Invite kids to build important reading and writing skills, learn about story structure, and discuss ethical behavior as they explore 12 classic fables. Reproducible read-aloud tales and instant writing prompts help children get the most out of each delightful tale, while whole-group discussion questions and activities deepen reading comprehension. Great for character education and creating a caring classroom community! Book jacket.
Despite originating more than two-and-a-half thousand years ago, Aesop's Fables are still passed on from parent to child, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals we have learned from these tales continue to inform our judgements, but have the stories also informed how we regard their animal protagonists? If so, is there any truth behind the stereotypes? Are wolves deceptive villains? Are crows insightful geniuses? And could a tortoise really beat a hare in a race? In Aesop's Animals, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables to discover whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop's portrayal of the animal kingdom. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest findings on some of the most fascinating branches of ethological research – the study of why animals do the things they do. In each chapter she interrogates a classic fable and a different topic – future planning, tool use, self-recognition, cooperation and deception – concluding with a verdict on the veracity of each fable's portrayal from a scientific perspective. By sifting fact from fiction in one of the most beloved texts of our culture, Aesop's Animals explores and challenges our preconceived notions about animals, the way they behave, and the roles we both play in our shared world.
The authors in this volume share exemplary arts-integration practices across the K–8 curriculum. Rather than providing formulas or scripts to be followed, they carefully describe how the arts offer an entry point for gaining insight into why and how students learn. The book includes rich and lively examples of public school teachers integrating visual arts, music, drama, and dance with subject matter, including English, social studies, science, and mathematics. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of why and how to use the arts every day, in every school, to reach every child. Both a practitioner’s guide and a school reform model, this important book: Explains how arts integration across the K–8 curriculum contributes to student learning.Features examples of how integrated arts education functions in classrooms when it is done well. Explores intensive teacher-education and principal-training programs now underway in several higher education institutions. Offers concrete ideas for educators who are looking to strengthen their own skills and improve student opportunities for learning. “Educators are increasingly taking heart and taking hold of arts integration in the ways described in this wonderful volume.” —From the Foreword by Cyrus E. Driver, The Ford Foundation “I find the result of these authors’ efforts stunning.” —From the Afterword by Lois Hetland, Massachusetts College of Art
Ethics in Aesop’s Fables: the Augustana Collection offers an original and innovative analysis of the Greek fable in the framework of Greek ethical thinking. The book starts with a brief account of the history and genre of the Greek fable. It then focuses on the Augustana collection of prose fables and analyses its ethical content in the larger context of Greek thought. A detailed comparison of Greek ethical thinking with the language of the fables shows the persistence of certain types of ethical reasoning and of certain key ethical norms. The author argues that although the fable was not 'philosophy', it was indeed 'philosophical' because it communicated normative messages about human behaviour, which reflected widespread views in Greek ethical thought. This book is of special interest to both students and scholars of Greek fable and of Greek philosophy.
