Investigating Aesop's Fables is an engaging, stimulating and challenging resource for junior secondary students which will help teachers implement the Australian Curriculum: English in an integrated and thoughtful way.
 
In the course of this unit of work, students investigate what makes a fable a fable, the relationship between Aesop’s fables and the society in which they were produced and circulated, and the ways in which one particular fable, ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’, has been told and retold over the years, by writers and visual artists as various as Jean de La Fontaine, Gustave Doré, Walt Disney, Somerset Maugham and John Ciardi. A diverse range of other texts is included, from a World War 1 propaganda poster to a political blog.
 
Assessment tasks have been constructed to provide clear evidence of students’ achievement of the relevant Standard.
 
'This is a wonderfully engaging yet challenging set of resources and approaches to teaching about literature and language in ways clearly and coherently aligned with the Australian Curriculum English. Highly recommended.' Opion, SAETA, March 2016
 
CONTENTS
Preface   
Overview
Part 1: Aesop, his fables and their world
Introductory activities
Student Resource 1
Aesop’s fables: what are they like and what are they for?
Student Resource 2
How do animal fables work?  
Student Resource 3
Are these stories fables?
Student Resource 4
Fables in context
Student Resource 5
Whose interests are served?
Student Resource 6
Part 2: ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ – the never–ending story?
Continuity and variation
Student Resource 7
‘The Cicada and the Ant’ by Jean de La Fontaine
Student Resource 8
‘The Cicada and the Ant’ by Gustave Doré
Student Resource 9
'The Grasshopper and the Ants’ by Walt Disney Productions
Student Resource 10
Student Resource 11
‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ by W. Somerset Maugham
Student Resource 12
Student Resource 13
Student Resource 14
Student Resource 15
Student Resource 16
Student Resource 17
Student Resource 18
Part 3: Assessment
Performance task: text analysis and interpretation
Student Resource 19
Appendices
‘John J. Plenty and Fiddler Dan’ by John Ciardi
Notes on Francisco Sancha’s ‘The Tortoise and the Eagle’
The Australian Curriculum: English