Creating Their Own Folktales

Summary:
Students will prepare to create their own narrative (folktale).

Time Frame:
6-7 days of ELA block (2 hours daily)

Skills:
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events. Establish a
situation and introduce a narrator or characters. Organize an event sequence
that unfolds naturally. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning,
revising, and editing. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and
feelings to develop events or show the response of characters to situations.
Provide a sense of closure. Publish their creation using a traditional or digital
tool.

Materials:

For students- why this moral organizer, folktale story elements graphic
organizer, storyboard four square, crayons/markers/colored pencils,
anchor chart of fables/folktales and their morals, copies of stories we read
to use as mentor texts for their own writing, pencils, rough draft paper,
student devices/computers if they choose to complete the writing process
online, revising and editing checklist, folktale project success criteria
student

For teacher- projector, computer, flip chart or PowerPoint presentation

for each part of the narrative creation, model example for each part of the
narrative creation

Background for Teachers:

Teachers need to be familiar with different folktales from other cultures,
understand the elements of a folktale, be acquainted with the narrative writing
process, basic understanding of computer programs/tools if they have access to
this technology

Student Prior Knowledge:

Students must have: an understanding of what a folktale is, how the moral is
conveyed through key details, exposure to a variety of folktales from around the
globe, and an understanding of story elements.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Objectives:
Students will prepare to create their own narrative (folktale) by choosing a
moral, characters, and setting.

Students will prepare to create their own narrative (folktale) by organizing their
event sequence through storyboarding.

Students will draft folktales to develop imagined events.

Students will write event sequences that unfold naturally using dialogue.

Students will strengthen their writing by revising and editing their folktales with
guidance and support from peers and adults.

Instructional Procedures

1. The teacher will introduce the narrative writing process, starting with pre-
writing. The students will discuss how watching people (how they behave
and how they solve their problems) can help discover life lessons. They will
brainstorm problems they have witnessed inside and outside of school, how
were the problems resolved, what consequences came from the people’s
actions, and what possible lesson could be learned from this. Using these
ideas, the students will choose a moral, explain why it is important for
third graders to know, and how will their characters learn this lesson
(choosing a problem or situation that relates) on their moral worksheet.
Then, they will write their moral and choose two animals for their
characters and a setting on their fable graphic organizer.
a. Teachers may use the preparing to write a fable flip chart/PPT
slides already created to introduce this lesson. They may also use
their own materials to teach this.
b. By the end of this lesson, students should have their moral,
characters, and setting picked out. They should have an idea for the
problem in their story.
2. Next, the teacher will have the students begin creating their story sequence
through storyboarding. A storyboard is a visual tool that is used to help
authors write clearly about their stories. Students will use the problem or
 situation they chose from the moral worksheet and turn that into an event
sequence. The teacher will model creating a storyboard and writing main
idea sentences for their fable. Each box of the storyboard will have a main
idea sentence along with a picture showing what is happening in that part
of the story. Parts of the story include first, next (problem), then, and
finally (solution).
a. Teachers may use the event sequence flipchart/PPT slides already
created to introduce this lesson. They may also use their own
materials/resources to teach this.
b. This will be a good time to make sure the students moral, characters,
setting, and event sequence match each other.
c. By the end of this lesson, the students should have a good idea of
their storyline and be prepared to write in the next part.
3. Then, the teacher will have the students use their storyboard to begin
drafting their folktale. Their folktale should include a title, event sequence,
temporal words or phrases that signal time, strong verbs, and dialogue.
(mini lessons can be taught for temporal words, strong verbs, and
dialogue). The teacher will model using their storyboard and turning their
illustrations and main idea sentence into a full storyline. Teachers may
even want to revise for each part on a different day or chunk it, so all
students are finished with one part before moving on to the next. The final
part will be coming up with a closing for their folktale, where they wrap
up the main idea of their story and restate the lesson learned.
a. Teachers may use the drafting/dialogue, temporal words, strong
verbs, and closing flipchart/PPT slides already created to introduce
these mini lessons. They may also use their own materials/resources
to teach this.
b. This may be a good time to have a peer in their own classroom
preview their work and provide feedback, possibly pairing students
together who have a different moral/perspective.
c. By the end of this lesson, the students should have a well-written
folktale.