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Folktales Reflect Daoist and Buddhist Traditions
Tenth graders compare three Chinese folktales for their "messages" and literary techniques to see how they reflect Chinese Confucian and Taoist values. They discuss how folktales share certain subjects, characters, plots and themes.
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Native American Folklore
Students create a paper that differentiates between written and oral history. They also create a visual narrative that is interpretative.
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Create Your Own Hero
Chinese legends are the focus of an interesting lesson that combines social studies with writing. Learners read the Chinese folk tale, "Li Chi Slays The Serpent." After the story is over, they make a list of the courageous things...
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Where the Buffalo Roam
Second graders explore what life in the Chicago area was like hundreds of years ago. They discuss how settlers impacted the environment, and why there are no longer herds of buffalo in the Chicago area today. They read an article and...
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Tales From Around the World
Students read stories. In this culture lesson, students read stories from different regions around the world. Students look for each region on the map and listen for interesting cultural details in the story. Students then discuss the...
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What Makes a Fable?
Third graders explore fables. In this fables lesson plan, 3rd graders use Venn Diagrams to organize information about 2 fables they will read. Students work in groups to fill out the diagrams and share their results with the class....
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Native American Legends, Folk Stories and Tales
Learners write an Indian tale explaining a natural event, an animal characteristic,
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Netsuke
High schoolers identify different objects from Japanese culture and their purpose. They read Japanese folktales and discuss common themes. They create a sketch and clay sculpture of a character or animal in one of the folktales.
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A Fish Story
Young scholars closely examine and analyze an American tall tale. They find the key features of a tall tale and compose a tall tale of their own. Student groups write, edit and present their tales to the class.
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Introduction to Traditional Oral Narratives
Students are introduced to the idea of traditional oral narratives and divide them into genres. They explore the genres of context, motifs and variants. Each student finds oral narratives in their own lives and practice retelling them in...
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How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun
Students explore U.S. history by reading a Native American tale in class. In this cultural storytelling lesson, students read the story How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun and discuss the characters and themes of the Native American...
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Language Arts Exploration
While an interesting lesson idea involving the exploration of a story about an Asian American boy named Imduk, a teacher would need to have assess to the Scott Foresman reading program to make this work. If not, a teacher could use...
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Tell Me a Whopper!
Sixth graders investigate tall tales as a literary genre. They listen to a number of tall tales to discover how exaggeration is used as a story element. They write and publish a tall tale using word processing software. They illustrate...
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Greek Mythology -- Part II
Students use the internet to gather information about Greek Mythology. They discover the role of the snake and shamrock and the history of St. Patrick's Day. They compare and contrast their culture to another.
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Touring the World With Tomie dePaola
Students listen aloud to books by Tomie dePaola. They utilize the Internet to study the geography and culture of the places the they read about in Tomie dePaola's books. They answer questions about Norway through an Internet treasure hunt.
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Writing Own Tale
Third graders read The First Strawberries and complete a character chart. In this writing a tale lesson, 3rd graders discuss viewpoints and identify character traits. Students complete character charts and write their own tale about...
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Fairy Tales as a Genre of Literature
Students examine the literary elements of fairy tales. After reading the fairy tale "Rapunzel" and discussing the elements of fairy tales that occur as they read, they use a story web to help plan and create an original fairy tale. ...
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Most Wanted Villians
Students review the characteristics of various characters in fairytales. As a class, they review the story details and create a concept map using a software program. They create their own wanted poster of the villians in the fairytale to...
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Chinese Shadow Puppet Play
Students experience through role-play the art of shadow puppetry and appreciate the role of oral traditions in Chinese history. They research the origins and history of puppetry as a part of a unit on China. They discover what Chinese...
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Rice is Nice
First graders explore Japanese foods through fairy tales, fiction and nonfiction books, cooking meals and eating with chopsticks. After all of the creative ideas have been utilized, the class holds a tea party for parents in the classroom.
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Aloha, Hawaii!
Students read the Hawaiian version of The Three Little Pigs, to study cultures and traditions of the island. They gather and study resources about the culture, people, and endangered species of Hawaii.
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Making Connections
Students identify the main ideas in a passage from literature, and in a painting, and justify their conclusions using logic and language arts skills.
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Literature - November
Students develop new vocabulary through listening. They listen to comprehend and to obtain information.
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Historical Background of Nightjohn Lesson Plan
Eighth graders use first-hand slave narratives that show conditions of slavery. They paste text into Appleworks and publish with a picture clipped from web sites. They create a group account of life during slavery to prepare for reading...