Common themes of Chinese folktales display Chinese values. Some of these common themes are: the triumph of justice over injustice; the supremacy of wisdom over sheer physical strength; examples of cleverness or resourcefulness.  These are all important Chinese values which are passed from one generation to the next through the telling of folktales. Important questions that we will discuss in this unit are:

• What are folktales?
• What are some examples of folktales?
• What are the characteristics of folktales? 
• What do folktales tell us about people?

During this unit, we will be reading and learning about folktales from China; we will visit selected websites to learn more about Chinese folktales. The two stories we will discuss are Tales of the Moon Festival and Tuan and the Giant Snail.

We will begin this section by discussing the various elements of the folktale. After reviewing the elements of a folktale, we will write our own folktale. The specific steps for this assignment can be found in the folktale rubric, and they include:

• Brainstorming about values and traditions that are important to family or culture. 
• Organizing your folktale by using a story map.
• After you have completed their story map, you will use a word processor to write your folktale(s).  Your folktales should include pictures (scanned, downloaded, or drawn).
• We will share our completed folktales with the rest of the class. 
• We will publish all folktales on the class website's Handouts and Projects page.

• Dim Sum (online folktales): http://www.newton.mec.edu/Angier/DimSum/Chinese%20Folktales.html

• Children's Folktales (list of folktales): http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/staff/sfunk/ChildFolktales.html

• China Vista (online tales): http://www.chinavista.com/experience/story/story.html 

• China (more online folktales): http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/china.html#goldcolt