Wisdom Tales From Around The World

Title: Wisdom Tales From Around the World Author: Heather Forest

F&P Level: T

Lexile: 840

Interest Level: K - 8

Genre: Folktales, Parables, Fiction

Identity Group: Various Cultures

Themes: Fairness, Morals, Traditions, Respect

Summary This is a collection of traditional stories from various cultural perspectives. The book contains fifty folktales and parables from various traditions including; Zen, Taoist, Greek, Sufi, Jewish, and Christian. The tales provide a global perspective on oral traditions from various cultures, expertly retold by Heather Forest. Most stories are around two pages, though some are only one or two paragraphs, while others are four pages or more.

Instructional Suggestions

This compilation would lend itself to a unit on legends and myths. The stories are accessible for many levels of readers, and are easily adaptable to suit students' needs. By reading stories from multiple cultures, students can explore how people from all over the world share values, and how their oral traditions compare.

The stories could be used as mentor texts for students to write their own wisdom tales. They can also be taken individually, and paired with various social studies units.

Possible Common Core connections:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Social Studies: These stories would pair well with any unit exploring different cultures. They provide short texts that demonstrate cultural values from places around the world.

Writing: Many of the stories collected here would be useful as mentor texts. There are stories of varying lengths and themes, many of which can be easily emulated in style and structure.

Vocabulary

Each story has its own possibilities for choosing vocabulary to fit your learners. For example, The Stolen Ax (p. 30) includes: agitated, lurking, fumed

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