Legends and Tall Tales

After exploring local history and discussing the characteristics and traits of tall tales and legends, students write and illustrate their own animated legends or tall tales based on local people or events in their community.

Engage

Read a few tall tales, such as the story of John Henry or Pecos Bill to your students. You might also enjoy Mary Pope Osbourne's American Tall Tales.

Tall tales have characteristics like:

1. feats of daring, strength, or cunning
2. lots of exaggeration
3. use of humor
4. problems with people, nature, or progress
5. the hero has a helpful partner (may be an animal)

Share factual information about this person from American history. What differences are there between the historical information and the tall tale? Work together to compare the stories and record your findings on a Venn diagram.

Venn Diagram

Share a list of people and places in your region that might make sense for a legend or tall tale. Then, form teams of 3-5 around a person or event that interests them.

Provide materials students can use to begin their research. Have them use a cluster-style organizer to write down characteristics, events and actions facts that might lend themselves to a tall tale or legend.

Cluster Organizer

Create

Discuss the structure of an effective tall tale with your students. The beginning of the story needs to draw interest and set the theme. The rest of the story needs to support the theme in a logical order and must include carefully exaggerated points to qualify it as a tall tale or legend. The closing should wrap up the story and share why this topic is important to local history.

Have students use a storyboard to brainstorm and organize ideas for the tale.

Storyboard Template

The members of each team can work together to write the story or divide it into beginning, middle, and end to work individually before combining their ideas. Keep it simple by asking them to create a single page to hook the reader and then a page for events in the beginning, middle, and end.

Before they begin drawing or illustrating the book in Wixie, make sure the story is completely written. Students can also add audio narration to each page.

Share

Print student work to share as hard copies in your school library or at a local history museum.

Create a page on your web site to host the student tales as a collection and curate their work. Reach out to your local history society and your local library to join you for the presentations or even to host student work on site using a kiosk or event.

Standards for English Language Arts

Writing - Key Ideas and Details

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.