Animal folktales: Legends, superheroes, and pourquoi tales

By writing a narrative about an animal rather than a traditional report, students can learn about literature, develop writing skills, and still fulfill science and research objectives.

By Melissa Thibault

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Rethinking Reports

Creative research-based assignments provide alternatives to the President Report, Animal Report, and Famous Person Report that ask students to think about old topics in new ways, work collaboratively, and develop products that support a variety of learning styles.

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Learn more

• Invasive Species Educational Resources This website provides excellent resources for students, including links to a variety of media formats, databases and demographic information. This collection of essential reference materials, appropriate for secondary students, covers a variety of topics, including how invasive species enter an ecosystem, how invasive species can be detected and monitored, why we need to be concerned about invasive species, and how communities, researchers, and governments are responding to invasive species.
• Invasive Species from the National Agricultural Library provides links to more programs and resources related to federal and state efforts concerning invasive species.

Related pages

• Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge: Located in Anson and Richmond counties of North Carolina, the diversity of habitats and management programs supports a broad range of wildlife species, including over 168 birds, 49 amphibians and reptiles, 28 mammals, and 20 fish species.
• Goose Creek State Park: Located six miles from historic Bath, Goose Creek State Park provides educational opportunities for K-12 students in the flora and fauna of the area.
• Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge: Located in Camden County on scenic U. S. Highway 17, the original Ocean Highway, just three miles south of the VA/NC border, the Great Dismal Swamp Center sits on the banks of the Dismal Swamp Canal, part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

Related topics

• Learn more about English language arts, animals, biology, folklore, invasive species, pourquoi tale, science, and writing.

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By researching animals, students learn about the adaptations and characteristics specific to their animals as well as the role their animals play in their natural environments. Creating a narrative allows students to present the information they learn through their research while learning valuable writing skills, studying traditional forms of literature — and even having fun!

Why?

Physical or behavioral adaptations as well as interactions (or the lack thereof!) can be the centerpiece of a story that explains why. Pourquoi tales, such as Kipling’s famous Just So Stories, explain how something came to be. Like a myth, the Pourquoi tale provides a supernatural explanation of the creation or alteration of a natural phenomenon or animal. For more information, see “Teaching with Pourquoi Tales” from Instructor.

Talk with the animals

Personification of animals appeals to students of all ages. From crafty Anansi the Spider’s trickster tales to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Watership Down, animal protagonists exhibit complex character traits and human behaviors.

Students can share what they learn about their animals by storytelling, drawing comics, or writing a complete story. Based upon their research, what human character trait might best be represented by this animal? Write a story in which this animal is protagonist or antagonist, taking care to keep the environment accurate and the actions in character with the animal’s real-life environment.

Might this animal be portrayed as a superhero, accomplishing Herculean tasks and making its world a better place? Even if the role the animal plays is predator, this animal character can be portrayed as the hero, helping to maintain the balance of its ecosystem. Who would be the villain in this tale? The “bad guy” could be Man, upsetting the balance and contributing to habitat loss — or perhaps an invasive species determined to wheedle its way into the ecosystem and threaten the balance of nature.