Wilma--Assignment # 6 Yeah!

Wilma--assignment #6 Y--Utilizing the Inquiry Square on p. 140 of T-A to help kindergarten students understand the fable, "The Lion and the Mouse":

The main thing I would want students to learn from reading fables is the main idea (the Problem and lesson learned) and to understand symbolism.

Having read several fables to my students already, such as, "Tortoise and the Hare", "The Ant and the Grasshopper", and "The Shepard Boy and the Wolf", I would introduce the title of the new fable, "The Lion and the Mouse", and read an introductory portion. Through a talkback or think aloud with the students we could arrive at the conclusion that the purpose of fables is to teach a moral lesson about a problem that people might have. We would also review the facts that a fable is usually a very short story with a title, and that the characters are usually animals...who have human values. (Procedural knowledge of form).

By discussing various characteristics of animals...sly as a fox, wise as an owl, slow as a tortoise, etc., we could help students understand fables. (Declarative knowledge of substance). We could discuss the title of the new fable and talk about the qualities of each of the characters. We could list things we might learn from each character. After reading some introductory portions of the fable, we could predicts what the problem might be and what lessons might be learned. We could relate this to their own experiences of being told that they are too small to help in various situations. (We would be using procedural knowledge of substance in the think-aloud by accessing relevant experiences.)

Following the reading of the fable, we would have a discussion as to whether or not this fit the description of a fable. It had a title, was short, had animals as characters, it had a problem to be solved and taught us a lesson. (Declarative knowledge of form).

I would also include in the discussion:
Decisions the lion made and decisions the mouse made
Consequences these decisions caused or could have caused
Lessons the lion learned and lessons the mouse learned
The overall moral of the story
(This should help with the declarative knowledge of substance.)

As a follow-up to the reading of the fable, I would provide faces mask puppets in the dramatic play center or have students act out some of the fables on the playground, in our classroom, or in another classroom. In the Art Center, students could also make stick puppets, etc. We might discuss other possible lessons we could learn from fables and I would try to locate some fables to read about these lessons.

I had a little trouble deciding which section of the inquiry square I was using for various activities, since they seem to inter-relate and overlap.