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Learning Objectives 

Students will: 

• Make text-to-self connections. 
• Apply reading comprehension strategies.
• Analyze the story elements of a tall tale.
• Analyze the similarities and differences between folkloric characters and creatures.
• Write an informative text, explaining, persuading, or entertaining an audience.
• Identify meanings of terms unique to literary language.
• Present a report to the class in the form of a dramatic interactive story, monologue, or news report.
• Respond to literature through writing and discussion.

Standards Alignment

National Core Arts StandardsNational Core Arts Standards

Common Core State StandardsCommon Core State Standards

Recommended Student Materials

Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.

Websites

• Interactive Storytime: Allie Tells Stories with Allison Lerman-Gluck
• Creative Monologue with Khaleshia Thorpe-Price

Books

• Tall Tales (Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, The Gum-Chewing Rattler, Miss Sally Ann and the Panther)
• Cryptids (Bear Lake Monster, Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Chessie, Chupacabra, Kraken, Tahoe Tessie, Honey Island Swamp Monster, Mothman)

Teacher Background

Teachers should be familiar with American tall tales, cryptozoology, cryptids, and how to write an interactive story, monologue, or news report. Teachers should be cognizant that tall tales are an exaggerated and fictional representation of the American West settlement and experience of indigenous peoples. It is important to review a print or digital text prior to introducing a tall tale to your students. Like many classic American books, tall tale versions can contain problematic content such as implicit bias, racism, stereotyping, and a limited point of view. 

Student Prerequisites 

Students should be familiar with different types of stories, such as tall tales, folktales, and fairy tales. 

Accessibility Notes

Adapt student handouts as needed and allow extra time for task completion. Digital, print, and audio versions of the recommended books might be available. 

Engage

1. Make a t-chart on the board with the following words, “Tall Tales” and “Cryptozoology.” Ask students. What do you know about these words? What do you notice or wonder?

2. Activate student’s background knowledge about heroes and heroines. Ask students, to share an example from a family story, book, or movie. Explain to students that tall tales contain exaggerations about characters and events passed from generation to generation. Most heroes and heroines of tall tales have unknown origins. Sometimes they were real people who were known for unusual strength or courage, and their deeds became exaggerated over time as their exploits were retold. Eventually, the heroes and heroines became larger-than-life characters. In other cases, the tall tale characters never lived at all but were fictional characters who became more fantastic with each retelling of their stories.

3. Activate student’s background knowledge about mythical or legendary creatures. Ask students, to share an example from a family story, book, or movie. Explain to students that much like tall tales, cryptids made their way into stories and have been passed on from generation to generation. Cryptids are mythical aquatic, terrestrial, or winged creatures. An area of study called cryptozoology is a pseudoscience. Other pseudosciences include hunting ghosts or UFOs. Enthusiasts look to prove the rumored existence of these legendary animals from folklore records. 

4. Introduce students to popular North American tall tale characters and cryptids. Tell students that folklore is usually passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Tall tale legends and fantastic cryptid creatures are among the stories carried forward by North American cultures. Display the to explore the images and resources. Have students share a character or creature they remember hearing from their own family or culture. List the stories, characters, or creatures on the t-chart.

Build

1. Introduce the three main elements of tall tales: character, setting, and hyperbole.

Character: Discuss with students the fact that the characters in tall tales differ from characters in other types of literature because their traits and feats are more exaggerated. Emphasize that the characters in tall tales often personify the traits most admired by the people who helped create the stories. Lumberjacks, for example, created the character of Paul Bunyan. These types of heroes and heroines were courageous, strong, honorable, thoughtful, and intelligent. 

Setting: Setting is the time and place of the action of the story. The setting is more crucial in tall tales and folktales than it is in most fables. The setting in tall tales emerges from the specific experiences of people who lived in a particular time and place. For example, Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack, did great deeds in the huge forest of new land. 

Hyperbole: American tall tales use hyperboles, an extreme exaggeration for emphasis. Generally, exaggeration creates a picture that is impossible and funny. Here is an example: One time snowflakes fell so large in Oregon that the ladies put handles on them and used them for umbrellas.

2. Have students read and explore the elements of a tall tale. Provide print or digital text resources for one or several tall tales (Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, The Gum-Chewing Rattler, Miss Sally Ann and the Panther). Note: Teachers should be cognizant that tall tales are an exaggerated and fictional representation of the American West settlement and experience of indigenous peoples. It is important to review a print or digital text prior to introducing a tall tale to your students. Like many classic American books, tall tale versions can contain problematic content such as implicit bias, racism, stereotyping, and a limited point of view. 

3. Tell students to keep the following points in mind as they read the tall tales.

-Let the characters come alive in your mind.

-Visualize the setting. Picture where and when the events take place.

-As you read each hyperbole, visualize what is being described.

-As you read, notice the connection between events. Events can be related chronologically, but in tall tales, events are usually related in terms of cause and effect; that is, the first event is the cause of the second, and the second is the effect of the first.

-When you read a tall tale, ask yourself: What makes the most important character a hero or heroine?

4. After reading, distribute the handout. Have students analyze and record the elements of a tall tale. 

Apply

1. Tell students they are going to apply elements of a tall tale to write an interactive story, monologue, or news story about a cryptid. Have students imagine they are cryptozoologists researching a fantastic and mysterious North American cryptid. Share the with students. Allow time for students to research and gather information (, , , , , , ). 

2. Show students the videos, ​​Interactive Storytime: Allie Tells Stories with Allison Lerman-Gluck and Creative Monologue with Khaleshia Thorpe-Price. Tell students they are going to apply the theatrical strategies to tell a cryptid tall tale. 

3. Review the with students. Model for students how to apply story elements from tall tales (character, setting, and hyperbole) as well as their cryptid research to write an interactive story, monologue, or news report about a North American cryptid. Allow time for students to work independently or in small groups. Provide feedback and time for peer editing. 

4. Invite students to perform their pieces for the class. After each performance, ask students to respond to the performance with comments and questions. 

Reflect 

1. Assess students’ knowledge with a written reflection. Ask students, How is folklore an expression of culture and traditions?