Unit Authors
This unit was developed by Tom Wood and Marty Ries and delivered to 9th grade honor students at Hilltop High School, in Chula Vista- California over the past few years.
Content Areas
This unit is anchored in language arts and social studies but involves oral communications, drama, art, math, video technology and child psychology. Under social studies we touch base on cultural and physical geography, histories of countries, climate and animal life.
Organizing Theme
What ties this unit together is folktales. In language arts, students study a multitude of folktales from around the world. Here students create their own folktales after they analyze, interpret and compare/contrast the various folktales they read and discuss in class. They are exposed to many different writing styles, languages and common themes which helps them brainstorm for possible creative folktales ideas.
Implementation
This unit was organized by these two teachers who share a block of 9th grade honors in their English and Social Studies classes. This unit lasts about 3 weeks, with much emphasis on building a foundation of knowledge in folktale telling and themes which leads to creating one, with a decrease of time spent in class as the project becomes completed by the students on their own. It is during this time when other curricula-based lessons are intertwined, giving students about 3 days out of the week to work on this project. Although it is mostly an integrated unit, between English and Social Studies, it does incorporate many other subjects. The final project is an oral presentation with visuals, skits and text to elementary age children in their schools and evaluated by elementary teacher(s).
Outline of Activities
Students begin the unit by reading, analyzing and discussing many types of folktales in their English classes. In their Social Studies class, they study origins of folktales with respect to geography and why they are written. "For what purposes do they serve?", is a question they target. After about two days of this, they break up and form groups of 4 or 5 students. They then decide from what country do they want to create a folktale from. Once they've agreed on this, they go to the library and research that country's history, physical and cultural geography, customs and beliefs, traditions, climate and animal life, (because many folktales incorporate animals in them, an understanding of the variety of animals and weather conditions helps students to establish a relevant theme or moral!). After they've done this research on the country they chose, they continue to take notes and learn the common structures folktales are written from in their English classes. Comparing and contrasting different folktales from around the world helps with their "creative thinking", and eventually leads to a foundation from which to build or create upon. These first steps take about a week, including introductions, reading, writing, getting into groups, deciding what country and finally library research.
The next step is to create a folktale which takes the rest of the two weeks. A theme or moral must be created first and be the objective of the project from which the targeted audience should be able to learn from. This is assessed through reinforcement at the end of their presentation either by vocabulary definition, concept learning or thematic interpretation. Story lines, the types and numbers of characters, setting, time, history and monologues make up the majority of the project's creation. It is here where cooperative learning is relied upon tremendously for the success of their final product. Team members working together, brainstorming and creating a folktale is the heart of this unit. Other criteria used are what types of skits, if any, will be acted or performed and by who, what types of visuals aids; such as art, posters, costumes or scenery, will be used to enhance the folktale's presentation;( keeping in mind that their targeted audience is 2nd or 3rd graders), and the divvying up of tasks, i.e. main speaker or presenter, actors, artist, researchers and writers. Extra role assignments can be video technicians/recorders, drama choreographers and music composers. It all depends on the students' desire to create and how much! Projects range from very elaborate with lots of production to basic, short and simple ones.
Student Products
The final product is the end result of the many inter disciplined subjects used to incorporate this creation. Students give an with visuals to a group of elementary students and teachers at their schools. The folktale is presented using the many vehicles created by the students to deliver it. At the end, the presenters check to see if their audience learned what their objective was to be. A final assessment is made by the elementary school teachers. To conclude the project, students then write a reaction to their creation and implementation of their project in the form of a written paper which is shared to the whole class orally.
Thinking Skills Engaged
The types of thinking skills engaged by this unit are many. To begin with, critical thinking skills is used to read, analyze and compare/contrast real folktales from around the world in their English classes. In their Social Studies class, these same skills are used in understanding culture and their traditions, climate and its natural environment and origins or reasons why folktales are made and used. The bulk of the unit is creative thinking. From the foundation of knowledge that was taught to them in the first week of this folktales unit, students then embark on a creative mission to come up with not only an original folktale with a story line and meaning, but to supplement its presentation with the plethora of all other methods of production and eye appeal; keeping in mind that an objective is at the root of this project/presentation.
Lessons Learned
They've done this unit for three years now and "It just keeps expanding with new ideas rubbing off one another!", said one of the teachers. "As long as the students have no limitations on how to create it and how to present it, there will always be change and thus be done differently from group to group, from class to class and from school year to school year!"
This description was written by Jose Aranda. Last updated on March 6, 1996.