Storytelling Assignment

Student Name: ______

Your job will be to tell us a story either from your life, or one that you make up. It must be educationally appropriate for all of us to hear and must have a clear story line. In your story, you must use one of the proverbs below OR find one of your own to communicate the theme of the story or what can be learned from your story. The story must be at least threeminutes long and no longer than 7 minutes.

"This evocative form of folklore sometimes stands in the stead of a wisdom tale. Thought-provoking proverbs can suggest a larger scenario. I invite readers to look at proverbs creatively and imagine the story the proverb suggests." -HeatherForest

  • One finger cannot lift a pebble. (Iranian)
  • When elephants battle, the ants perish. (Cambodian)
  • If you chase two hares, you will not catch either. (Russian)
  • The pot calls the kettle black. (United States)The sieve says to the needle: You have a hole in your tail. (Pakistan)
  • It is better to turn back than to get lost. (Russian)
  • Handsome words don't butter cabbage. (German)
  • Talk does not cook rice. (Chinese)
  • After the rain, there is no need for an umbrella. (Bulgaria)
  • When the kettle boils over, it overflows its own sides. (Yiddish)
  • You can't chew with somebody else's teeth. (Yiddish)
  • Mistrust is an axe at the tree of love. (Russian)
  • If a farmer becomes a King, he will still carry a basket on his back. (Hebrew)
  • Not all that is black is charcoal. (Philippine)
  • Little brooks make great rivers. (French)
  • Every kind of animal can be tamed, but not the tongue of man. (Philippine)
  • Do not look for apples under a poplar tree. (Slovakian)
  • Every donkey loves to hear himself bray. (English)
  • He that goes barefoot must not plant thorns. (English)
  • Better to be a free bird than a captive King. (Danish)
  • A blow passes on, a spoken word lingers. (Yiddish)
  • You can't spit on my back and make me think it's rain. (Yiddish)
  • A book gives knowledge, but it is life that gives understanding. (Hebrew)
  • A crooked branch has a crooked shadow. (Japanese)
  • Better bread with water than cake with trouble. (Russian)
  • The heaviest burden is an empty pocket. (Yiddish)
  • A candle lights others but consumes itself. (English)
  • It takes a village to raise a child. (Africa)
  • It is one thing to cackle and another to lay an egg. (Ecuador)
  • One dog barks because it sees something; a hundred dogs bark because they heard the first dog bark. (Chinese)
  • To hide one lie, a thousand lies are needed. (India)
  • A needle wrapped in a rag will be found in the end. (Vietnamese)
  • Do not seek to escape from the flood by clinging to a tiger's tail. (Chinese)
  • Step by step one ascends the staircase. (Turkey)
  • Little by little the cotton thread becomes a loincloth. (Africa-Dahomey)
  • Anger is a bad adviser. (Hungary)
  • Eggs must not quarrel with stones. (Jamaican)
  • Eyes can see everything except themselves. (Serbo-Croatian)
  • Haste makes waste. (English)
  • Every hill has its valley. (Italian)

If you are having a problem coming up with a story from your own life that fits a proverb, use the story starter ideas below to construct your own story:

Introduce Character(s)
Choose one or more characters.

  • girl
  • boy
  • animal
  • man
  • woman
  • idea
  • spirit
  • machine
  • thing
  • plant, etc.

Setting

Environment:

  • farm
  • village
  • otherworldly
  • city
  • mountains
  • forest
  • arctic
  • ocean
  • desert

Time:

  • olden
  • modern
  • future

Problem:

In trouble:

  • Caught stealing
  • Told a lie
  • Saw or heard a secret
  • Lost something
  • Been captured
  • Under a spell or curse
  • Goes to forbidden place
  • Finds forbidden object
  • Has enemy
  • Is undervalued
  • Is unrecognized
  • Causes jealousy
  • Forgets something
  • Broke something
  • Does not like something
  • Needs something
  • Needs to escape or hide
  • Needs to rescue someone
  • Needs to rescue something
  • Needs to prove worth

Solution

  • Has helper
  • Magical
  • Non-magical
  • Is rescued
  • Is transformed
  • Discovers skill
  • Finds magic
  • Helps self:
  • Exercises cleverness
  • Uses inner traits
  • Journey undertaken to obtain solution

Conclusion

  • Returns to original setting new in some way:
  • Is rewarded
  • Is wiser
  • Is transformed
  • Comes with gift or treasure

End

  • Lives well
  • Passes luck or reward on to others
  • Has positive impact on the world
  • Offers wisdom

1 / 2 / 3
4 / 5 / 6
7 / 8 / 9
10 / 11 / 12
13 / 14 / 15

For your story, you will be creating a photo essay to aide your storytelling. You can have up to 15 slides and must have at least 10 slides to tell your story. Plan out below what images you will search for when you are in the computer lab by either writing what you want to find for the slide or sketching out a picture of what you want to find. This will aide you in making your search process shorter!