E Reading Worksheets
E Reading Worksheets: Theme Worksheets
This learning module provides remediation and extra practice with identifying themes in short stories and in fables. Nine different worksheets and a PowerPoint lesson are available to help reinforce the concept of theme.
Starfall
Starfall: Folk Tales
Five traditional folk tales for early readers to listen to online. The vocabulary for each story is posted below it.
University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts: Aesop's Fables: "The Wind and the Sun"
Learn about the power of kindness while reading this illustrated fable "The Wind and the Sun." Then read the same story with different illustrations to provide a new point of view.
E Reading Worksheets
E Reading Worksheets: Teaching Theme
In this learning module, students will learn more about themes in stories. Worksheets and activities are provided to reinforce the concept of theme. This module is designed to support Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III students.
Orca Book Publishers
Orca Book Publishers: Runaway Teaching Guide [Pdf]
In Runaway, a novel by Becky Citra, a boy must make some difficult decisions about whether to help another boy that he has seen steal but who is also being physically abused. The story is set in the 1830s in Upper Canada. This teacher's...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Folktale Writer's Workshop
What exactly is the definition of a folktale? This resource offers insight into this topic. Young scholars will participate in a Folktale writer's workshop where they will learn about folktales and will eventually write their own and...
Repeat After Us
Repeat After Us: Aesop's Fables: "Hercules and the Wagoner"
This site provides the text and audio for this translation of the Aesop fable "Hercules And The Wagoner." Available online, print, and download.
Read Works
Read Works: Oh Nuts!
[Free Registration/Login Required] A literary text about one little squirrel who gathers nuts for winter and another little squirrel who does not. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Parable
This is an encyclopedia entry for the word "Parable." It defines the word, discusses its origins, and provides examples.
University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts: Aesop's Fables: "The Fox and the Grapes"
Two traditional retellings of Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes." The first has literal illustrations of the original fable. The second tells the same story, but has illustrations that give the story a modern setting and characters...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Elements of Literature: Folk Tales [Pdf]
A very brief organizer in which students can list examples from their current reading selection which represent elements from the folk tale, such as the supernatural, good over evil, and moral lessons.
University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts: Aesop's Fables: "The Frogs Desiring a King"
Two versions of Aesop's Fable with the same story, but different illustrations. The first provides literal illustrations of the story, while the second provides a more modern interpretation.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Financial Fairy Tales
[Free Registration/Login Required] A simple presentation of an engaging fairy story called The Last Gold Coin with messages about financial management that are clear morals from the tale.
University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts: Aesop's Fables: "The Fox and the Stork"
Read two versions of Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Story." Both versions have the same text, but one has traditional illustrations while the other provides a modern interpretation through the illustrations.
Blackdog Media
Classic Reader: "Amelia and the Dwarfs" by Juliana Horatia Ewing
This is the text of the short story "Amelia and the Dwarfs" by Juliana Horatia Ewing, a pleasant tale, with a good moral in the inside of it.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Literature: Analyzing Theme
Article explains how to find the theme in a piece of literature by asking yourself a series of questions as you read. RL.9-10.1 Analyzing Theme. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2
Other
Drug Free America Foundation
This resource covers all illegal drugs and provides information on health risks, drugs in the workplace, case stories, moral and spiritual issues, state drug initiatives, and a kids section.
Cornell University
Cornell University: Population and False Hopes
Cornell University provides an essay in tribute to the ideas of Thomas Malthus. Some good biographical material included as well.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Fable [Pdf]
This is a one-page PDF of a poster or flyer listing the characteristics of a fable. It could be printed and hung in the classroom.
Brown University
Brown University: The Decameron Project
Few great books like the Decameron have shaped our very notion of storytelling and its crucial role in the negotiation and production of shared social and cultural values. In its hundred stories, shared in ten days by ten young people...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 7: A Christmas Carol
Seventh graders learn that writers use stories and distinctive characters to teach us lessons. Students will explore how the choices of characters affect the plot and build the theme of a story. Students will come to understand that...
University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts: Aesop's Fables: "The Goose With the Golden Eggs"
Two retellings of Aesop's Fable "The Goose with the Golden Eggs." Both stories illustrate the same moral, "Greed often overreaches itself." The first is a traditional retelling of the original fable. The second is a modern retelling with...
University of Missouri
Famous Trials: Carthage (Joseph Smith Murder) Trial (1845)
One of the most consequential crimes in American history occurred on a summer day in 1844 when a mob stormed a jail in Carthage, Illinois and murdered Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum. The killing of Joseph Smith, the charismatic...
Other
Frog Fables and Parables
All these fables feature frogs as their main characters. Like all fables, they each have a message about life.