Electronic Stories and Digital Storytelling

Young people love to retell and invent stories. They also like to listen to the stories of others.

Design activities that get students involved in read and creating stories.

Backgrounds

Visual backgrounds are a good place to start a writing project. Consider providing objects to place on the background or let young people locate objects. Think about story starter and writing prompts. Look for ways to connect storytelling to science and social studies projects.

Download and explore the following Background starters: Where are we going? (PPT), Let's go to the circus (PPT), Let's go to the city (PPT), Let's plan for disasters (PPT), Let's go to the farm (PPT), Farm to Family (PPT), Let's go to the park (PPT), Let's go to the pool (PPT), Let's go for a drive (PPT), Let's go to school (PPT), Let's go shopping (PPT), Let's explore space (PPT), Stop pollution! (PPT) and Where are we going (PPT).

Variations

• Provide objects to use on the foreground such as animals or people.
• Create audio directions on the PowerPoint slide. Provide a paper version of the background. Ask students to follow your audio directions on the paper version such as "put a hat on the horse." Create a parade of animals. Place the pig first and the duck last. Or review direction words, opposites or other words.

Tall Tales, Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Myths

Think about ways that young people can explore, analyze, and write tall tales, fairy tales, folklore, and myths. Start by reading tall tales such as Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson & Nancy Carpenter. Look for books by Steven Kellogg.

Download the Let's Tell Tall Tales (PPT) PowerPoint Sidekick.

Lesson Ideas

PreK-2 Lesson Ideas

• Fairy Tales Around the World (K-2)
• Teaching About Story Structure Using Fairy Tales (K-2)
• Unicorns, Dragons, and Other Magical Creatures (K-2)

Grades 3-5 Lessons

• Born on a Mountaintop? Davy Crockett, Tall Tales, and History (3-5)
• Exploring World Cultures Through Folk Tales (3-5)
• Fairy Tales from Life (3-5)
• Sequencing: A Strategy to Succeed at Reading Comprehension (3-5)
• Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing (3-5)

Grades K-5 Lessons

• Cinderella Trilogy (K-4)
• New Takes on Old Tales (K-5)
• Pioneer America: Folklore and Tall Tales (K-5)
• Pioneer America: Legendary Westerners (K-5)

Grades 5-8 Lessons

• A Variety of Unwise Characters (5-8)
• Elements of Folktales (5-8)
• Exploring American Tall Tales (5-8)
• Once Upon a Fairy Tale: Teaching Revision as a Concept (6-8)
• Tall Tales Today (5-8)
• Writing Folktales (5-8)

Tall Tale Postcards

• W. H. Martin - Known for tall-tale postcards
• Exaggerated Postcard

Tall Tale Websites

• 42explore: Tall Tales - links
• American Folklore
• Animated Tall Tales - include audio
• Paul Bunyan
• Fairy Tales - lots of teacher ideas for Kindergarten
• Folk and Fairy Tales, Tongue-in-Cheek Versions - list of books
• Fractured Fairy Tales - interactive
• Multicultural Cinderella Stories - list of books
• Myths, Folktales, & Fairy Tales from Scholastic

Variations

• Watch Spinning Stories, Telling Tales. Create a PowerPoint Sidekick to help young people distinguish among tall tales, fairy tales, folktales, myths, and legends.
• Retell the story using photographs rather than the illustrations in the book.
• Create a "sequel" to a book.

Create your own PowerPoint Sidekick.

Digital Stories

• Lionel's Tall Tales
• Literactives - with animation and audio

Storytelling Websites

• DigiTales
• Story Arts
• Weaving Words: The Art of Storytelling
• Web English Teacher: Fairy Tales & Folktales

---