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| By JOSEPH COTTIN | Folk Tales Unit |
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| ACTIVITY | COMMENTS | |
| PART ONE: "What is a Folk Tale?" Sharing Folk Tales with the Class: I shared "The Ballad of John Henry," "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," and "Oniyeye the Hunter" with the class, as examples of folk tales from America, Europe, and Africa. |  |
The kids really loved this part, although they could get a little rowdy during the stories. We had to have a mini-lesson on proper listening behaviors beforehand, and I found myself having to reinforce that a lot. |
| Class Discussion to Determine the Key Elements of a Folk Tale: Next, we had a guided discussion on what elements made a folk tale what it was. I gave the discussion a nude her and there, so they got all the important points, and wrote it on the overhead. The kids created a page for their Com Arts binder on folk tales that contained these key elements for future reference. |
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This part went fairly well, I thought at the time. Later on, it turned out that not all the students got down the information they needed, and I had to touch on the key elements on several occasions through out the assignment. |
PART TWO: "Find & Share a Folk Tale."Introducing the Activity: I organized students into table groups of four to five students, and re-arranged the seating chart accordingly. They would keep these groups for the rest of the larger Folk Tales unit. Each student had a specific job during the project that they took responsibility for. Students were told what their first task would be. Locating a folk tale & sharing it with the rest of the class through a presentation. |
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Looking back, I would probably add a small element of choice to the group selection process. In each class (2 nd & 3 rd block, 4 th & 5 th block), there was one group that didn't really mesh very well. Interesting enough, although one of those groups didn't perform very well overall, the other got the best grade of the entire class! I won't give kids free rein to create their own groups, but I will give them input from now on. |
Mini-Lesson on Storyboarding: Part of this presentation, and of the one to follow, was creating a storyboard of the folk tale in question. To pave the way for this, I specifically taught the kids what they would need. |
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The kids seemed to like the idea of storyboarding, especially once I compared them to comic strips. This also helped out my more visual learners |
Folk Tale Selection and Group Work: Next, I brought in a cart from the library with a selection of books on folk tales. The groups had one class session to choose their tale, and then they got to work on reading the tale and creating their presentations. |
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Presentations: The kids made their folk tale presentations in one day, sharing a summary of their tale, they key elements that their folk tale contained, and a visual element to go along with the folk tale. Some of these visuals were posters, and others were props. Many groups chose to do their presentations in the form of a skit. |
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These presentations went well. There were a couple of groups that missed the boat when it came to the key elements that we were looking for, and I used this as a wake-up call to specifically re-teach the key elements at the start of Part Three. |
| PART THREE: "Original Folk Tales." Introducing the Activity: This started the third and final lap of the Folk Tales project. They would get their chance to show that they understand folk tales by creating an original tale of their own and presenting it to the class. We reviewed the key elements of a folk tale, gave the students the opportunity to change their positions within their groups, and then helped them get started brainstorming. Students had the option of working on their own, if they wanted to. |
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It was getting close to the Halloween season, and it showed in the tales the students started to create. A lot of them had scary and supernatural element to them. The day I introduced the final stage, I was ON, which was a good thing, since that's the day that the principal observed me. I was surprised that only one student opted to do the original folk tale project on her own |
A Mini-Lesson on Plot: The students were working on book reports at the same time that they were working on the project, so this lesson on how to arrange a plot was timely all around. |
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This was a nice way to get the students to organize their thoughts, and outline what was going on in their story. I really ended up helping the story boarders a lot. |
Group Work, Part Two: Students worked on their stories and the presentations to go along with them. This time, I found myself doing a lot of mediation work with the kids. My two "problem groups" had real communication problems, and that required a lot of attention on my part. |
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Looking back, I think I'll give the students more time to work in their groups. I gave them three days, and they were feeling a little pressed for time at the end |
Final Presentations: Students gave their final presentations, sharing with the class their original folk tales. Storyboards were turned in early, copied, and used as listening guides. Students also had a listening guide, to monitor their understanding of what they heard |
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The original presentations were fun, but we had some problems. About half of the stories had a very horror / R.L. Stine slant to them. It was late October, so I suppose Halloween was in the air. Next, some groups dropped the ball when it came to including the key elements in their stories. I'll probably try to reschedule the lesson if I should teach it again, and I'll definitely re-stress again and again the importance of the key elements. |
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