Fun Fact: The people of ancient Greece believed stories were given to them from Greek goddesses they called muses. The muses were said to be the creators of art, music, literature, and science. So whenever someone came up with a really cool story to tell the entire village, they would give thanks to the muses.
ART BY DAVE CLEGG
Play,
Anansi
This action-packed readaloud version of a popular African folktale will help students identify what drives a character’s actions.
By Sari Bodi and Karen Trott
From the December 2017 / January 2018 Issue
Learning Objective: This action-packed readaloud version of a popular African folktale will help students identify what drives a character’s actions.
Activities
(4)
Download All Quizzes and Activities
Reading Kit
Skills Activities
Quizzes
(1)
Answer Key
(1)
Can’t-Miss Teaching Extras
Inspiration From Muses
Puppet Theater
Check out this teacher’s idea: turning a read-aloud play into a puppet show! We think Anansi is the perfect play to try this out with.
Alternative Versions
Show this short video of an Anansi story to your students to see more of the spider’s clever tricks! In this telling, Anansi is more of an anthropomorphized spider: explain that characters from fables take on many different qualities in different versions of stories.
A New Slideshow
Help your students understand what a trickster is, and why it’s still such a popular character in storylines today, in our fun "Why Do We Tell Stories About Tricksters?" slideshow. Then ask the class to think of other examples of tricksters from books or stories you may have read (Peeves the poltergeist from the Harry Potter books is one example).
More About the Article
Content-Area Connections
ELA: folktales
Social studies: world cultures, geography
Key Skills
character’s motivation, inference, plot, character, moral
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
1. PREPARING TO READ
Preview Text Features (10 minutes)
• Point out the box “What’s a Trickster?” on page 21. (You might play the slideshow before reading.) Then point out the box at the top of page 22 and explain where the story takes place.
Set a Purpose for Reading (5 minutes)
• As students look at the play’s opening, point out the labels in the top-left corner of page 20 (“Play” and “Read-aloud folktale”). Ask: What is a folktale? (a story that’s been told over many years and is often spoken instead of written) Invite students to name any folktales they may be familiar with.
Introduce Vocabulary (15 minutes)
• While the story does not include highlighted vocabulary words in the text itself, there is a vocabulary activity online that previews challenging words and allows students to list the words that are unfamiliar to them. Project or distribute the activity to go over the words.
• Challenging words: trickster, scurries, impossible, rumble, attach, gourd
2. FOCUS ON FLUENCY
Bridging Decoding and Comprehension
• Storyworks Jr. plays provide a perfect opportunity for students to build fluency.
• Look at the list of characters. Point out the phonetic spelling of some of the characters’ names. Explain that the syllables in the parentheses help readers to pronounce these names correctly. Have the students practice saying the names aloud.
• Point out the directions in italics (looking up, bowing, laughing, struggling, etc.) and explain that they are included to tell the reader an action to perform or how to say the line. Demonstrate some of them for the class.
• Have students pair up and practice their lines so they feel more comfortable when it’s time to read them in front of the class.
3. CLOSE READING
Reading and Unpacking the Text
• First read: Continue reading the play as a class.
• Second read: Project or distribute the close-reading questions. Discuss them as a class, rereading lines or scenes as necessary.
• Separate students into groups to discuss the critical-thinking question. Then have groups share their answers with the class.
Close-Reading Questions (30 minutes)
In Scene 1, why does Anansi ask the villagers what is wrong? What word best describes how the villagers are feeling? (inference) Anansi sees that the villagers aren’t talking to one another. The villagers don’t have anything to talk about so they are probably bored.
• In Scene 2, what does Nyame the Sky God want Anansi to give him in exchange for his stories? Why is Anansi willing to do this? (plot) Nyame asks Anansi to bring him a python, a leopard, and hornets. Anansi will do this because he promised the villagers that he would get the stories from the Sky God.
• In Scenes 3 and 4, what does Anansi do that makes him a trickster? (character) Anansi tricks the python into lying down next to a stick and then ties the python up with his thread. He also pretends to help the leopard out of a trap but ties him up with his thread too.
• In Scene 3, why does the python say words like “breakfassst” and “ssssee”? And in Scene 5, why do the hornets say “izzz” instead of “is” and “Ananzzzi” instead of “Anansi”? (character) By pronouncing all the extra S’s and Z’s, they give sounds similar to what a real python and hornet sound like. It makes the character more interesting and believable.
• In Scene 6, how has Nyame’s opinion of Anansi changed? What does he do that shows this? (plot) Nyame now respects Anansi. When Anansi brings the hornets’ nest to Nyame, the Sky God bows to him. Nyame not only gives him the box of stories, but names the entire collection “the Anansi stories.”
Critical-Thinking Question (7 minutes)
• By the end of the story, what has Anansi proved to Nyame and the villagers? Use details from the story to support your answer. (moral) Anansi has proved that you don’t have to be big, strong, or scary to reach your goal. Anansi showed that his small size didn’t matter, because he thought of clever ways to trick dangerous creatures and capture them for Nyame.
4. SKILL BUILDING
Exploring the Character Traits (15 minutes)
• Have students complete the character motivation activity. They should also write a response to the Think and Write question on p. 25.
Differentiate and Customize
For Small Groups
Divide your class into six groups and assign each group one scene from the play. The groups will practice the scenes and create masks for their characters. (Narrators can make masks in their own likenesses, if they wish.) Each group then performs for the class. Bonus activity: Record the performances and share with students’ families!
For Struggling Readers
Ask students to make a chart showing which animals Anansi captures and how. Their charts could combine words and pictures.
For Advanced Readers
In other versions of this play, Anansi also has to capture Mmoatia, a bad-tempered fairy that no one can see. Ask students to write a scene about possible ways Anansi could have tricked and captured this invisible fairy. Share students’ versions with the class.
For On Level Readers
Think And Write
Did Anansi have a good reason for tricking all of those creatures? What was his reason? Answer in a well-organized paragraph, using details from the play.
Text-to-Speech