1. Unit 3 Literacy Reflects Life: Making Sense of Our World
Is literature always a reflection of life?

2. 7RL2: Determine a theme of a text and analyze its development
Homework: Retell one of the fables from one of the characters’ point of view. 3 paragraphs – beginning, middle, end

3. Characteristics of Traditional Stories
Traditional stories may be short or long, inspiring or humorous. They might end with a character learning a lesson or a “happily ever after”.

4. Fable: A brief story that teaches a lesson or moral, about human nature
Usually has animal characters that stand for specific human qualities, such as kindness or dishonesty
Has a moral that is directly stated at the end of indirectly communicated through what happens in the fable.
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5. Would you rather be clever or strong?
What is a contest?
What are the advantages of being clever or strong in a contest?
What is a situation in which a person would have to have one quality or the other?
What makes a good contest?

6. Characteristics of each ability
Clever
Strong
Being tricky helps you succeed sometimes using the easy way out
Sometimes being tricky can end up backfiring
Gives you advantage in physical activities
Sometimes leads you to be overconfident and can hurt you

7. To identify the theme pay attention to:
The characters and what traits they represent
The contests
Who wins the contests
How they win
When a theme appears in the literature of may cultures across many time periods. It is called a universal theme.

8. Set a purpose for reading
You choose a specific reason for reading.
Your purpose for reading “Two Ways to Count to Ten” and “The Race Between Toad and Donkey” is to identify the universal theme and to find similarities and difference in how the fable expresses it.

9. Draw the chart and fill it in as you read.

10. 7RL2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text
Homework: Find your favorite fable on the internet and print out a copy to bring to class.

12. Writing for Assessment
How do both fables reveal the theme in similar ways?
What is the major difference between the fables?

13. Plan Your Writing
The first paragraph will give titles and explain the theme.
The second paragraph will tell how the theme is revealed in the first fable.
The third paragraph will explain how the theme is revealed in the second fable.
The fourth paragraph will discuss the similarities and differences identified on the list.

14. Draft Your Response
Refer to the prompt in your introductory paragraph: “Although the two fables communicate the same message, they express this message in different ways.
Transitions should strengthen the unity within each paragraph and between paragraphs.
In addition
Unlike
By contrast
Similarly

15. What can we learn from stories?
Lesson: amount of teaching given at one time; a period of learning or teaching
What character from a movie, television program, or story has taught you a lesson.

16. Flat Character: a literary character whose personality can be defined by one or two traits and does not change in the course of the story

17. Round Character: a character in fiction whose personality, background, motives, and other features are fully delineated by the author.

18. Folk Tales are stories handed down through generations by being told out loud. Every culture has its own folk tales, but the stories often share certain characteristics.
Each character usually represents a specific trait or quality.
The plot often centers on events that occur in a set of three.
Many fold tales teach a lesson or moral.
Pay attention to how the characters and plot work together to teach a lesson.

19. Round and Flat Characters
People are quirky. They obsess over little things, fall in love, have strange habits, and they're often unpredictable. Round characters in a story, play, or novel are simply characters who are most like real people. Round characters have depth. When Shrek says 'Ogres are like onions' he means that there's more to them than what you see on the surface. Round characters are like onions too; they have layers.
Imagine you're watching an episode of the original Star Trek. A landing party beams to a hostile alien world. There's Captain Kirk - tough guy, loyal friend, skirt chaser. There's Spock - logical, self-sacrificing and sometimes surprisingly human. And then there's the guy in the red shirt. When the aliens show up to fight, you know Red Shirt is going to get it, and you don't care because you hardly know him. There's nothing to know about him! He's a flat character, one who can be fully described in a single sentence. In this case all you need is two words, 'cannon fodder.'

20. Summarize: Briefly retell the main points of the story in your own words, focusing on the most important events.
Title & Culture: Author: Setting:
Characters:
Events:
Lesson or Moral