Teachers typically choose Aesop's fables to teach to middle-school students. Students should read a variety of Aesop's fables so they are able to compare the elements and structure of the fables. Introduce students to fables from other cultures such as Native American and African fables and have them identify elements that are common between all of the fables. For example, after reading one of Aesop's trickster tales, have students read an Anansi the Spider story, which comes from African culture. For another comparison, read John Scieszka's "Squids Will Be Squids," which contains humorous modern versions of Aesop's fables.
While many middle-school literature textbooks contain fables, there are numerous online resources for teachers to use as a way of exposing students to a variety of texts. AesopFables.com is a collection of over 650 fables. The fables are alphabetically arranged, and many of them are accompanied by audio narration. First People (firstpeople.us) offers a collection of over 150 Native American fables and legends. World of Tales (worldoftales.com) is another resource where teachers are able to find numerous fables and folktales to use in the classroom.
After reading fables, challenge students to write their own fable. Have students publish their fables on online publishing websites. While it is geared toward younger students, KidsFables.com allows teachers to post up to eight student fables on their website. ZooBurst (zooburst.com) is an online storytelling tool that allow students to turn their fables into a 3D pop-up book. Encourage more creative students to act out their fables on camera and upload them to the classroom website, student blogs or a video-sharing website.
Fables typically contain recognizable characters. Have students choose a main character from a fable and create a character analysis, outlining the character's physical traits, emotions, personality traits and likes/dislikes. Have students create a blog on a free blog site such as Kidblog (kidblog.org) or Edublog (edublog.org) and post entries pretending to be that character or create a profile on a social networking website for a specific character.