Grade 2 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
WEEK 17 • STUDENT TEXTBOOK • DAYS 81–85
Read each lesson with a parent or teacher and study the worked example. Then answer the questions for that day in the Week 17 Practice Workbook.
Week 17 Student Textbook | Week 17 Practice Workbook | Week 17 Teacher Guide | Week 16 Student Textbook | Grade 2 index
Day 81: Fables, Folktales and Their Lessons
Stories that people tell again and again have special names. A fable is a short story, often with talking animals, that teaches a lesson. A folktale is a story passed down by telling it, from one generation to the next. A legend is a story about a person or event from long ago that may be partly true. A tall tale is a funny story with a hero who can do impossible things.
The lesson a fable teaches is called its moral. The moral is often said at the end, or you can figure it out from what happens. Ask: What did a character learn? What should the reader do or not do?
Worked example: A fable tells of a fox who brags so loudly that the hens hear him coming and run away. What could the moral be?
- Ask: What happened because of the bragging?
- The fox lost his chance because he talked too much.
Worked answer: Bragging can make you lose what you want.
Day 82: Exaggeration and Theme in Folktales
Writers sometimes exaggerate, which means they say something is much bigger, faster or stronger than it could ever be. “I am so hungry I could eat a mountain” is an exaggeration. Tall tales use exaggeration to make readers laugh and to show how strong or clever the hero is.
Many folktales tell why something in nature is the way it is. The theme is the big idea or lesson the story teaches about life. To find the theme, ask: What happened to the main character? What did the character, or the reader, learn?
Worked example: What is exaggerated in this sentence: “The baby cried so loud that the windows shook all over town”?
- Ask: Could this really happen?
- A baby’s cry cannot shake windows all over a town.
Worked answer: How loud the baby cried.
Day 83: Two Versions of a Race Story
People in many places tell stories about a race between a fast animal and a slow one. When different authors or cultures tell a story with the same idea, we call them versions of the story.
To compare two versions, look at the characters, what happens and how the story ends. Then think about the lesson each one teaches. Ask: How are they alike? How are they different?
Worked example: In two versions of a story, one has a wolf and one has a coyote, but both animals try to trick a pig. Is this a way the versions are alike or different?
- The animals are not the same, so that part is different.
- But both try to trick a pig, so the plot is alike.
Worked answer: Both: the characters are different, but the trick is alike.
Day 84: Rhyme in a Song and Writing a Tall Tale
Songs and poems often have rhyming words at the ends of lines. A rhyme scheme shows which lines rhyme. Give the first line the letter A. Give each new ending sound a new letter, and give a line that rhymes with an earlier line that line’s letter. If only lines 2 and 4 rhyme, the rhyme scheme is ABCB.
Read verse 1 of “Yankee Doodle,” a song from the time of the American Revolution. Then you will write your own tall tale, with a hero who does impossible things.
Worked example: Find the rhyme scheme: “I see a frog / Upon a log. / It likes to hop / And will not stop.”
- Frog and log rhyme, so lines 1 and 2 are both A.
- Hop and stop rhyme with each other but not with frog, so lines 3 and 4 are both B.
Worked answer: AABB.
Day 85: Independent Check: Morals, Themes and Retelling
Today you will answer on your own.
Use what you learned this week: fables and folktales, morals and themes, and comparing versions of a story.
Worked example: What do we call the lesson at the end of a fable?
- A fable teaches a lesson.
- That lesson has a special name.
Worked answer: The moral.
Week 17 Student Textbook | Week 17 Practice Workbook | Week 17 Teacher Guide | Week 16 Student Textbook | Grade 2 index
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