►2. Designing a well-selected and culturally rich literature curriculum for language learners has the great potential to be even more incorporated in the Standards –based language teaching: Communication, Cultures, Comparisons, Connections, Communities.

►3. Devising curricula that integrate language and content can enable language learners to engage with other disciplines as well as acquire information and diverse perspectives.

The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon

1. interact and negotiate meaning in conversations to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions

2. understand, interpret, and identify what is heard, read, or viewed on a folktale story

3. present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, talk about a  folktale story using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers

4. use the language to understand, identify, and talk about the relationship between the practices, products,  and perspectives of the cultures experienced.

(Experiencing)

2. Reading folktale text

3. Why did the tiger go to the house in the mountain village?

4. Why did the child stop crying when he saw the dried persimmon?

5. Why was the tiger scared of the dried persimmon?

6. Why did the tiger run out of the barn?

(Conceptualizing)

2. Talk to each other using the Key vocabulary and expressions from the story.

(Applying)

2. What are you afraid of?  What do you like? Share your experiences.

3. In the story, the tiger thought that the persimmon was stronger and scarier than him. Talk about a time in your life when you misjudged someone or a situation.

4. If you rewrote the story from today’s perspective, how would you change it?

(Analyzing)

2. What would you replace the tiger and persimmon with? Rewrite this story based on your culture.

3. What do you think a tiger represents in Korean culture?

4. What are some of the most popular animals that appear in your culture’s folktales?

5. Would you recommend his story to children? Why /why not?

A Korean folktale,  The Filial Tiger

1. understand the key information and the main message in the descriptive story.

2. exchange information in conversations and interact with others sharing feelings and opinions.

3. state one’s viewpoint with supporting details and give straightforward, detailed presentations on topics of the filial piety using short paragraphs.

4. make comparisons of practices related to the ‘filial piety’ in own culture and Korean culture.

5. understand the cultural differences in behaviors and interact appropriately in talking about the story and the main message.

1. Reading the folktale

2. Watching the video clips of animated story or play

3. Understand the plots and characters in the story through the interpretive questions.

(1) Why did woodcutter call the tiger his older brother when they first met in the mountains?

(2) Why did the tiger say he didn’t want to accompany the woodcutter to visit their mother?

(3) What did the tiger ask the woodcutter to do for him?

(4)How dod the woodcutter become wealthy?

(5) What did the tiger do when he heard that his mother had passed away?

2. Talk to each other about reasons for the woodcutter’s lies and the tiger’s actions following their first meeting in the mountains using the Key vocabulary and expressions from the story.

Transformed Practice (Applying)

Presentational

2. Presentation or writing: Analyze the characters in the story.  Describe the personalities of the tiger and the woodcutter in the story.  What are their good and bad character traits?

2. Identify the acts of filial piety done by the tiger and the woodcutter in this story.

3. How do children in your culture show their filial piety toward their parents?

4. Would you recommend this story to children? Why/ why not?

A Korean classic novel, Story of Honggildong

1. understand the main message and supporting details on the story

2. participate effectively in discussion/debate on issues, concepts, or ideas related to the story

3. deliver detailed and organized presentations on topics related to the story

4. explain some diversity among folktale stories/characters and cultural practices, and how it relates to perspective

5. understand and interact appropriately in talking about the story.

(1) Who are Gildong’s parents?

(2) What are Gildong’s talents?

(3) Why did he resent his status?

2. How did he encounter the group of thieves? How did he become the leader of the group?

3. What does Hwalbindang mean? What did they do?

4. Watch a short animation clip of Hongildong

2. Narrate the story as a storyteller.

2. Why couldn’t he call his father “father” and his brother “brother”? Explain your reasoning and relate it to the status system during the story’s time period.

3. Are there any similar stories about a hero or a righteous outlaw like Honggildong in other cultures? Compare and contrast similar stories from other cultures.

4. Would you recommend this story to children and introduce Hongdong as a hero? Why/why not?

Take a role as prosecutor, lawyer, judge, juror, witness, defendant and conduct a mock trial. ( Include explanation,  arguments, questioning and defending, final hearing, sentence.)

2. If you were Honggildong, what problems in today’s society would you fix?

3. Come up with your own solution for one of the problems that Honggildong faced in the story.

• Retelling: Students tell the story again after they read and comprehend.

Picture- or video-based: Students recreated the story while viewing a series of pictures or silent videos depicting scenes from the story.   

     Keyword-based: Students produced several keywords after reading the story and retold the events of the story based on those keywords. The keywords were collected and either written on the board or displayed using an online word cloud generator or poll app, such as Wordclouds.com or Poll Everywhere.

• Outlining, Summarizing, and Organizing: In this method, students developed an outline and summarized the folktale. This activity can be performed as an individual, pair, or group activity. Students also developed charts and diagrams describing various elements of the story, such as the sequence of events, significant developments, or characters
• Listening and reading comprehension: Students listened to the audio story; watched the video story in the target language and wrote their answers to the guided questions to help comprehension about the story. This activity can be done outside of the classroom as in a format Flipped Classroom or Blended Learning, which reverses the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content outside of the classroom.
•  Exploring linguistic comparisons: Students investigated, explained, and reflected on the nature of language through comparisons between various aspects of the target language and their own language, including idioms, proverbs, non-translatable words and phrases, and onomatopoeia.

Students use language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the relationship between the practices, products, and perspectives of the cultures studied (NCSSFL–ACTFL, 2017). For example, students might compare similar stories from different cultures; compare the customs, traditions, or actions of the characters in a given story; or even rewrite a story, creating new folktales based on the common elements and characteristics of the folktales they have read. Sample tasks might include:

• Discovering and evaluating the moral of a story (e.g., What do you think is the moral of the story?)
• Identifying and further investigating cultural practices and products (e.g., What does it mean to be “a child like a Cheongaeguri” in Korean culture?).
• Relating cultural practices, products, and perspectives (e.g., Why couldn’t Hon Gildong call his father ‘father’ and his brother ‘brother’? Explain your reasoning and relate it to the status system during the story’s time period in Korea.).
• Adapting or creating a folktale from a contemporary perspective or different cultural background (e.g., If you rewrite this story based on your culture, what would you replace the tiger and persimmon with?)
• Engaging with reflective aspects: observing, noticing, discovering, comparing, considering, thinking, recommending, planning, hypothesizing, and creating. (e.g., Would you recommend this story to children? If so or not, why?)
• Engaging with affective aspects: receiving, feeling, imagining, valuing, appreciating, and preferring. (e.g., In the story, the tiger thought that the persimmon was stronger and scarier than him. Talk about a time in your life when you misjudged someone or a situation.)

• Reflections: Students use language to mediate and develop deeper relationships between cultural practices, products, perspectives, and cultural norms.
• Alternate story endings: Students change the ending of a story and share their alternative folktales in audiobook or podcast format.
• Character development and analysis: Students investigate a character’s motivation, personality, characteristics, appearance, emotions, actions, or relationships with other characters.
• Cultural literacy: Students improve their cultural awareness and understanding and learn to accept diverse perspectives, reducing culture-based prejudice.
• Investigating and comparing cross-cultural similarities and differences: Students compare or contrast if there are any similar stories in other cultures.
• Changes in a character’s perspective or point of view: Students evaluate and rewrite the story from a different perspective or viewpoint.
• Sharing related personal experiences: Students reflect on their life experiences and share about the context and emotions involved in the situation.
• Discovering and sharing similar stories across cultures: Students share similar stories from their own culture. Although they are told in different languages and in different traditions, some stories share similarities in delivering the lessons.
• Critical thinking, discussion, debate, or mock trials: An example might be a mock trial in which students debate whether Kongjwi’s stepmother and her morals should be criticized and whether she should be exiled from the village. Students can pretend to be her lawyer and defend her actions.
• Rethinking a character’s actions and decisions: Students might be asked, “Is Shimcheong truly a good daughter? What would you do if you were in her situation, and why?”
• Telling folklore in multimodality: Students can use multiple modes of meaning making system (i.e. podcasting, audio-visual, images, motion) to retell the story.
• Selecting a folktale reading list: Students collaboratively examine and recommend a folktale reading list for children, including rationales and critiques.
• Village Newspapers/Newsletters: Students collaboratively produce a village newsletter ( featuring headlines, highlights of characters, news reports, editorials, interviews, notices, etc.)
• Delivering persuasive messages: Students produce public service announcement messages or videos based on the social issues presented in folktales, such as social justice, social class, discrimination, gender equality, ethics.
• Making interdisciplinary connections: Invited guests might give lectures on related disciplinary areas of Korean studies, such as philosophy (e.g., Confucianism, the three bonds and the five moral rules in human relations), history, religion, or political science.

2. Folktale Mock Trials

3. New Old Stories from 21st Century’s Perspectives