Class Description: This unit is for a fifth grade class with a very wide range of reading levels.

Unit: Fables

Topic of Lesson: What is a fable?

Unit Goals: At the end of the unit, students will be able to identify the key components in fables and create their own fables using this information.

Lesson Objectives:

• After reading the article, students will be able to complete a word map for the concept the words moral and fable.
• After completing the lesson, students will be able to define, in their own words, the words moral and fable.

Assessment:

• Students will have completed word maps. (See assessment)
• Students will demonstrate their ability to define these terms in class discussion and by the definitions in their vocabulary notebooks. (See assessment)

Reading Type: Reading to be informed.

Macrostructure Thinking Skill: Definition

Materials:

• Seven Blind Mice
• List of example morals
• Blank word maps and transparencies
• Fable encyclopedia article

Procedure

I. Readiness

a. Motivation

Today we are going to start a new reading unit. I am going to read a story to you. It is a picture book, but I want you to think about how this story is different from other stories that you have heard, read, or even written in the past.

Read Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young.

Discuss the book with the class, emphasizing literal meaning and figurative meaning. This should be a review from the poetry unit.

b. Tapping and Developing Background of Experience

Let's use this story to review what we know about the parts of a story. Who can tell me one part of a story? Where do we find it in Seven Blind Mice ?

(Expected responses:

• Characters are the blind mice.
• Setting is by the mice's pond.
• Conflict is that Something is by the pond and they don't know what it is.
• The Plot is each day a different mouse goes to the pond and thinks the Something is something different.
• Resolution is that the last mouse finally discovers that it is an elephant and everyone agrees.

Continue probing until all parts are discussed.)

What do you think the purpose of this story is?

(Answers will vary. Students will either state a specific purpose such as to show that one should look at the whole before judging something by its parts. They may also give the broader purpose which is simply to teach a lesson or impart wisdom.)

This story is an example of a fable. We are going to be learning lots more about fables today and in our unit.

c. Concept Development/ Vocabulary

Can anyone tell me what I mean if I say that something is morally correct?

(Answers will vary. It is honest and fair.)

For our unit we are going to learn a new meaning for the word moral. Instead of being an adjective, this new meaning is for when “moral” is used as a noun.

In your table groups, I want you to look at the examples of morals that I am passing out and come up with a group definition of the word moral.

Example morals:

• Appearances can be deceiving.
• A man is known by the company he keeps.
• Do not attempt too much at once.
• One man's trash is another man's treasure.
• Look before you leap.
• Slow and steady wins the race.

Allow time for this task.

Let's have each group share its definition and make a class definition for the word.

(Expected definition: a statement that teaches a lesson about life.)

Hand out a blank word map and put a transparency of it up on the overhead.

I want to show you a new strategy for vocabulary words. It is called a word map.

Explicitly teach students how to fill in the word map and model the strategy, using examples and characteristics suggested by the students. Have them record this information on their own word maps.

Now that we have a better understanding of what a moral is, I would like you to write a definition, in your own words, in the vocabulary section of your notebook.

d. Purpose for Reading

Today you are going to read a short article about fables in order to be informed about what exactly fables are. As you are reading, or when you are finished, I want you to fill out a word map for the word fable. It should be like the one that we just made as a class for the word moral.

Hand out another clean copy of the word map for students to fill out during the silent reading portion of the lesson. Students can choose to use the guided word map or the challenge word map.

II. Silent Reading

Students read the article “Fable” from the Grolier Children's Encyclopedia and fill out the word map. Circulate throughout the room, helping students if necessary and monitoring reading.

III. Discussion

Before we discuss as a class, I want you to turn to the person sitting next to you and explain to them what a fable is, in your own words.

Allow time for this task.

Put another blank word map on the overhead. Discuss each section of the map with students and record the class consensus. Have students adjust their maps if necessary.

How are fables like other stories you have read? What makes them unique?

(Answers will vary. Fables teach a lesson and have a moral. They often have animal characters that act like humans. Allow many students to respond.)

Now that we have discussed what a fable is, I would like you to write a definition, in your own words, in the vocabulary section of your notebook.

IV. Rereading

I want you to reread paragraph four, and this time I want you to think about how fables were created and how and when they were recorded. Are the fables that we have recorded today different from the originals? Why?

Allow students time to read, and then discuss the questions as a class.

(Answers will vary. Fables may have changed from retelling so many times before being written down, there can be multiple versions of the same fable, fables from other cultures have been translated into English, etc.)

V. Follow-up

At the end of this unit, we will all be writing our own fables. I would like for you to start thinking about some possible topics for writing a fable. Use what you learned today about what makes a fable different from other stories and what we learned about morals to brainstorm some good ideas and record them on a blank sheet of paper. A list or cluster will be fine.

Give students several minutes to begin this task. Circulate through the room and monitor students' work. Make sure that each student has at least two ideas written down.

It looks like we have some great ideas out there. I would like you to put your idea sheet in your folder. You can continue to add to it for the next several days.

Click here to see how students will be assessed for this lesson.