposition (Beginning): Exposition is the setting of the scene. The mood is conjured, and the time and place are introduced. A lot of short stories are like zoomed in areas of a larger picture, and so a greater story or backstory may be alluded to here.

Rise: The rise is the driving force. What is occurring in the story? What is moving the characters? The rise is often the meaning behind the character's actions and the reason for the story.

Climax: The climax is the point where the rise has reached its peak and it's time for the protagonist to face their fate. If the rise is a character attempting to escape the police, the climax is the final confrontation with them where everything comes to a head. However, the climax can also be a point of realisation, where the protagonist turns the odds in their favour.

Return: The return is the point where the characters attempt to return to normality or finish their journey by reaching their goal. The tone of the return is often characterised by the events of the climax. If the protagonist is successful in their endeavours, then the return would be a happy one. However, if the climax required sacrifice, or if the protagonist lost during the climax, then the return has a more sombre tone.

Resolution or Destruction (Ending): The ending is completely dependent on the events of the story. If the protagonist didn't escape the police, then the ending may be their destruction in the form of arrest. If the protagonist managed to defeat the great threat, then the ending would be their resolution in finding safety and peace after the fight.

For a visual representation of dramatic structure, be sure to check out our Story Mountain Template.

Six top tips for short story writing

Starting with a blank page can feel a bit daunting, especially when you are young and don't have much long-form writing practice. So here are six short story writing tips, we hope will help your young learners with their writing!

1. Set a word or page count and stick to it. Whether your students need to write 500 words or three pages for their story, set an amount that they need to write to, so they know how long their story should be. This is also helpful to stop them from writing too much.

2. Make mind maps. It can be hard to think of story ideas, so get your students to pick a genre or theme for their stories and create a mind map. Branching off your learners should include things like character ideas, locations and interesting things that could happen.

3. Read other short stories. Reading short stories will give your students examples of what they need to write themselves. They are also a great source of inspiration and ideas. Provide a sample of different short stories like this Tortoise and the Hare Story or this mythological Icarus and Daedalus Short Story .

4. Start with the ending and then the beginning. Having your students think of what they want to happen at the end of their stories gives them a clear point to get to in their writing. This will help stop their writing from wandering off in too many different directions and getting too long.

5. Use images or story starters. Sometimes a little inspiration can go a long way. Using interesting pictures and photos to provide a story setting can get imaginative juices flowing. This KS2 Tell Me a Story Inspiration Activity Pack is full of brilliant images! Or you could use story starters, like these KS2 Sensational Starters: Exciting Start Paragraph Cards . Story starters are a great jumping-off point for short story writing. You'd be surprised by how many different stories can come from the same prompt.

6. Include conflict. Have your students think of an issue or problem that their main character needs to overcome. Without any challenge or conflict in a story, there is nothing to be resolved, meaning there's nothing for the characters to do. This is important to make a story interesting and keep readers engaged.

Benefits of short story writing

There are many benefits to children writing short stories. It's a great way for them to practice spelling, punctuation, grammar and a variety of other skills like these!

Planning: Short story writing tasks are a great opportunity to help your students develop planning skills. Being able to plan is important for making longer pieces of writing really great. Planning writing can help you develop a convincing argument in an essay, stay within tight deadlines and word counts, create a clear flow of ideas between paragraphs and also helps you create a clear structure such as beginning, middle and end.

Being concise: When writing stories, it can be easy to let your imagination run away with itself. By challenging your students to stick to a specific word count or a number of pages, they start to learn how to condense their ideas and only include what's really important to their stories. If your students do go over their word counts, you could ask them to cut their work down, developing self-editing skills. These are beneficial for other types of writing too!

Using language devices: Stories are full of language devices like metaphors, pathetic fallacy, and foreshadowing. Depending on what they have been studying in their English lessons, short story writing is a great opportunity to include new language devices. For example, you could challenge your learners to include examples of alliteration or a number of similes.

In everyday writing, there aren't many opportunities to include speech, but short stories are great for including dialogue. Scenes with dialogue are a useful way to move a plot along, show different character traits, and add variety to pages with lots of descriptions. This is also good practice for using punctuation correctly Writing speech:

Being creative: Short story writing is a fantastic way for children to express themselves and explore their imaginations. Giving young ones some creative writing can also be a relaxing and mindful activity. Once they have completed their stories, they will have a piece of work that they can be proud of and share with others. Children will feel a sense of accomplishment and have an example of the English skills they have been learning.

How to find the main idea in a short story

Understanding stories will help children to write their own. Finding the main idea of a text means that you are able to identify the topic of a piece of writing and then uncover the writer's stance on that particular topic. Here are some helpful tips for children down below on how to find the main idea in a short story:

1) Identify the topic - Read part of the text or a chapter of a text and try to identify the topic of that section. This includes things like what that a passage is about and who is involved.

2) Summary - After reading a passage, task children with summarising what they have read in their own words. Try to make this as accurate as possible by highlighting the main aspects with a few words.

3) Read the first and last lines - Authors often give away their main idea in the very opening or closing lines of a passage. This is similar to how we would use a conclusion in essay writing, but more precise. One of the quickest ways to grasp the main idea is to turn to these two points. For example, if a story starts with 'once upon a time' that's a pretty clear indicator that you are reading a fairy tale.

How to annotate a short story

Before your students embark on their short story writing adventures, it's important for them to be able to understand the devices that go into writing a short story. Having your class analyse an existing piece of writing by annotating it is a great way to help them identify and understand these devices. Down below are some examples of how to annotate a short story.

Highlight areas you are interested in - Use a highlighter to mark keywords or information as you go along. Highlighting areas means that you can easily reference and identify the important parts of the text.

Sticky notes - Use Post-it notes to make notes about the sentences or phrases you think are important or use interesting writing devices. Using sticky notes means that not only can you write more, but you can avoid damaging the pages.

Colour coding in pencil - Choose a different coloured pencil to circle each technique you come across. For example, you could circle a recurring theme in red and any symbolism in blue. This will make it easier to reference the different devices used, as well as get a sense of any patterns in the writing.

How can I teach my students about short story writing?

Learning about short stories is a fantastic way to strengthen both your students' reading and writing skills. By observing the form, they'll be able to improve their grammar and vocabulary, as well as recognise good prose to develop their own writing.

We have a wide selection of resources available to download that will aid your students' introduction to the world of short stories.

For a fun example of a short story, check out our original teacher-made e-book, The Curse of Cogston House Short Story. This mysterious story is a brilliant way to show your students short story writing first-hand. It demonstrates how each literary technique is used, such as characters and setting, as well as structural techniques.

To get your students writing short stories of their own, be sure to take a look at our Plot Diagram Template. This diagram is a useful way to visually separate each structural point of the story so that your students may plan each section effectively. By practising writing their own short stories, your students will become better acquainted with short stories as a whole and have a better understanding of the form.

To get your students excited about the short story form and get them writing their own, try out our Impromptu Writing Prompts PowerPoint. This PowerPoint resource is a fun way to get your students testing their writing abilities by giving them a prompt to spark their imaginations. This is a handy way to test their understanding of the form and how well they utilise the short story structure.

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Short Story Writing - Twinkl Teaching Wiki - Twinkl

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Short story writing is a style of prose that is characterised by its limited word count. Read on to learn more about this form.

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Provide an additional task: advanced students create a short play, while others rewrite a given tale with new vocabulary.

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22 Top “Writing Extension Activities” Teaching Resources curated for you

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Instant access to inspirational lesson plans, schemes of work, assessment, interactive activities, resource packs, PowerPoints, teaching ideas at Twinkl!

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Prompt students to discuss: What did we learn from analyzing world tales and their vocabulary?

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Sean Banville.

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English News Lessons: Free 26-Page lesson plan / 2-page mini-lesson - Fairy Tales - Handouts, online activity, mp3... current events.

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Choose a new tale (provided as a link) and identify the key vocabulary used in the text.

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Complete an online quiz to reinforce the new vocabulary words.

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Do you want to take a break from your studies and have some fun by playing games in English?

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Students write one sentence using a new vocabulary word and share it before leaving.

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Word learning is a gradual process that historically only comes with repeated encounters across multiple contexts. Consider all of the factors included in deep word learning.

What does it mean to "know" a word?

Phonological knowledge: being able to hear and manipulate the sounds in a word.

Orthographic knowledge: Being able to recall and apply the rules necessary to transfer spoken words and apply the rules necessary to transfer spoken words to written words and vice versa.

Semantic Knowledge: Being able to understand the conceptual meaning of a word including association, collocation, register, and connotation.

How do we support students' vocabulary acquisition?

If we want students to retain the words they are beginning to recognize, it is important to provide additional opportunities to encounter words even after they have been introduced through explicit instruction.

These additional opportunities, however, should not be drill and practice, such as the traditional method of dictionary definitions and memorization. Rather, students should be provided with meaningful experiences where vocabulary words are presented in alternative contexts (Stahl and Nagy, 2005). Additionally, these activities should include differing expectations (e.g., receptive and expressive activities), as well as provide opportunities to make personal connections. (Beck et al, 2013).

Vocabulary Exit Tickets

Exit tickets are a familiar tool in an educator's vocabulary instruction toolbox for assessing student knowledge in a formative manner. They work particularly well for maintaining and even continuing to deepen vocabulary knowledge because they can be designed to target the specific contexts necessary to deepen word learning.

For example, after a student has had explicit instruction for the word optimal they should know it is a word that describes a situation . It's synonyms might include best, perfect or , while the opposite might be . Great explicit instruction may also include some examples of optimal situations. From here, exit tickets can be created to provide more learning opportunities.

In Bringing Words To Life (Beck et al, 2013 the authors provide several great opportunities for students to continue their interaction with words. They emphasize using questions; Would feeding your pet chocolate ice cream be part of an optimal diet?, reasons; What would be an optimal study environment and why?, and examples; Which of these places would be optimal for seeing fireworks? The top of a hill or on a roof?

Understanding Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with vocabulary learning

Bloom's taxonomy can provide additional ideas when revisiting words. From the lower levels of understanding, students can identify words that do not belong or sort related words according to their targets.

At the analysis level, students can differentiate correct from incorrect use of the target word in a sentence. Or have them use the word to interpret a picture.

Students can demonstrate their creativity by generating a unique sentence that includes the target word or share their personal connection with it.

There are countless ways to continue incorporating helpful vocabulary word encounters for students. Exit tickets can be created, saved and used for different words again and again. They can be paper or digital and data can be collected as students are leaving your classroom or later as you enjoy their connections. No matter how you chose to implement them, you helping your students fortify and enhance their word knowledge every time you provide a new encounter!

Author: Jen Knapp; MS, CCC-SLP

Reference: Stahl, S.A., & Nagy, W.E. (2005). Teaching Word Meanings (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410615381

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Vocabulary instruction, and formative assessment through vocabulary exit tickets, is easy with online vocabulary tool- InferCabulary.

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Conduct a quick quiz to match words to definitions and use them in sentences.

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Online Vocabulary Quiz & Test Maker Template

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Easily create an interactive, mobile-ready vocabulary quiz or test and share it today. Customize this template for free!