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Fables, Fairy tales and Folklore

General Curriculum Outcomes (Grade 7)
Speaking and Listening:
GCO 2: Students will be expected to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly,
and to respond personally and critically
Reading and Viewing:
GCO 5: Students will be expected to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of
strategies, resources, and technologies
GCO 7: Students will be expected to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their
understanding of language, form, and genre
Writing and Others way of representing:
GCO 8: Students will be expected to use writing and other ways of representing to explore,
clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their
imagination
GCO 10: Students will be expected to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and
other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness
Specific Curriculum Outcomes (for Grade 7)
2.2- recognize that different purposes and audiences influence communication choices such as
vocabulary, sentence structure, rate of speech, and tone during talk; consider appropriate
communication choices in various speaking contexts
2.3- follow instructions and respond to questions and directions
5.2- become increasingly aware of and use periodically the many print and non-print avenues
and sources (Internet, documentaries, interviews) through which information can be accessed
and selected
7.2- recognize that print and media texts are constructed for particular readers and purposes;
begin to identify the textual elements used by authors
8.4- demonstrate an ability to integrate interesting effects in imaginative writing and other forms
of representation

Consider thoughts and feelings in addition to external descriptions and activities

Integrate detail that adds richness and density
Identify and correct inconsistencies and avoid extraneous detail

Make effective language choices relevant to style and purpose

Select more elaborate and sophisticated vocabulary and phrasing

10.1- understand and use conventions for spelling familiar words correctly; rely on knowledge of
spelling conventions to attempt difficult words; check for correctness; demonstrate control over
most punctuation and standard grammatical structures in writing most of the time; use a variety
of sentence patterns, vocabulary, and paragraph structures to aid effective written
communication
10.3- acquire some exposure to the various technologies used for communicating to a variety of
audiences for a range of purposes (videos, e-mail, word processing, audiotapes)
10.4- demonstrate a commitment to crafting pieces of writing and other representations
Teacher Goal- Within this unit plan, the students will be studying fables, fairy tales and
folklore. They will learn the definition and the difference between each one, and how they have
developed throughout history. The following weeks will be dedicated to learning about each
individually through study of language, themes and format and work on developing personal
responses to each different category. Students will be able to engage with this unit through
different mediums such as comic strips, written word, answer sheets and short stories developed
by the students themselves. By the end of the unit, students should have spent significant time
exercising their ability to write and express themselves through other mediums. Students will be
able to demonstrate creative writing through the fables, fairy tales and folklore, and demonstrate
their knowledge of spelling and understanding of vocabulary through their pieces of writing.
Context- This unit plan will take place in 1 hour classes that will span out over the course of 3-5
weeks. Each different section of the unit (fables, fairy tales and folklore) will be given at least
one week to be studied and worked on with the students. They will engage with reading and
listening, but will focus mostly on writing and other ways of representing their ways of thinking
towards the different pieces of writing they are given.
Materials- Appendix A-J
Laptops (for days 4 and 5)
Film clips from Disney movies
One copy of each fairy tale
Copies of the four legends
Copies of creations myths

Day 1: Introduction class

The first day will introduce the students to the topic that they will be learning about over the next
few weeks. Students will be asked what they know about fables, fairy tales and folklore. The
three terms will be written on the board and students will be given 30 minutes to brainstorm as a
class anything that they know about the three categories. Each word will be written on the board.
(30 minutes)
After this, the students will be given a handout (Appendix A) of the definition of fables, fairy
tales, myths and legends (the two latter falling under the category of folklore). Students will be
able to see how characters, setting, problems and solutions are presented within each category.
They will be able to keep this chart to use as a reference throughout the unit as they work
through their own writing. We will talk through this chart and explain some examples from wellknown stories. This will be a brief picture of what will be studied more in depth over the next
weeks. (15 minutes)
The first class will end with the students brainstorming in groups of 4 or 5 of some examples
they can think of fables, fairy tales, myths and legends. (15 minutes)
Day 2: Fables!
Lets learn about Aesop!
Aesop was according to legend a slave on the Greek island of Samos in the
sixteenth century B.C. It is said he was a brilliant storyteller, who may have used
his fables and stories, which usually depict animal characters who speak and think,
to make statements about the rulers of his time. Whether fact or fiction, Aesop is
credited with almost all the fables we know today. And the morals are as true now
as they always were.
We will talk about who Aesop was (or theoretically was) and how his fables influenced the
society he was in. Whether or not Aesop was a real person, the impact of these stories is evident.
Aesops fables were able to provide a moral lesson in a short span and provide a lasting impact
for the reader. The beginning of the class will provide this information for the students (20
minutes)
Students will continue the class with a worksheet to help demonstrate their understanding of
morals in fables. Appendix B provides a worksheet with fables followed by questions about the
lessons given in each fable. Students will have the remainder of the 40 minutes in class to read
through the fables and practice their reading ability. Since this is not a marked assignment,
students will be expected to read and answer as many fables as time will allow in class. This will
help them prepare for the assignment during the rest of the week. (40 minutes)

Day 3: Begin to draft your fables

After spending day 2 reading through fables and learning how the moral lesson is presented,
students will begin drafting their own fables. Appendix C provides the students with a guide as
to how to draft a fable. Students will be expected to create characters, a setting, a problem, and
the solution which presents the moral of the story. This class will be used to write out on paper
the story as presented in the examples given from the worksheet the day prior.
Notice needs to be taken to see how long the students need to write their rough draft of their
fable. An extra day can be taken to make sure students have sufficient time to draft their
assignments.
Students that have finished their rough drafts will need to have their draft reviewed by one of
their classmates. Students who have completed their drafts quicker than their classmates can help
by reviewing multiple stories to keep themselves engaged.
Day 4 and 5: Creating comic strips of fables
The next two days will require the laptop chart from the school so that each student can have a
computer to work on.
The website StoryboardThat.com provides an opportunity to create a free 3x2 comic strip with
6 boxes to tell a story. The website provides free backgrounds, characters, and text boxes which
will present the fables that students have written. This helps students take the written work and
transpose it into a new medium.
After the two days, students will email their final copies for assessment. Provided in Appendix D
is a marking rubric for these fables. Students will be marked on their development of characters,
setting, problem and moral, along with their spelling and creativity.
Day 6: Fairy tales!
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features European folkloric fantasy
characters, such as dwarves, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, mermaids, trolls,
or witches, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from
other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of
the events described) and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables
The first 15 minutes of class will be used to discuss what fairy tales are. This will include
reading the description above taken from Wikipedia to provide a base definition to what fairy
tales are. The teacher will also describe the role of once upon a time and happily ever after
for the students. Once upon a time provides the set up in the story for a magical journey to
begin. Since this is the phrase is very common, it has become synonymous with the beginning of
a beautiful old story full of the fantasy described in the description above. Happily ever after is

the put at the end at the stories as it signifies the happy future in store for the characters at the
end of their journey in the story. (15 minutes)
We will spend the next 20 minutes watching some short clips of film adaptations of some of the
fairy tales we will be studying. We will see 3 different examples of this happily ever after
ending depicted in film. (20 minutes)
What will next be discussed is how many stories have been adapted throughout time to become
more family friendly. This is what I call the Disney-fication of fairy tales. Some of the more
gruesome aspects to the stories written by Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm Brothers.
Disney has taken a lot of these stories and have removed some of the more different aspects
which has changed what fairy tales means for our generation compared to 200 years ago.
Through the Disney-fication of fairy tales, they have become only stories that make us feel good,
but it misses the fact that these authors used to use these stories to teach morals, just like Aesop
in his fables. (15 minutes)
The final 10 minutes of class will be used to assign the fairy tales that they will begin reading
next week. This will only be done if we get through our conversations in time. There will be 6
groups that will each be assigned one story that they will be working through during the rest of
this section.
Stories: Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog
Princess, Rapunzel
Day 7: Learn your fairy tale
Students will be asked to read through the story given to them in the previous class as a group
and begin to identify the characters, setting, problem and solution as identified by their first
handout. (40 minutes)
From here, students will be given a series of questions (provided in Appendix E) to work through
to demonstrate their understanding of the different aspects and characteristics of their groups
fairy tale.
Day 8, 9, 10 and 11: Social media assignment
Within the stories provided to each group, students will be asked to pick one of the characters in
the story and write a blog for them, or create a Facebook or Instagram page. Within this
assignment, they will need to write four different blog entries written from the perspective of the
character they have chosen, or two pages of Facebook or Instagram posts according to
instructions given in Appendix F.
Students will be asked to review and rewrite their own entries as they finish each entry. Students
will be expected to correct their own spelling and grammar mistakes after they finish an entry to
ensure and demonstrate their own knowledge of writing.

The blog assignments will be handed in for assessment based on the rubric provided in Appendix
G.
Day 12: Folklore! (In myths and legends)
The first class of this final section will be spent defining what folklore is, and then reducing it
down to myths and legends which will be the two categories we will further study within the
class.
Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy
tales, stories, tall tales, and customs included in the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It
also includes the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared.
Mythology can refer to the collected myths of a group of peopletheir body of stories which
they tell to explain nature, history, and customs- or to the study of such myths. As a collection of
such stories, mythology is an important feature of every culture. Various origins for myths have
been proposed, ranging from personification of nature, personification of natural phenomena to
truthful or hyperbolic accounts of historical events, to explanations of existing ritual.
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take
place within human history and to possess certain qualities. Legend, for its active and passive
participants includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility", as that is defined
by a highly flexible set of parameters, which may include miracles. (20 minutes)
The remainder of the class will begin with reading some example pieces of legends. This will
include Pandoras Box, the Wishing Well, the City of Rome, and the echo. There will be four
stations that students can travel to and read examples of some more famous legends. This will
allow students to move around the classroom to read at their own pace and get at least one legend
read to understand how these story explain the origins of particular items, things or places. (40
minutes)
Legends: Wishing Well, the City of Rome, Echo, Rainbow, Dreamcatchers
Day 13: Passport around the world
This will be a continuation of the previous class where the students travel around their room to
read legends. This class will take place in the library though where there will be five stations,
each a different region of the world. Appendix H provides the teacher with a sign for each region
for each myth.
Each region will provide a creation story based from the religion or culture that resides in that
region. These creation myths provide an explanation of how the world came to be according to
the myth in that particular culture.

Students will be given a passport for each region that they visit (Appendix I). Each page will
ask the students to describe what they have learned about the characters and what they saw
happen
This section of the unit will give students an opportunity to see how cultures depict the creation
of the world. With this knowledge and the knowledge from the legends in the previous day,
students will be prepared for their final project over the next four days.
Creation myths: Glooscap (Eastern Canada), Gaea (Greece), Ahura Mazda (Persia), Trentren
Vilu and Caicai Vilu (Chile), Bumba (Central Africa)
Provided at the end of this day if there is time, students will be given Appendix J. The sheet will
help students begin their process for writing their creation stories in the next few days.
Day 14, 15 and 16: Creation stories
Students will be asked to write one page creation stories. This can be either the creation of the
world or a region, like the myths, or the creation of a particular item or thing in everyday life,
like the legends. Students will need to create a main character, a setting, and a story as to how
this main character helped create whatever they created. Students will then have at least two
classmates review their writing before they type a final draft to be handed in for assessment.