Recurring Themes of African American Folktales

The purpose of this unit is to explore the themes that are ever present in African American folktales. Students will be introduced to a variety of folktales presented by two famous authors and many unknown authors. The importance of the use and necessity of oral storytelling will be targeted throughout the unit. Not only will the students read, analyze and interpret the tales, they will look at the history of this rich tradition. Once they have been exposed to various tales, students will create folk tales. The tales will be illustrated and published. This unit will be taught to an eight grade Reading and Language Arts class. It also includes a series of lessons using differentiated instruction. One of the classes is a modified special education/ inclusion class in which the average reading level is 3rd-4th grade.