Tales - Heroes, Deeds and Wonders

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Description

The selections and learning opportunities in this thematic unit focus on tales about heroes, deeds, and wonders, and the lessons readers can learn from the characters and situations. It helps students develop concepts pertaining to:

• the tales genre, specifically the messages that tales convey; the tradition of tales and their retellings across the ages; the similarities and differences among tales from different cultures
• lessons and values taught and learned through these tales - love, compassion, forgiveness, courage, friendship, peace
• the oral tradition and its historical and cultural impact across and within many groups, and the empahsis on oral tradition and retelling

Major Integrated Resource (MIR)

• Collections 6 Series Available from Pearson Education Canada

Curriculum Materials Centre

• Tales : heroes, deeds, and wonders [kit]. -- Scarborough : Prentice Hall, c1998
  1 teacher's resource module, 1 teacher's resource module Western ed., 1
  program information booklet, 11 learning strategy cards, 17 anthologies, 20
  books (various titles). -- (Collections. 6 [Prentice Hall Ginn])

  Grade level: Int.
  Contents: Novel titles: Borrowed black (5 c.) -- Jeremy Thatcher, dragon
  hatcher (5 c.) -- Out of the dark (5 c.) -- Persephone (5 c.).

• Comparative mythology [kit] : anthologies. - 25 books.Compiled by Curriculum Materials.
  Grade level: Sr.
  Contents: Australian legendary tales (Parker/Bodley Head) -- Australian
  legendary tales (Parker/Viking) -- Deeds of gods and heroes -- A
  dictionary of mythical places -- Encyclopedia of world mythology --
  Eskimo songs and stories -- Gods & heroes from Viking mythology -- The
  golden treasury of myths and legends -- Hammer of the north -- Hawaiian
  tales of heroes and champions -- The magic fiddler -- Mythology -- The
  mythology of Mexico and Central America -- Myths and legends: Amazon --
  Myths and legends: Creation of the world -- Neverland -- The other world
  -- The serpent and the sun -- The sound of flutes -- Spirits, heroes &
  hunters -- The stolen fire -- Unicef book of children's legends -- Voices
  in the wind -- Warriors, gods & spirits -- Words from the myths

• Heroes. Intermediate. Kit #1 [kit] / compiled by Curriculum Materials. -- ---
  [S.l. : s.n.], c1965-1997.
  30 books (various titles).

  Contains some fictional material to support this topic.
  Grade level: Int.
  Contents: Amazing journeys -- The book of three -- Bravery -- Canadian
  disasters -- The Children's book of heroes -- The Corrections Exemplary
  Service medal -- Courageous spirits : aboriginal heroes of our children --
  Courageous spirits : aboriginal heroes of our children teacher's guide --
  Famous children -- The fire bird -- The Fire Services Exemplary Service
  medal -- Florence Nightingale -- Great African Americans in business --
  Great African Americans in music -- Harpoon of the hunter -- Harriet
  Beecher Stowe and the Beecher preachers -- Health and science -- Julie --
  Kids with courage -- Meet Nelson Mandela -- Mieko and the fifth treasure -
  - Night of the twisters -- Odds on Oliver -- Seeing fingers : the story
  of Louis Braille -- Summer of the hungry pup -- Sundiata -- Underground to Canada -- The value of love -- Voices from Vietnam -- Zlata's diary :
  a child's life in Sarajevo.

• Cornerstones 5a [kit] : Canadian literature arts. -- Vancouver : Gage, c1999.
  15 anthologies, 1 assessment guide, 1 book of masters + 1 teacher's
  guide. -- (Cornerstones)

  Grade level: Int.
  Summary: This kit covers topics on self & relationships, science, social
  studies & literature. The following contents note lists titles contained
  in the anthology.
  Contents: World wide kids -- This is our planet -- Heroes old and new --
  Make a magazine.

• Heroes. Intermediate. Kit #3 [kit] / compiled by Curriculum Materials. -- ---
  [S.l. : s.n.], c1967-1996.
  24 books (various titles), 1 kit (containing 8 books, 1 sound cassette, 2
  guides).
  • Contains some fictional material to support this topic.
    Grade level: Int.
    Contents: Almighty Voice and the Red Coats -- An American hero -- Animal
    heroes -- Boris -- The boy who held back the sea -- Celebrate the spirit -
    - Courageous spirits -- Esther's story -- Harriet Tubman -- Helen Keller
    (kit) -- Her story II : women from Canada's past -- Heroes & heroines --
    Heroes, heroines, historical -- Imaginary heroes and heroines -- Letters
    from a slave girl -- Martha Black -- Massasoit -- Pauline Johnson --
    Pontiac -- Stephen Hawking -- Red Cloud -- The secret wish of Nannerl
    Mozart -- So young to die -- The winter hero -- The wolfing.

Web Resources

• Writing with Writers - Myths, Folktales and Fairy Tales - students explore fairy tales and some different ways of retelling familiar tales. Here you will find classroom activities and a tool to publish students' stories online.
• Writing with Writers - Folktales - students share the magic of clever animals, enchanted kingdoms, and much, much more. Along the way, they are offered tips, challenges, and guidelines to help them to write their own folktales. When they're done they are able to publish their writing on a Web Site
• Mythweb - a website designed for both teachers and students devoted to the heroes, gods and monsters of Greek mythology. It includes links to other sites
• Gods, Heroes and Myths - Kidsafe site devoted to the heroes, gods and monsters of Greek mythology. It also includes myths from many cultures and time periods
• Daedalus and Icarus Myth - from Mythman's Homework Help Centre are two versions of this classic Greek Myth
• Star Myths - from the Alexandria Society and Educational Foundation comes this page for students and teachers about the legends and lore behind the constellations in the night sky.
• Aesop's Fables - Traditional and Modern - Read and see the traditional versions of Aesop's classic tales, along with modernized versions. Requires the Flash plug-in.
• Creation Myths - An Annotated & Illustrated Collection of Worldwide Links to Mythologies,
  Fairy Tales & Folklore, Sacred Arts & Sacred Traditions
• Elements of Folktales - Students will explore the common elements of folktales and tall tales, while learning how these tales built up people's spirits. Students will identify the tall tale elements. Students will read traditional folktales and view filmed versions of those stories. They will discuss the differences between the literary and media versions by comparing, contrasting, and analyzing the elements of each.
• Gander Academy Myths and Legends - this Web Site lists links to Animal Legends, Tales That Teach a Lesson, Tales from around the World and Origin Tales.
• Myths and Fables - from the Internet Public Library comes a bank of links to stories from all over the world - some of them have been told to children for hundreds of years.
• A World of Myths - In this lesson, students will explore how myths help to explain nature and science. Students will read, discuss, and respond in writing to a variety of myths. They then create a graphic representation of one of those myths.
• Fables - Students are introduced to traditional fables. Students learn about the qualities that make a tale a fable and read representative selections. Students also engage in storytelling activities and dramatic presentations of traditional and original fables.
• Fools and Tricksters in Literature - Trickster tales are great favourites in many cultures. These often feature an animal, representing the underdog, who uses skill and cunning to outwit a superior.
• Myths and Legends - A series of lessons in which students can explore, through close reading, the origins of stories that have been passed down through the generations to explain natural phenomena, the creation of our world and the adventures of fictional or story book characters.
• Even Gods Have Bad Hair Days - Students choose a Greek or Roman mythological character to research, then select a typical problem faced by middle school students today and write a descriptive narrative about how their hero or heroine would handle it.
• Tales of Changing Seasons - Students create original myths explaining why the seasons change.
• Fractured Fairy Tales - Students will use familiar characters, plots, and settings from traditional fairy tales to create "fractured" versions, while experimenting with satire, irony and parody.
• Fairy Tale Autobiographies - 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.
• Folktale Frenzy: WebQuest Writing - 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.
• Proverbs: An Introduction - Out of the frying pan and into the fire! A stitch in time saves nine! Look before you leap! In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of proverbs and explore how proverbs such as these, meant to convey cultural knowledge and wisdom, are often closely tied to a culture’s values and everyday experience, although their meanings are not always readily apparent to us today.
• Proverbs: At Home and around the World - Proverbs in one culture are frequently similar to proverbs expressed in other cultures. For instance, the French "Qui vole un oeuf vole un boeuf" translates to "He who steals eggs steals cattle"; but your students will likely be more familiar with the American proverb "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile." In this lesson, students work with proverbs from home and from around the world, exploring how these maxims are tied to a culture’s values and everyday experience.
• Proverbs: Contemporary Proverbs - "Don't store all your data on one disk" is a contemporary update of the traditional proverb "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Such traditional proverbs are often closely tied to a culture’s values and everyday experience. As a result, their meanings are not always readily apparent to us today. This lesson challenges students to craft more apparent meanings for traditional maxims by updating proverbs from around the world and writing proverbs of their own.

• Greek Mythology - Students participate in three activities. They individually research a greek god/goddess, work in groups to produce an original myth, and then adapt it into a play to present to the rest of their classmates.
• Retelling the Classic Tales - Drama students are responsible for all aspects of a performance of a play based on a fairy tale.

Related Novel Sets Available from the Curriculum Materials Centre

• Myths and Folk Tales Around the World by Robert R. Potter - Summary not available

Do you have a lesson plan, resource or web site you would like to contribute to this page? Contact us at: Online Learning Centre

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