The six-week unit focuses on stories that are worth retelling across generations. Students will read trickster tales from multiple cultures and a Langston Hughes poem. They will explore why some stories are preserved over time by researching cultural backgrounds of tales. Students will write their own stories to pass down and dramatize a poem, engaging with texts in various ways while building vocabulary like character traits and pronouns.

1. Isaac School District No.5
ELAS Thematic Unit Overview Grade 3 – Unit 1
2012-2013
Unit 1: Stories Worth Telling Again and Again
DURATION: Six Weeks
Students commence the school year by reading stories that are worth telling and retelling.
Students read the tales of grandparents, and they become familiar with the tradition of “trickster stories” across multiple cultures. They
read a Langston Hughes poem, and review the parts of speech through Ruth Heller’s World of Language books. The students engage
the text in multiple ways. They write stories they want to preserve; they also build upon their knowledge of geographical settings of
folktales from previous grades as they research the cultural backgrounds of the trickster tales. They dramatically interpret a poem by
Langston Hughes.
Essential Questions: Vocabulary:
author noun
Why do we hand stories down to the next character motivation problem
generation? character traits pronoun
collective noun revising
How do we choose which stories to editing shared research
preserve? the fool solution
generational stories the trickster
Essential Learning: illustrator trickster tales
internet search verb
Students understand that some stories are narrative writing verb tense
timeless because they tell of values and
morals that are relevant to all people.
Distributed Resources Aligned to Unit 1:
More Stories Julian Tells (Cameron & Strugnell) Through Grandpa’s Eyes (Maclachlan & Ray)
Sign of the Beaver (Speare) Merry-Go-Round: A Book About Noun (Heller)
Mine, All Mine: Kites Sail High: A Book About Verbs (Heller) A Book About Pronouns (Heller)
Underlined vocabulary indicates Tier II word. 1