This collection presents techniques for tapping a broad range of literary sources to inspire young writers. Drawing upon poetry, folk tales, story jokes, and more, Literary Ideas walks students in grades 3-8 through the process of creating new stories and developing them as scripts for choral readings, readers theatre, and classroom plays. The…

As multicultural education is becoming integral to the core curriculum, teachers often implement this aspect into their courses through literature. However, standards and criteria to teach and promote active discussion about this literature are sparse. This book introduces pre-service and experienced teachers to the use of literature to promote…

This folktale unit supports 6th- through 8th-grade students exploration of the many subgenres of folktales: trickster tales, fairy tales, fables, tall tales, and legends. The unit focuses heavily on the use of technology as a learning tool as students work together to create WebQuests for their peers to explore. During the 10 one-hour sessions,…

In this book, the author has adapted 25 folktales from across Asia for whole classroom use. Every student in the class will participate in telling these tales. The number of students in the class divides the stories. Using large poster board students illustrate their portion of the story and then present the story in grade level concerts.…

In this book, the author reveals the creative force of children's narrative imagination and shows how this develops through childhood. He provides a new and powerful understanding of the significance of narrative for children's intellectual growth and for learning and teaching. The book explores a series of real stories written by children between…

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of "The Snow Queen," adapted from the story by Hans Christian Andersen by Sandra Deer. The guide, called a "Cuesheet," contains seven sheets for use in class, addressing: (1) What Happens in "The Snow Queen?" (offering…

Designed to combine with studies in various disciplines, such as history, costume, language, dance, music, and social studies, the 10 plays in this book are drawn from the fount of American folklore and popular culture. They range from European, African, and Asian folktales recast in New World settings to the mythology associated with real-life…

Students will work in groups to read and analyze fairy tales, brainstorm for events in their lives that could be changed into fairy tales, develop setting, characters, and plot for their fairy tale, write, illustrate, and compile their fairy tales into group books. During ten 45-minute lessons, students will: choose three fairy tales and read them…

The 15 adapted fairy tales presented in this book were prepared for use in practicing oral reading by a parent and a child, a teacher and a child, or two children, one of whom reads slightly better than the other. The stories in the book are arranged in dialogue format for two readers. The high interest/low readability stories in the book are…

With the help of the teacher, students will read fairy tales and identify common elements. Choosing common situations and working in small groups, students will draw storyboards of their fairy tale and then write the fairy tale. Project will conclude with class presentations. During ten 50-minute lessons, grade 3-5 students will: listen and read…

An instructor, who teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in storytelling, incorporates discussions of gender issues throughout the semester in various ways. In one course, class discussions are used to raise issues of the origin of Grimm's fairy tales and of story variants. Students are also encouraged to choose gender issues in…

This issue of the "Goldfinch" is devoted to Iowa folklife. The first article explores what "folklife" is and provides several examples. The second article is about artwork and poetry done by Mesquakie Indian children from the Sac and Fox Settlement School near Tama, Iowa. Dome-shaped structures, called "wickiups," in…

This curriculum unit introduces intermediate grade and middle school students to the work of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most talented composers of the contemporary American musical theater, and teaches them about the process of writing an original musical. The unit notes that in his musical "Into the Woods" Sondheim incorporates (and…

This manual presents a collection of activities for grades three through seven which are designed to provide both teachers and students with all the instructional materials needed to make the Logo programming language an integral part of the educational environment. Each unit contains lesson plans, overheads, instruction sheets, and student work…

The contributors to this volume believe that learners do not learn in isolation but absorb what is around them. This book includes practical applications and case studies used to make literary teachings come alive in varied ESL/EFL classroom settings around the world. This book brings to life the organic connection between literature and language…