Background Reading for Parents (and interested students)
“A Short History of the Aesopic Fable” in The Fables of Aesop (1894)
Introduction to the section on “Fables and Symbolic Stories” in Children’s Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes (1921).
“Introduction” to The Talking Beasts: A Book of Fable Wisdom (1922).
Instruction for Students
Day 1 – Read the following fables.
Create a list of elements common to all the fables. Write a paragraph explaining the purpose of a fable and how that purpose is achieved. Finally, the last fable lacks a moral lesson at its end; what should its moral lesson be?
Day 2 – Rewrite this fable in your own words and without direct speech (speech presented in quotations).
The Man, The Boy, and His Donkey
Day 3 – Rewrite this fable with direct speech.
Day 4 – Over the next several weeks, you will write a fable in a style of your choosing with the same moral lesson as “The Hare with Many Friends.” This week, decide whether you will write a story about animals, humans, or human(s) and animal(s). Brainstorm the types of humans and/or animals you will include in your story, the characteristics of each, where the fable will take place, and a basic outline of the story.
Nihil sub sole novum 