Curated OER
Story Starters
Students orally tell different types of stories using the assistance of props. For more advanced students, stories may be told according to a specific genre, or the story may have to include a given condition, setting, situation or theme.
Curated OER
Practice Makes Perfect
And the consensus says...Teach your class to use peer feedback to refine public speaking skills. They cut out a magazine picture and develop an oral story about it to present to the class. They share several meaningful objects with the...
Curated OER
Storytelling
Eighth graders retell stories to peers and the entire class. In this storytelling lesson plan, 8th graders research short stories and select a short story to retell. Students rewrite the stories in their own words and tell it aloud.
Curated OER
Could You Repeat That?
Pupils participate in an oral story telling activity designed to show how story embellishments occur. They read "Beowulf" and identify incongruities that suggest additions and embellishments over the years.
Curated OER
Epic Improvisation
Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: A Guided Tour
Albert Bierstadt's painting Wind River Country shows viewers how a reader progresses through a story. Your class studies the light and dark areas, how the eye moves across the painting, and what attracts the audience to the work, and...
Curated OER
Discovering Yourself
Students explore Aboriginal storytelling. In this literature lesson, students read Knots on a Counting Rope and then create a story line as they discuss the attributes of Aboriginal culture. Students retell the story in their own words.
Vanderbilt University
Stories from the Panama Canal
The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson plan about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...
Curated OER
Keeping the Past Alive
Learners read about the oral histories of West Africa and complete related activities. In this oral histories lesson, students read about the importance of oral customs in African cultures. Learners interview a family member about oral...
Curated OER
Music in West Africa
Students explore power and the symbols of power in West African music. They discuss the music of West Africa and compare it to African American music of today. In addition, they investigate musical instruments of Africa, identify the...
Curated OER
Storytelling
Students explore the origins of folktales, fairytales, myths, legends, fables, and folktales in the ten lessons of this unit. A storytelling festival is held to feature the results of the variety of activities presented in the unit.
Curated OER
Show Me That You Understood What You Just Read
Pupils complete reading comprehension activities for the book Corduroy. After reading independently or in pairs, students answer questions orally as a class. They retell their favorite part of the story with the instructor and complete...
Curated OER
Learning About Emotions
Young scholars participate in a series of activities about identifying different feelings and emotions. In these oral language and discussion lessons, students use pictures and photographs to get them involved in oral storytelling...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Oral and Literary Strategies
Readers are first introduced to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart by making a map of Africa. They will better understand the novel's historical and literary contexts, European and African literary traditions, and how...
Curated OER
We of the Sea: Tribal Native American Stories
A video featuring members of Oregon’s Astoria Native American fishing community launches a study of the oral tradition of poetry, and how traditions are passed down within different cultures. Activities, assessments, extensions and...
Art Institute of Chicago
African Myths and Stories
Young historians discover African stories associated with a royal altar tusk from the Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria, read myths illustrated on the tusk, and write a story about the life of an oba using figures depicted on the tusk.
Facing History and Ourselves
First Chapter Fridays
Fridays can be a challenge with learners already dreaming about their weekends. Here's a routine that will bring their minds back to the classroom. Read aloud the beginning of a story, sure to engage your listeners.
Curated OER
Exploring Values Towards Conservation
Young scholars read First Nation story, identify values expressed in it and discuss how those values relate to conservation issues faced today. Students then seek out stories relevant to climate change from their own Elders and...
Curated OER
Retelling Nursery Rhymes
Fourth graders explore language arts by reciting a famous nursery rhyme to their classroom. In this oral storytelling lesson, 4th graders read the story "The Three Little Pigs" and identify the characters, setting and story. Students...
Curated OER
Fortunately, Unfortunately
In this oral language worksheet, students are given the first line of a story. The next student must begin the following line with the word "fortunately," and the next student begins the subsequent line with "unfortunately." The story...
Curated OER
Family History Through Art
Learners discuss various ways families and communities pass down oral and visual art forms to younger generations. This multi-subject introductory activity prepares students to create a project about their own families.
Curated OER
Storytelling With Artists
Students retell a legend orally, illustrating it with the art style of the source culture.
Curated OER
Using Oral Traditions to Improve Verbal and Listening Skills
Students examine the role of stories in African and African-American cultures. This lesson is written for students with visual impairments. They
Curated OER
Great Gullah Story Telling Packet
Sixth graders examine the Creole language known as Gullah which is a form of speech comprised of a number of unrelated languages. They determine how slaves used this to communicate so that slave masters would not be able to understand...