Forms of Fiction

In the lower grades, when asked by a teacher, "What kind of book is this?" students may have responded by saying it's fiction or nonfiction. Not anymore! We learned about the many types of fiction. There are myths, legends, fables, fantasy, and folk tales just to name a few. During this unit, we read several fables. A fable is a story that teaches a lesson. Many famous fables were written by Aesop. At the conclusion of this unit, students read two fables, "The Fox and the Crow" and "The Wolf and the House Dog" and created a brochure which included summaries of these fables. Here are two samples taken from the brochures.

"The Wolf and the House Dog" by Aesop (summarized by Ty)
Once there was a wolf who never got enough to eat. But one night she ran into a house dog that invited her to live in the village with him. He told of limitless food just for doing nothing. But then, on the way to the village, she asked about a ring around his neck. Then, when she found out she would have no freedom, she ran back into the woods. Moral: Nothing is worth more than freedom.

"The Fox and the Crow" by Aesop (summarized by Regan)
In this fable, a clever fox got up one morning and decided he was hungry. Then he saw a foolish crow in a tree above him. She had a piece of cheese in her mouth. He wanted that cheese. After that, he started to flatter her. When he asked her to caw to see how beautiful it was, she dropped the cheese and the fox ate it! The crow learned that if you let flattery go to your head you'll pay the PRICE!