Story Writing: Animal Folktales Level of Proficiency: Intermediate ...

an elephant have? Some answers might include loyal, has a long memory,
and faithful. Model selecting one characteristic, such as a long trunk, and
thinking about how the elephant got his trunk. Did he get his nose stuck in a
tight place? Did his parents pull his nose as punishment, and it stretched?
Was he too lazy to get up to get food, so decided to stretch his nose to reach
farther? Write the title: “How the Elephant Got Its Long Trunk.”
In groups, students do the same process with the animal they have. Be sure
they have dictionaries and thesuaruses to help with vocabulary. Encourage
them to draw on prior knowledge and stories from their cultures to contribute.
Circulate and review students’ ideas as they work.
When all groups have the handouts completed, display the “Laying Out the
Legend” handout and model prewriting the story about the elephant below.
Give students the “Laying Out the Legend” handout, and have each group
complete the handouts for their animals.
Model using the information on the handout to write the story about the
elephant. Remind students folktales often start with “Once upon a time…”
“Many years ago…” “A long , long time ago in a far away place…” (You may
need to review how we use “ago” - this sometimes confuses ELLs because
the structure is different in other languages.)
Many years ago in a faraway place in Africa, an elephant named
Pepito Nuñez lived with his family. In those days, elephants had
very short noses. They had no hands and fingers, so it was difficult
to grab food. Elephants eat all the time, so Pepito and his family
were always walking around to get food. Pepito was very lazy,
and got tired of getting up and walking around to eat. He
decided to think of a better way. He saw how the giraffe with the
long neck was able to get food from very high trees. He got an idea!
He would stretch his neck like the giraffe. He found two trees that
were close together and put his head between them. He stepped
back and tried to stretch his neck, but it hurt! Worse, his head got
stuck. He had to yell for his mother to come and explain why his
head was between two trees. She got him out and sent him to bed
with no dinner.
Pepito decided to try something different. He found a little hole in
the ground where some tree roots were. It was just the right
size to put his nose in. Everyday he went to the hole, put his
nose in, and pulled for a little while. After many months, he
noticed his nose was growing longer. He exercised it, and
practiced picking things up with it. After a few years, his nose
had grown into a trunk like elephants have today, and he was
able to grab food without walking around so much. The other
elephants saw Pepito and thought he had a good idea, so they
stretched their noses too. Since then, elephants have had long
trunks.