Description:
This list provides a starting point for resources to support First Suite Rich Task #4: Read and Talk About Stories. Resources have been grouped under the following headings:
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Professional associations, community members or organisations able to provide expert information and advice on topics related to the Rich Task.
Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA)
http://www.cbc.org.au/ 
This official site for the Children's Book of the Year Awards includes lists of the winners and commended books for selected years from 1946 to 2001, the Short Lists for 2002 (under Children's book awards ), and access to some information on authors and illustrators. This site is a very useful resource for teachers and teacher-librarians seeking quality Australian books for children. Teachers will find it helpful for selecting books suitable for students to use for their themes.
Classroom Resource Reviews (CRR)
http://crr.qed.qld.gov.au/reviews/afwiinq.dll
This searchable collection of book, video and Internet reviews offers teachers the chance to search for quality books by subject or theme and author or title. Teachers can prepare resource boxes, guided by the reviews, and then offer students a wide range of choices for their themed collections.
Primary English Teaching Association (PETA)
http://www.peta.edu.au/
This teaching organisation is 'committed to promoting awareness of the importance of children's language development'. Through Literature circle , members can access book reviews, a guide to books short-listed by the Children's Book Council of Australia , links to publishers' websites with their book databases (many have helpful book analyses) and suggestions for Internet reading activities in Catching literature in the 'Net . This site could be very useful for teachers guiding students in their choices of themes and fiction books.
Absolutely whootie: Stories to grow by
http://www.storiestogrowby.com/
Entering through the castle allows choice of a range of multicultural stories with positive messages grouped under various categories such as Adventure, Animal tales and Fairy tales. Searching by age brings up a range of stories suitable for competent six to eight-year-old readers with a reading time varying from three to twenty minutes. This collection, designed to be read aloud, offers stories presented as simple illustrated texts, which contrasts with the more sophisticated versions available below. Students will be able to make judgements on the media's effectiveness by contrasting the presentation of this collection with that of Between the lions (see below) for example.
Bedtime story
http://the-office.com/bedtime-story/
Grouped under categories such as Bedtime story classics, Stories about kids and their pets, Stories about kids and their dragons, and Stories about kids and their friendly monsters, this collection of beautifully illustrated stories is suitable for six-year-olds up. For each story, there is a brief description of the plot, the length of time it takes to read and the proposed age group or groups. As stories are grouped under categories, selection by theme is simple. This is a very useful site for the Rich Task.
Between the lions
http://pbskids.org/lions/
Aimed at children from four to seven years this site, derived from a television show, is used to encourage literacy. Fifty-five eight-page printable stories by prominent authors can be read, by choosing Stories . The illustrated pages are presented in slide format and unfamiliar words are highlighted and linked to a dictionary with audio. This is a diverting resource for young readers and the variety of subjects means that students will easily find a story to suit their chosen theme. Under Parents & teachers there is the added bonus of a list of five more books on a similar theme, many available here, that match each episode.
Candlelight stories
http://www.candlelightstories.com/
The subscription site contains a number of free stories, some with audio and slide illustrations. Free illustrated storybooks like The Arabian Nights, Chinese Tea Stories, Just So Stories (abbreviated), legends and assorted folk and fairy tales can be accessed from Kids and read at the student's own pace. These include some original stories with messages suitable for children in lower primary classes. Story theatre has over twenty folk stories from different cultures in audio format, accessible when you subscribe (cost: US$9.95). The provision of stories in different formats satisfies the requirement that traditional and new communications media be blended.
Chateau Meddybemps: Beantime stories
http://www.meddybemps.com/5.1.html
This lively collection of stories has colourful, appealing pictures featuring clowns, animals, fire trucks, etc., and large, clear print to encourage student interest in reading and participating. Illustrated stories may be read aloud to younger children, while readers up to about nine years of age will enjoy the original fairytales for themselves. This site could be used by students for reading enjoyment or language skill development, or by teachers as a source of material or advice on choosing books. Because of the variety of subjects, students can use this site to select stories to suit the themes they have chosen.
Children's literature web guide
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
For teachers this guide gathers together and categorises Internet resources related to books for children and young adults. The site lists children's book awards, including Australian, and links to web sites promoting reading. Stories on the web , for example, contains short stories for and by children of all ages. Teachers could find the site useful for promoting and selecting fiction before students begin the task.
Children's storybooks online
http://www.magickeys.com/books/
Selecting Books to read gives access to a collection of illustrated stories, nine of which are suitable for beginning readers. Although a few are amateurish in style and lack editorial supervision, the collection extends the range of books online available to students for comparing characters and backgrounds.
The Internet Public Library story hour
http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/storyhour/
The stories on this site, available in text and audio, are grouped under subjects as varied as It's magic!, Mother Goose on the Internet and Mousie's adventures. The stories are available as illustrated text, text with audio or animated and should be popular with children from preschool to Year 3. Because the stories are presented in different media they are very useful for children making creative judgements about the best way to present a story.
Kids zone: Myths and fables
http://www.afro.com/children/myths/myths.html
This site of the Afro-American Newspaper Company contains Myths and fables, sixteen delightful stories from around the world. These include several stories about Anansi, the cunning spider of African tales. All the stories are well illustrated, some in typical African style, and are easy reading for competent lower primary readers, or for older students to read aloud. The African setting could be contrasted with settings used in stories from other countries. The vivid illustrations and lively style of the stories set a good benchmark to measure other stories by.
Stories of the Dreaming
http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/storylist.htm
This site contains twenty stories in text, audio and high quality or low quality video formats. The stories are told by Aboriginal people, either the traditional owners of the stories or someone deputed to tell them. Although the text is aimed at middle primary, lower primary students could listen to or watch the stories and compare them with stories on similar themes set in other countries.
Story arts online
http://www.storyarts.org/
The stories collected on this site are 'concise folktale plots retold by Heather Forest for students to explore and retell'. The stories are grouped under Stories in a nutshell... Concise plots for the retelling and Aesop's ABC... Twenty-six fables . While they are too difficult for lower primary readers to read alone, they could be read to classes. There are sufficient appropriate stories to use with early childhood classes. This site would be useful for selecting stories based on a theme.
Focusing on characterisation
http://education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/00629.htm 
This lesson plan aims to help students develop an understanding of characterisation through classifying attributes, creating a character and role-playing. It provides a useful morphing activity for students before they begin their group story analyses.
Literary sociograms
http://education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/00565.htm
This activity aims to help readers understand the relationships among characters in a story and to identify how the reader feels about each of the characters. It relies on diagramming relationships within a story and provides a useful lead-up activity before students attempt to record and plot relationships.
Kids' place: Houghton Mifflin reading
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/
This commercial site, which combines literature and the social sciences, is designed to accompany selected books for Grades 1 - 6. The books and activities are grouped by themes, such as 'Home sweet home', 'Our earth', 'Incredible stories', 'Habitats', 'Nature's fury' and 'Discovering ancient cultures'. The choice of books is varied and exciting and many can be found in school resource centres.
Inspirations software: Kidspiration
http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/kidspiration/
This is a very useful site describing a product that can be used to help students diagram ideas and use webs and concept maps. Kidspiration in particular helps students organise ideas visually. It provides an auditory component that will name symbols as they are chosen and read back sentences that the student has constructed. A free online demonstration is available. This would aid students in synthesising their ideas and charting the similarities, differences and interrelationships among the stories.
The concept mapping homepage
http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm
The site explains briefly the idea of a concept map, the difference between a concept map and a 'mind map', and provides a list of related sites and software related to concept mapping. Some software, for example Inspiration, can be downloaded for 30 days trial through links on the site. The software would be very useful for the diagrammatic representations required by this Rich Task.
Helping children write Readers Theatre scripts
http://education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/00578.htm
This lesson outline aims to teach students how to adapt texts to make Readers Theatre scripts, so it would be useful as a morphing task to help children in transforming the written word into a dramatic presentation.
Comprising non-website resources available from a variety of sources.
The books chosen will provide ideas for teachers preparing fiction collections for the classroom.
DOWNES, Tom and FATOULIS, Cherryl 1995, Learning in an electronic world: Computers in the classroom, Newtown, New South Wales: Primary English Teaching Association.
The aim of this book from the Primary English Teaching Association is to support and encourage teachers in the use of computers in the teaching of English, particularly in primary school. The authors use actual classroom experiences with particular programs or types of programs to show their relevance and application to aspects of English such as reading. This could be a valuable guide for the teacher who is a computer novice to using a media other than text.
HALLIWELL, James Orchard et al 1997, The three little pigs [Computer Software].
The three little pigs is a multimedia production for 6 - 7 year-olds. An appealing pig puppet tells the story, then language extension activities and games follow. One of the three little pigs 'walks' the user through a gallery of naive drawings that illustrate the story he tells. The story, with a variation in the wording, can then be read and/or listened to. This resource would provide an alternative media form for those analysing folk tales.
HILL, Susan 1990, Readers theatre: Performing the texts, South Yarra, Victoria: Curtain.
A well-structured, developmental text on implementing Readers Theatre in the classroom. The main features and value of this process are explored, from turning the text of novels into play scripts to improvising upon a familiar story, emphasising the importance of the process and providing practical steps for implementation. This could provide helpful advice for the teacher explaining the performance process.
ROBERTSON, Marion and POSTON-ANDERSON, Barbara 1995, Imagine this: A readers' theatre source book, Rydalmere, New South Wales: Hodder Children's.
Intended as an introduction to the concept of Readers Theatre, this text is informative and concise. Directed at primary school teachers, 'Imagine this' takes the reader step-by-step through the process of group storytelling. Nine short scripts are incorporated along with notes for performing and cross-curricular activities such as art, drama, library research and writing. Each script is designed as the focus for a complete unit of work or simply to be used as a ten-minute time-filler. Readers Theatre is a flexible formula for use with any number of children of any age or reading ability. This could provide helpful advice and lead-up activities for the teacher helping students turn their reports on themes into performances.
SARJANA, Michelle and BOLAND, Judy 1993, More at your fingertips: Practical ideas and activities for the literature-based classroom, Cammeray, New South Wales: Martin Education.
An excellent book of practical ideas and activities for the literature-based classroom supporting language development across the curriculum. It is a resource with a functional approach to the teaching of English encompassing reading, writing, talking and listening. Many of the activities are based on books short-listed by the Children's Book Council of Australia.
AccessEd Curriculum Library online catalogue
http://nslib.qed.qld.gov.au/oau-olclib/webinqu.dll?
Book resources can be found and borrowed from the AccessEd Curriculum Library by Queensland teachers who are registered borrowers.
The elephant's child. A10803343
In this rendition of Rudyard Kipling's Just so stories, Jack Nicholson's narration, the soft artwork and the sound effects bring the story to life. Loaded down with 100 pounds of bananas, 100 pounds of sugar cane and 17 melons, the elephant's child sets off for the Limpopo and meets a hissing, slithery, bi-coloured rock snake. Astonished, he finally discovers what crocodiles like for dinner. This delightful story on the theme of how things came about would make an interesting contrast with another version of a 'just so' type story in a different media format.
The animations are appealing and humorous. Many of these plots lend themselves to diagrammatic representations, introducing the idea of recording and plotting relationships. These are also useful for the themes of space, mystery and helping others.
Lucky Hans. A10820019
One of the lesser-known tales by the Brothers Grimm, it tells of Hans who foolishly trades a lump of gold for a number of useless assets. A claymation presentation, this is a useful resource on the theme of fairytales.
Peter and the wolf. A10295291
Walt Disney's classic animated production of Prokofiev's orchestral fairytale, introduces children to the elements of musical composition and instrumentation. It is also suitable for general use because of its humorous treatment of the story. This could be used to demonstrate how music enhances or inspires a performance, encouraging students to find music suitable for their performance.
Peter and the wolf. A10839474
This enjoyable and unique puppet interpretation of Sergei Prokofiev's classic musical story is designed to acquaint young children with the sounds of the orchestra. The puppet, Prokofiev, is the narrator and tells how a composer writes music and chooses instruments for their sounds and how they are use to portray different things. The performance uses a wide variety of puppets portraying people, animals and musical instruments designed and manipulated by Jim Gamble. This useful resource for fostering music appreciation in preschool and lower primary classes also provides ideas for musical accompaniments to performances.
Peter Cottontail: How he got his hop. A10820019
This delightful marionette presentation features master puppeteer, Jim Gamble, and the lively songs and music of Amy Powers and Bob Golden. Grampy Bunny tells the story of how Peter Cottontail learnt to hop and in so doing regained his flagging self-esteem. This would be useful for themes of animals or self-esteem.
Picture books on video: No. 3. A1028110X
The three stories - The gigantic balloon by Ruth Park; The tram to Bondi Beach by Elizabeth Hathorn; and My grandma lived in Gooligulch by Graeme Base - are iconographic and would be a useful addition to any collection of stories to introduce the technique of making comparisons between stories and characters. The collection also supports the themes of the outback and transport.
Many of these plots lend themselves to diagrammatic representations, introducing the idea of recording and plotting relationships.
Sam, Bangs and Moonshine. A10294902
This is the story of a fisherman's daughter named Samantha (Sam), who is forever going off to 'secret' worlds and talking to her cat, Bangs. One day Thomas, her trusting friend, and Bangs are caught in a dangerous storm because of her make-believe stories. Thomas is rescued, and Sam learns the difference between good and bad 'moonshine'. Based on the book by Evaline Ness this provides another media format for story presentation.
The Snow Queen. A10839232
This beautifully animated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale tells of Gerta's search for her playmate who has been abducted by the Snow Queen. Narrated by Sigourney Weaver, it would be a useful resource for the theme of fairytales.
The steadfast tin soldier. A10813721
The story of the one-legged tin soldier who bravely endures many hardships for the love of his paper ballerina is a moving classic, beautifully produced with captivating illustrations and a sensitive narration by Jeremy Irons. A Hans Christian Andersen tale, it could be appreciated at different levels by all primary grades. This would be useful for fairytale or courage themes.
The story about Ping. A1027457X
Based on the book by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, this is an animated story of the adventures of a young duck, Ping, on the Yangtze River. An iconographic story, it would provide an interesting addition to stories on the theme of animals or other countries.
Animated and iconographic, these tales are on the themes of individual differences and honesty.
Thomas the tank engine and friends. Thomas and Gordon and other stories. A10296174
A captioned version for the hearing impaired, this collection of eight stories features Thomas the tank engine. Ringo Starr brings Thomas and his friends to life with this narration. Based on Reverend W. Audry's Railway stories, the three-dimensional animation provides a new form of media for students to analyse and would be useful for a collection on the theme of transport.
The new adventures of Pippi Longstocking. A10827331
This is a captioned version for the hearing impaired. Set in an American milieu, this adaptation contains most of the elements of adventure and magic found in these stories with the main characters and Pippi involving themselves with wicked developers, the local orphanage and a plane crash. It has catchy songs and interesting visuals with appeal to young children. Loosely based on Astrid Lindgren's classic stories, this would be a useful addition to collections on the theme of contemporary issues.
Teachers could choose titles from this collection to provide another media format for comparison of media styles. Many of these plots lend themselves to diagrammatic representations, introducing the idea of recording and plotting relationships.
AccessEd Video Library online catalogue
http://nslib.qed.qld.gov.au/oau-fvlib/webinqu2.dll?
This is only a small sample of the story resources available from the AccessEd Video Library. Queensland teachers who are registered borrowers may borrow video resources from the Library.
denotes sites available to AccessClub
users only.
Other resources for First Suite Rich Task #4: Read and Talk About Stories may be found by searching the Curriculum
Exchange collections
, the Library Services collections
or the Internet. The following criteria listed under Keywords and/or Subject are
suggested search terms:
Curriculum level:
Lower primary
Audience:
Teacher; Student
Keywords:
Mind mapping; Dramatisation
Subject Headings:
Children's literature; Fiction; Drama; Book reviews; Literary criticism; Characterisation; Plot (Drama fiction etc.); Scripts; Concept mapping; Theatre arts; Creative thinking; Curriculum materials
Dewey number:
820
Source:
New Basics Project, Education Queensland
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