One of my favorite second grade units is fables. I love teaching fables in ESL because the simple nature of the stories make them accessible to English learners with the right support. In addition, this unit is a fun and engaging way to cover the common core standards RL 2.2 and 3.2. It’s also a great unit to review skills, or extend with writing. Check it out!
Fable Chart
After talking about the basic features of fables, we read five (or more) fables over the course of a school week so that students can see how much they have in common. Aesop’s fables can be readily found in libraries, bookstores, and online reading websites , as well as in my fables resource on TPT. Each day new vocabulary is introduced, the fable is read and discussed, and findings are recorded on teacher and student charts.
Depending on the levels of your students, this can be adapted in so many ways. You can read the fables chorally, and talk about each part. For higher level proficiency students, they can read with a partner or group. They may also be able to cover more than one fable per day, or two versions of the same fable. We talk about fluent reading, and they practice reading with expression. We practice sequencing by retelling the fables. Depending on how much time we have, this can be done orally or in writing.
Once we have read a couple fables, I cover up the lesson with a sticky note and ask students to share what they think is the lesson from the fable. We also discuss how the lesson could apply to their lives. We talk about examples of greediness, friendship, and perseverance.
Which is your favorite fable?
The second week students write opinion pieces about their favorite fable. Justifying why it is their favorite helps English learners develop a deeper understanding. It also gives them practice with stating an opinion and supplying reasons to justify their opinion (common core writing standard 2.1 and 3.1). You can also make a graph of your students favorite fables, and bring in the language of math.
Write a New Fable
For a culminating writing activity, students write their own fable. Organizers help English learners plan their writing. It is so rewarding to see multilingual learners write creatively while using all the elements of a fable that they have learned. Students practice story telling and how it can teach a lesson. If you have extra time, students could even act out the fables with their classmates.
To find these resources and more for teaching fables in ESL class, click on one of the photos or click here.
(Finally, if you need another unit idea for second grade, one on changes in technology from the past to the present can be found here.)
