COMMON CORE STANDARDS:

Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate
understanding of key details in a text.
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.RL.2.3
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.6
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different
voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
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.

THEME: Fables
LESSON TOPIC: Character Development in Fables
OBJECTIVES:
Content:
Students will be able to distinguish character traits of the two main characters in the fable
Students will be able to recognize and describe the change that a character makes
throughout the fable
Students will be able to create a representation of the main character of the fable through
an art activity
Language:
Students will be able to state the moral of the fable and write it down
Students will be able to display and describe their character art activity final product with
their classmates
Students will be able to discuss as a class what character traits describes which character

KEY VOCABULARY:
Content Vocabulary:
Fable, Morals, Character traits

Cross-Curricular Vocabulary:
Describe, Recognize, Distinguish, Positive, Negative

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS:
-

Video of the Ant and the Grasshopper

Projector
Elmo
Character development handout
Notecards
Big poster and markers
Black construction paper, glue, colored pencils and scissors
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Moral of the story worksheet

MOTIVATION:
(Building background and explicit links to past learning)
Go over the objectives by writing them on the board and saying them.
Review what a fable is.
Ask students what the definition of fables and morals are.
Call on students who are raising their hands to state one component that needs to be included in
a fable.
Introduce the fable we will be reading/watching.

LESSON SEQUENCE:
(Language and content objectives, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, feedback)
Watch the video of the fable, the Ant and the Grasshopper with a focus on vocabulary.
Go over the vocabulary that was highlighted in the video.
Ask the students if there were any other words that were in the video that they did not recognize.
Ask the students what it means by character traits.
Explain what character traits are and talk about how characters need traits in every fable. Then,
give a few examples of character traits.
Complete the character trait chart of the ant and the grasshopper with the class. Have character
traits written on notecards. Go over the definitions of the character traits. First, ask the students if
they know the definition of the word, if they don't know, give them the definition of the character
trait.
Then, call on a student to move one of the notecards with the character trait under the character
that embodies this character trait throughout the fable. After every trait is placed under a
character ask the class to give a thumbs up or down on whether it is placed under the right
character. Call on a student who is raising their hand to give an example of how the character
portrayed this character trait during the fable.
Ask students at the end of the activity if they know of any other character traits that we could use
to describe the grasshopper or the ant. Write them on the board under whichever character they
were describing.

PRACTICE AND APPLICATION: MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES

(Meaningful activities, interaction, strategies, practice and application, feedback)
Explain to the students how to fill out the character development worksheet. (Do together as a
class and put your worksheet on the elmo to display for the whole class to see).
After filling out the worksheet go over what the moral of the fable is. Have them write it down on
the handout.
Give them the choice of creating an ant or a grasshopper. Give them green or black construction
paper and slowly explain/give directions on how to cut out and create an ant/grasshopper from
their construction paper.
Have them glue on their ant/grasshopper and moral handout onto another piece of construction
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paper.

REVIEW/ASSESSMENT:
(Review objectives and vocabulary, assess learning)
Review what the moral of the fable is and what character traits are by asking them questions at
the end of the activity.

WRAP-UP: (Go over content and language objectives; closure of lesson)

Have the students show each other how they made their ant paper. Display a couple of them on
the elmo.
Then have students turn to their partner and describe their ant or grasshopper by using one of
the character traits we discussed in class or one of their own they came up with. Have them say
the sentence My grasshopper/ant is _______ (insert character trait). Write this sentence on the
board. Call on a few students to share with the class how they would describe their character.
(Reproduction of this material is restricted to use with Echevarria, Vogt, and Short, 2013. Making Content
Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model.)

2013 Pearson Education, Inc.