Students learn about the beginning, middle, end, and parts of a story as they retell or adapt a fable.
Read The Hare and the Tortoise from the Library of Congress to your students, then discuss if they're familiar with the story. Explain that stories teaching lessons are called fables and ask them to name others, like The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, The Lion and the Mouse, or The Crow and the Pitcher. Many fables use animals and explicitly state the moral.
The moral of The Hare and the Tortoise is
Share that Aesop's fables were written by a Greek slave over 2500 years ago, and the Library of Congress version is from 1919, nearly a century ago. Have a classroom discussion to see which version the students prefer and to explore how stories can convey the same message in various ways.
Tell students they will be reading Aesop's fables and creating new versions with the goal of making the lesson in the story easier for kids to understand. The versions they create can be a straightforward retelling or an adaptation of the story.
Divide students into small teams and have them choose a fable to retell. Then, have teams read the story as a group.
Assign the Begin, Middle, and End organizer for each team member to break the story into pieces, making it easier to retell.
Then, have them discuss how they split up the story.
You can also use a Parts of a Story organizer to help students identify character, plot, and setting. This is especially useful if teams are working on adaptations that go beyond a straight retelling.
Teams should use the details from their organizers to write a rough draft of their retelling using a blank book template.
Students can use the paint tools and Image Library to enhance their text with pictures to support their writing. They should record narration on each page so viewers will be able to hear the story as well as read it.
Share the URL or export the stories as PDF or ePub files and share them via email or in your media center's eBook library.
You can also print stories in different ways. If stories are structured to include a title, beginning, middle, and end, print as a four-page booklet.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.2
Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.3
Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.5
Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.