Core Knowledge Foundation
Different Lands, Similar Stories Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology
A read-aloud anthology highlights how one story differs depending on where it comes from. Scholars listen carefully to familiar and new stories, participate in discussions, and complete word work practice. Extensions for each lesson...
Curated OER
Morality "Tails" East and West: European Fables and Buddhist Jataka Tales
Have your class explore Buddhist Jataka Tales to compare and contrast them to European fables. After defining fables, Jataka tales, and the elements of each, learners identify themes and patterns for both types of narratives and the...
Curated OER
What is a Philanthropist?
What does a philanthropist do? Help your class explore philanthropy using character development and literacy ideas. Learners will define and give examples of philanthropy, listen to The Lion and the Mouse, discuss how the characters help...
Curated OER
Retell the "Tail" of the Tale
Students explore story structure. In this multicultural literacy lesson, students discuss common elements of folk tales and then listen to the story Tiger and the Big Wind: A Tale from Africa. Students identify the problem and solution...
Indian Land Tenure Foundation
Tribal Origin Stories
The teacher reads and retells Californian tribal origin or creation stories that come from the traditions of a variety of California Indian tribes. Then, pupils get together in groups and retell the stories they just heard; just as the...
Curated OER
A Soldier's View of the American Civil War
Study and research the American Civil War in this explanatory writing instructional activity. Middle schoolers complete six activities to learn about the American Civil War and soldiers' views of the war. The instructional activity...
Curated OER
Retell the Story
Students identify bias in books. In this character education lesson, students read a text and discuss any gender or racial bias which may be present. Students retell and rewrite the story in a fair way.
Curated OER
A Pixie Biography Report
Students practice biographical writing after completing research on the subject. For this journalism lesson, students read a story of an important person's life and discuss the important moments along the way. Students utilize their...
Curated OER
The Story of the Candy Cane
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students read about the origin of the candy maker's candy cane and color the candy canes. Students retell the story and color 1 candy cane.
Curated OER
Combining Geography and Literature by Mapping a Story
Learners listen to or read a story on their own. Using the text, they describe the relative locations of the main events. In groups, they develop two and three dimensional maps of the story. They create a key and a title for their map.
Curated OER
Using Plot Elements to Retell a Story
Sixth graders chart a story. In this plot elements lesson students chart and then retell a story from the rising action until the resolution. Students use stories from the book America Street.
Read4Health
Piggybook: A Read4Health Lesson Plan
"You are pigs." With those three simple words, the lives of the Piggott family were changed forever. Read aloud the children's story Piggybook by Anthony Browne and teach your class the importance of personal responsibility, learning...
Curated OER
The Night Before Thanksgiving
Natasha Wing's story The Night Before Thanksgiving is a great way to incorporate rhyme and literature into the Thanksgiving season. Learners make text-to-self connections, recall main events, and choose post-reading activities from an...
Curated OER
Sunday School Inspiration Lessons
Many activities related to the Chrisitan religion are included in this lesson about storytelling; students create their own Bible related art from stickers, stamps, t-shirts and hats. Puppets also help to to retell Bible stories and...
Curated OER
Cinderella Stories: An African Tale
Students read and analyze an African version of the Cinderella story. They listen to John Steptoe's story, "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters," locate Africa on a map, compare and contrast the story with Cinderella, and identify fairytale and...
Curated OER
Stories of the American Experience
Students identify a veteran to interview. This could be a family member of one of students or someone contacted through an organization in the community. They use a storyboard to plan their movie about their subject.
Curated OER
Anansi: A Language Arts Twist to the Trickster
Students read African folk tales to learn about story elements and writing techniques. In this writing and reading skills lesson, students listen and retell African folk tales about Anansi the spider. Students complete four lessons to...
Curated OER
The Name Jar
Students participate in a lesson that focuses on the literature of Korea. "The Name Jar" is read by students to practice some essential reading skills. This would include the recognition of sequence in a story, characterization, and...
Curated OER
Where is Flat Stanley?
Students create a story map of the basic elements and significant events of the book Flat Stanley. Students brainstorm places they would like to visit if they had been flattened and then, write about an imagined experience. Students...
Curated OER
Ancient Story Problems
Pupils research ancient civilizations, and develop story problems using symbols and coins from those times. They retell these story problems using modern terms and coins.
National First Ladies' Library
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights
Pupils hold a Thousand and One Nights storytelling festival with each one memorizing a story to relate to classmates. While examining provided resource links, they select and practice a story they would like to retell. As a dress...
Curated OER
The Holocaust: Retelling the Story
Pupils compare and contrast two different presentations of Holocaust experiences. They participate in class discussions and write journal entries to explore the differences between the book "Until We Meet Again" and the film "Devil's...
Curated OER
Community Helpers
The book, Doctor Ted is used to kick off this instructional activity on Community Helpers. Young learners make connections to their own life by dictating a story of their own, and inventing other jobs that Ted can do.
Asian Art Museum
Telling Tales with Kamishibai
Kamishibai (paper drama), is a Japanese form of storytelling that uses emakimono (paper picture scrolls), to relay a moral lesson. As part of a series of resources that examine Japanese art and artists, learners watch a video retelling...