ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how to work with narrative texts in shared reading and informational texts. Narrative texts most closely resemble the stories that children have experienced at home or in classroom read-aloud sessions. They are a powerful way of getting children “hooked on books.” The features of traditional tales combine to help children to take in meaning, language patterns, and language structures as well as vocabulary. Traditional tales are excellent texts to use for small-group and center work. When planning ways to use the resources, always make sure that the activities provide authentic purposes for reading and writing that also reflect the genre. Traditional tales have much to offer upper elementary students as well as younger learners. Different versions of traditional tales are found across cultures, making them excellent resources for comparing how different authors develop setting, plot, and characterization and ways illustrators depict them.
