Children's Literature, Infancy to Early Adolescence

Classroom Activities

Lesson One: What is Folklore?

Objectives: Students will learn how folklore reveals cultural values. They will recognize stories as the most common form of folklore.

Duration: One period (45 minutes)

Procedure:

I will begin this lesson by discussing the terms folk, folklore, and folktales. I will use an anticipation strategy by asking students to read several phrases posted on chart paper, such as: The Thing about My Folks; Come and Meet My Folks; Folks Like Us; City Folks; and Country Folks. We will discuss the meaning of folks (people) and students will have an opportunity to add other common phrases and understandings to the list. Folks are a group of people who share a common factor. Some examples are: family members, classmates, church members, or ethnic groups.

To introduce the work folklore, I will ask students to think about games they play in schoolyard. We will discuss how they learned to play the game, who decided the rules, who taught them jumping rope rhymes, etc. After ascertaining that these activities were learned from parents, older siblings or classmates, we will talk about other forms of oral traditions found in family and community life, such as holiday traditions, songs sayings, and stories. We will then work toward a guiding statement. Folklore consists of the traditions and beliefs of a group of people that have been passed down orally from one generation to the next.

I will then use a PowerPoint presentation to distinguish between narrative folklore (stories, oral or written), customary folklore (family traditions) and material culture (objects). Students will interact with the presentation by sharing examples for each category. They will be encouraged to make connections for our celebration of Black History Month. I will add their contributions, and continue to so throughout the unit, so that the original generic presentation will become a tribute to their African-American heritage, and later shared with a wider school audience.

We will then concentrate on narrative folklore as we look at examples and distinguishing characteristics of myth, legend and folktale. Students will work in small groups. Each group will have a basket of books that include myths, legends, and folktales. They will sort the books into their respective categories and each group will select a text to represent each type of narrative. As students work on this activity they will discover specific traits as well as overlapping elements. They will use a checklist of characteristics for each type of folklore.

• Type of Folk Narrative: Myth, Legend or Folktale
• Title
• Characteristics: fiction or nonfiction, animal characters, superhuman beings, magic elements humor, setting, and purpose of story (explains why something happens, teaches a lesson, entertains)

Each child will then select a folktale to be read independently. They will use the checklist to respond to the tale.

Lesson Two: Folktales as a Genre

Objectives: Students will develop a schema for the folktale genre as they read and respond to African and African-American animal folktales.

Duration: Two periods (45 minutes each)

Procedure:

I will begin this lesson by explaining to the students the genre of folktales. We will then use their responses from the previous activity to create a poster listing the elements of folktales:

• Setting: Time introduced quickly, Place is generalized
• Plot: Swift, Action-packed, Conflict, Cumulative (use of 3's), Logical (even with magic)
• Characters: Few in number, Flat (one characteristic) Contrast (good/evil, clever/foolish)
• Problem: Strong character takes advantage of weaker character, Task or Quest
• Solution: Short and to the point, Good and clever wins over evil and foolish.
• Style: Use of rhyme and repetition, rich imagery
• Motifs: Place, Object, Action or Character

As we read/listen to folktales, we will use the chart to help us study the genre of folktales and decide how these elements are used or varied to tell a good story.

I will introduce the story, The Name of the Tree, as an example of an animal folktale.

This story retold by Celia Barker Lottridge is adapted from a Bantu Folktale called The Bojabi Tree. Due to a drought in the land, the animals haven't eaten for days.As they search for food, they come upon a tall tree with fruit on top. However, they cannot get the fruit down until they learn the name of the tree. One by one the animals try until the turtle finally succeeds by creating a verse to remember the name of the tree, "Bojabi."

Students will be divided into their age groups. The first graders will use the Readers Theater format to present the story. With copies of the text, students will select parts to retell the story. One student will narrate as the other children engage in the dialogue of the animal characters and action of the story. Retelling the story lends itself to the feeling of triumph within the journey motif.

The second grade students will use the software application Kid Pix to illustrate and retell the story. The story can be divided into six scenes. Working with a partner, students will use the templates, graphics or original drawings to depict the scenes and record their oral retelling. Their pages will be printed out giving them an opportunity to compose a written text for their work.

The third grade students will examine a collection of African and African-American animal tales online and in the class library. They will then work in pairs to select a tale to retell by interviewing the protagonist or helper character. They will use the elements-of-folktale chart to help them compose their questions and conduct the interview. These scripts will be saved for the creation of the podcast in the closing lesson.

Lesson Three: Trickster Tales

Objectives: Students will recognize characteristics of a trickster folktale and identify types of animals that appear in popular trickster tales

Duration: Two periods (45 minutes each)

Procedure:

I will begin by reading the story, "The Hare's Revenge" from Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales to the class. We will briefly discuss the story. What kind of story is this? Is it a folktale? How do you know? Do you know other trickster stories?

Which animal characters play the role of the trickster? We will make a list of the trickster animals that the students mention. The most common African ones are the tortoise, rabbit (or hare) and spider. As we read/listen to African and African American trickster tales, we will notice how tricksters behave in folktales. They break rules, boast and brag, and play tricks. They can be greedy and nasty as well as clever and wise.

Students will work in small groups to enjoy various trickster tales.

One group will read "Little Girl and Buh Rabby" from Virginia Hamilton's Her Stories. Students will discuss how Bruh Rabby outsmarts the wolf, but only after Little Girl and her helper's trick him. Students will also identify the false message and substitution motifs

Another group will read A Story, A Story by Gail Haley, a retelling of the African folktale that explains how all stories came to Earth. They will compare this to an earlier version, "How Spider Obtained the Sky God's Stories" from Jane Yolen's Folktales from around the World. (Available online-see Resources) In comparing the two versions, the students will notice the universality of the folktale with variations for audience's listening pleasure. They will use the application, Kidspiration, to create a spider map graphic organizer to depict characteristics of a trickster tale.

Another group will read Clever Tortoise by Francesca Martin. This is a traditional African tale from Nigeria in which the small clever Tortoise wins a tug of war with Elephant and Hippopotamus. In another story "Why the Hippopotamus Lives in the Water," the tortoise uses a clever trick to uncover Hippopotamus' secret name. In responding to the story, students will discuss the motif of size, the lessons learned, and the educational and/or entertainment value of the tale. I will guide them to recall the secret name motif used in our beginning tale, The Name of the Tree. They will then participate in a round-robin retelling of the tale. Students can improvise, invite audience participation and add dialogue. This shared activity will engage them in the tradition of African storytelling.

As a follow- up computer activity, students will have opportunity to learn more about Nigeria at the World on Your Street website.²³ They can explore food, music, instruments, religion and fun facts. One segment tells about praise singers who are sprayed with money after flattering someone with a complimentary song. Another interactive website, Abadjia Rhythm: Music of Ghana, invites children to experiment with percussion instruments to create patterns with several percussion instruments and play back their song.²⁴ Each group will then compose a brief praise song for their trickster character and practice performing it with their composition of rhythmic background music. These praise songs can be used later for writing activities. Students will experience first hand how folk literature is generated.

Lesson Four: Publishing a Podcast

Objectives: Students will work collaboratively to design a podcast as they explore, synthesize and communicate their understandings of the folktale genre with examples from African and African American tales,

Duration: Four periods (45 minutes each with individual recording sessions)

Procedure:

To begin pulling our thoughts and work together, the students will brainstorm ideas. I will record and display their responses. We will categorize the ideas and sort them by content, curriculum connections, interest, and audience.²⁵ Students will have opportunity to listen to a sample educational podcast to give them a better idea of the task at hand.

For this work we will use a variety show format that allows for flexibility in planning segments and is exciting for younger students. We will decide on six segments. Students will work in groups to write scripts for each audio report and create catchy titles. Other students will work with GarageBand to find appropriate sound effects and themed music for background and transitions. Possible segments might include:

• A Word of Welcome
• Come and Meet the Folks
• Word of the Day
• Tips for Tricksters
• Animal Talk
• Book Review
• Celebrity Interviews
• Lessons Learned
• Fun Facts about Folktales

As the work evolves, we will use post-it notes on a timeline to order the segments and their time allotments. We will record each segment individually so that the speakers have less distraction and limited outside noise. An outline will facilitate the process of recording. For each segment we will rehearse and then record:

1. Introduction
2. Music
3. Welcome from host
4. Each segment
5. Transition music
6. Introduce segment and speaker
7. Content
8. Transition
9. Closing
10. Closing remarks from Host
11. Credits
12. Music

I will work with a few students to do final editing and preparation for publishing. Students will need a permission form from their parents. When the podcast is completed, it will be uploaded to the School District of Philadelphia's web server. Once that is complete, we will create posters inviting listeners and welcoming their feedback.