Home > Lesson Planning Channel > Lesson Planning Archives > Lesson Plan of the Day Archive > Language Arts & Reading > Lesson Planning Article

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Language Arts
  --Literature
  --Visual Arts

Grade

• 3-5
• 6-8
• 9-12

Brief Description

A powerful modern-day fable leads to an exploration of Aesop’s fables and students writing their own.

Objectives

Students

• explore fables of modern times and Aesop's ancient fables.
• understand the structure of a fable.
• think critically about the lessons/morals of a variety of fables.
• decide on a lesson they would like to teach through a fable; apply the fable structure to writing that lesson.

Keywords

fable, Aesop, writing, critical thinking

Materials Needed

• story of the boy and the fence
• selected Aesop fables indicated below
• paper and pencils

Lesson Plan

Provide a copy of or project on a screen the story of the boy and the fence. Give students an opportunity to read the story, or read it aloud to them. When the reading is completed, ask students to think critically and to write a sentence or two to describe the moral, or lesson, of the story.

Next, pair each student with another. Ask students to share their sentences about the moral of the story with their partners. Then discuss the moral of the story as a class.

Explain to students that the story they just read was a modern-day lesson story, or fable. Fables have been a storytelling staple since ancient times when a well-known storyteller called Aesop recorded many fables. As a matter of fact, many of Aesop's stories will be familiar to students today.

Share a handful of Aesop's stories with students. You might choose from the list of fables below. Do not share the moral that appears at the end of each story. After reading each story, let student pairs talk about the moral, or lesson, that they think the story was meant to teach. Students will see that many of the stories can teach more than one lesson.

Fables Sutiable for Younger Students
The Crow and the Pitcher
The Dog and the Shadow
The Dove and the Ant
The Fox and the Stork
The Hare and the Tortoise
The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Milkmaid and Her Pail
The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf

Fables Suitable for Older Students
The Crow and the Raven
The Crab and the Fox
The Dog and the Shadow
The Four Oxen and the Lion
The Fox and the Cat
The Fox and the Goat
The Hart and the Hunter
The Jay and the Peacock

Follow-Up Activities
Choose to do one of the following activities.

Lesson Plan Source

National Standards

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES K - 4
NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-VA.5-8.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 9 - 12
NA-VA.9-12.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.9-12.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective
NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.) For additional language arts/reading lesson plans, see these Education World resources: