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South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Boulevard
Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

Those Fabulous Fables (Grade 3)

Master Teacher

Anne Hood

Time Allotment

1 week for class periods of 1 ½ hours each day.

Overview

Fables are a good way to introduce mythology and storytelling to young children. A fable is a short moral story that usually uses animals as the main characters. Probably the most famous teller of such stories was Aesop, a Greek slave who lived around the sixth century B.C. This lesson should be taught early in the year to introduce the literature segment. Using video and the Internet, it covers the function of storytelling as the way to pass on a culture’s customs and beliefs to the next generation and a way to see that a good story works in any time or place because, although times change, human nature and the human condition remain the same.

Subject Matter

Language Arts

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Define “fable” and explain the origin of this type of folk tale.
• Summarize the story they watch.
• State the moral, or the theme, in their words.
• Relate the moral to student’s own experience.
• Retell a fable, placing it in modern context.

South Carolina Standards

(These Standards are found online at http://www.myscschools.com/offices/cso)

South Carolina Standards

3-R1.4 Begin summarizing texts.

3-R1.8 Demonstrate the ability to summarize the main idea of a particular text.

3-R1.15 Demonstrate the ability to respond to texts through a variety of methods, such as creative dramatics, writing, and graphic art.

3-C1.5 Begin giving brief presentations, demonstrations, and oral reports.

National Educational Technology Standards

(http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_stands.html)

Technology productivity and communications tools: Use technology tools (multimedia authoring, presentation, Web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.

Media Components

Video

Aesop’s Fables features four timeless favorites from the Greek master of fables. The program is brimming with colorful animation, lively music and poetry. After each fable, the viewer is given the moral of the story.

To access the video clips used in this lesson, log on to your account at ETV’s StreamlineSC Web page (http://etv.streamlinesc.org). In the search by keyword box, type Aesop’s Fables and hit go. Click the program title and then download the following five video clips to your computer desktop and preview them. Transfer the video to a CD.

The entire class will see “The Story of Aesop’s Fables,” which runs one minute and four seconds. Small groups will watch one of the following: “The Grasshopper and the Ants” (two minutes and 46 seconds); “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” (three minutes and five seconds); “The Horse’s Mistake” (two minutes and five seconds); or “The Tortoise and the Hare” (two minutes and 17 seconds).

(Note to Teacher: If you don’t have an account with ETV’s StreamlineSC, check with your media specialist or Instructional Technologist about signing up for your own account.)

Web Sites

Aesop Online, a large collection of fables, many of which are read aloud by children, is found at http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/

Aesop’s Fables, Traditional and Modern (http://www.umass.edu/aesop/open.html), features the stories illustrated and retold by the art students at the University of Massachusetts. Many of these fables are presented in both a traditional and a modern version.

Materials

• Worksheets on each of the four small-group fables, enough for each student in the group. Blackline masters for worksheets are available on the StreamlineSC Web site.
• Drawing paper and colored pencils or crayons
• Teacher’s guide, available at the StreamlineSC site with a summary and moral for each fable.

Equipment

• Computer for teacher with CD burner, speakers and scanner
• Computers for students with speakers (internal or external) and scanner
• Microphones for computers, if students are to read their fables for a PowerPoint presentation
• Data/video projector or presentation TV to make it possible for the entire class to view fables.

Prep for Teachers

• Preview the five videos and load the four small-group ones on computers that are available for the students to use.

• Bookmark the two Web sites and make sure that Real Audio is available on the computers. Connect speakers and the projector to the computer you will be using to play the video and Web pages for the whole class.

• Click on Blackline Masters at the StreamlineSC Web site. Print out the worksheets for each fable. Copy enough of the worksheets to have available for students who finish their stories more quickly or for the few extra minutes at the beginning and end of class.

• When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: Ask the students if they have ever heard of Aesop. If some have, ask them to share what they know. Make sure that the following facts come to light:

1. Aesop may have been a real person, but we are not sure. He may have been imaginary.
2. If he was real, we believe he lived around 650 B.C and was a Greek slave.
3. People described him as very ugly, with a face “like a turnip,” but with a brilliant mind.
4. His stories were so loved that they influenced his master to set him free.
5. His stories were a special kind of folk tale called fables, which use animals to act out the story and always contain a moral.

Step 2: Tell students that they are now going to watch the first video clip, “The Story of Aesop’s Fables.” Provide them with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to listen for:

1. Why we need stories. (to teach us how to behave)
2. Why the stories are as interesting today as they were in sixth century B.C. (Because human nature and what happens to people remain the same.)

Step 3: Play the entire video clip. It is a good idea to check the box that turns on closed-captioning because this allows students to both see and hear the text of the video.

Step 4: When the video ends, ask for answers to the questions. Ask also for examples of things that may have changed since Aesop first told his stories, and for things that have not changed. For things that have changed, students may suggest such inventions as the VCR and the computer (seen in the clip), or other modern inventions. For things that have not changed, look for consequences for laziness, etc. (Note to Teacher: You are trying to make them see that these morals are as true today, as they were all those years ago. Although times change, human nature and the human condition remain the same.)

Learning Activities

Step 1: Divide the students into four groups. Assign each group one of the four fables to view. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them after they watch the video clip, they are to retell the story in their own words.

Step 2: Have students watch their assigned video clips.

Step 3: Now ask the first group to choose a spokesperson to present the story to the class, but not the moral. After hearing the story, the class must try to figure out what the moral is. Do this with each fable.

(Morals for the stories—The Grasshopper and the Ant: “When you need your daily bread, it’s always best to plan ahead”; The Tortoise and the Hare: “Persistence and determination can be more important than speed and dexterity (natural ability)”; The Boy Who Cried Wolf: “When you say what isn’t true, people lose faith in you”; and The Horse’s Mistake: “For yours and everyone else’s sake, cooperate.”)

Step 4: Now as a class, go to Aesop’s Fables, Traditional and Modern (http://www.umass.edu/aesop/open.html). Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to notice the differences between the traditional and modern versions of “The Tortoise and the Hare” fable. Play both versions of the fable.

Step 5: After students have viewed the fable, lead a discussion about the differences between the traditional and modern versions of the stories.

• Do they notice a difference in the tone of the stories? (The modern stories may be more cynical.)
• Do they notice a difference in the illustrations? (For example, in “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” the modern fable uses humans instead of animals for characters.)
• Do the modern stories seem more humorous? (Most of them do.)
• Does the language in the traditional stories seem more formal? (Usually, yes.)

Step 6: Have each group write a modern version of the fable they read together. These modern versions are again shared with the entire class.

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Have students illustrate their fables. Then the stories can be typed on the computer and the pictures scanned.

Step 2: Make a book or a PowerPoint presentation of the collected fables, traditional and modern. The book can be placed in the school media center and shared with everyone in the school. If a PowerPoint is done, it can be presented during PTO or Parents’ Night.

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Social Studies: Learn about conditions in Greece during Aesop’s time.

Math: Research Greek mathematicians, such as Euclid or Pythagoras. Learn to count to ten in Greek.

Science: Learn the stories behind the Greek names for the constellations.

Art: Illustrate the stories behind the constellations.

Community Connections

• Take the students on a field trip to the planetarium at the local university for a program on the constellations.

Student Materials

• Writing and drawing paper
• Pens, colored pencils or crayons
• Worksheets