Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Traditional Oral Narratives

For Teachers 4th - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Harvesting the River Lesson Plan: Taking an Oral History

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Pupils practice researching history through oral traditions.  In this U.S. History lesson, students examine an online exhibit titled Harvesting the River, in which pupils interview someone from the story.  Students utilize...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Effective Storytelling

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students read an article and discuss it for comprehension. They practice storytelling.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Folktales: Oral Traditions as a Basis for Instruction in our Schools

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students visit their school library to read a variety of folktales. While they read, they identify the trickster or hero in each and discuss how the character represents the chaos in the real world. In groups, they write their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Carrying on the Storytelling Tradition

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Students examine the art of Clementine Hunter, a Creole folk artist. They compare Hunter's Folk Art style with Grandma Moses' Primitive work. They then draw an important memory in Hunter's style, and describe their drawing orally for a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Storytelling

For Teachers 8th
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.
App
Tellagami Labs

Tellagami

For Students 2nd - 12th Standards
Bring the world of video messaging into your classroom with this creative communication application. Offering the ability to create animations with customized characters, backgrounds, and recorded messages, this resource is guaranteed to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Practice Makes Perfect

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Keeping the Past Alive

For Teachers 10th - 12th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Archaeology and Storytelling

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students identify and interpret both individual families and whole cultures learn about their pasts by collecting and analyzing stories and artifacts. Then they identify that not all archaeological finds readily reveal their history to...
Lesson Plan
Vanderbilt University

Stories from the Panama Canal

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Tell Us a Tale: Teaching Students to Be Storytellers

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Discovering Yourself

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Hunter Storytelling Lesson

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars listen to and use resources to translate an old Oneida story told in the Oneida language by an elder in the community. They then develop an illustrated slideshow of the story.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

It's All Part of the Story

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students explore storytelling through pantomime, improvisation, and dramatization. They watch an online video, discuss Native American earth stories, role-play various situations, explore websites, and present an oral story to the class.
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Classic Storytelling with a Technology Twist

For Teachers K - 1st
Students use technology to improve their knowledge of literary terms, math, and technology skills. In this technology storytelling lesson, students learn about character, plot, and setting in various stories by using technology like...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Oral Traditions to Improve Verbal and Listening Skills

For Teachers All
Students examine the role of stories in African and African-American cultures. This lesson is written for students with visual impairments. They
Unit Plan
Polar Trec

Talk Story: A Native Way of Knowing

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The steps of the scientific method examine a problem, make a prediction, and attempt to solve the problem—similar to the path most stories take. In the activity, individuals see how stories can explain natural events similar to the way...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Electricity and Magnetism

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Make oral presentations electric and magnetic! As the conclusion of the study of electricity and magnetism, class members are assigned to bring to life items or people associated with these topics. Speaking as the person or object,...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Legends of the Fifth

For Teachers 5th
Students explore the the legends and myths of the Orient, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas in this six lessons unit. Different cultures and belief systems of the inhabitants of these areas are examined through storytelling techniques.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Retelling Nursery Rhymes

For Teachers 4th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using the Comic the Rabbit and Bear Paws to teach

For Teachers 1st
First graders read a portion of an illustrated story featuring an oral storytelling tradition in order to gain an understanding of the tradition. They recognize that Aboriginal people's relationship with place has changed over time.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fun With Weaving

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate the concept of weaving through the telling of a story. They follow the story to create a context for the class project. Students use templates to weave and create their own works. Upon completion of the project...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Great Gullah Story Telling Packet

For Teachers 6th
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...