Unit II. Lessons

How do we learn?

In this unit you will read and study fables. Throughout time, humans have used fables – seemingly simple children’s stories featuring animal characters – to teach important and often complex life lessons. By studying these lessons, we will learn what values have been deemed crucial enough to instill within the youngest members of different cultures and continue to pass down over time. We will explore Aesop’s fables and the Panchatantra. These sources will teach us about the characteristics of fables, personification, symbolism, and character.

As we read and explore, we will apply our knowledge of fables to create our own anthropomorphic stories, teaching a lesson or rule from our school’s Code of Conduct.

Here are the Unit sub-guiding questions you will pursue:

• I: How do stories teach us lessons?
• E: How do you develop a character?
• A: How can we use stories to teach one another?