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Learning Objectives 

Students will: 

• Recognize tall tales as a vehicle of entertainment and identity for pioneers.
• Infer the theme of American tall tales from the different regions of the United States.
• Identify and analyze components of a tall tale.
• Create an original tall tale.
• Perform original tall tales for classmates.

Standards Alignment

National Core Arts StandardsNational Core Arts Standards

Common Core State StandardsCommon Core State Standards

Recommended Student Materials

Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.

Videos

• Rock, Paper, Scissors, Anything! with Donna Washington
• Mime and Pantomime with Keith Berger and Sharon Diskin
• 1-2-3 Pantomime with Jamie Hipp

Teacher Background

Teachers should be familiar with tall tales and current events. Teachers should be cognizant that tall tales are an exaggerated and fictional representation of the American West settlement and the experience of indigenous peoples. It is important to review a print or digital text prior to introducing a tall tale to your students. Like many classic American books, tall tale versions can contain problematic content such as implicit bias, racism, stereotyping, and a limited point of view. 

Student Prerequisites 

Students should have some experience with the writing process and pantomime (miming actions). 

Accessibility Notes

Modify handouts, text, and utilize assistive technologies as needed. Allow extra time for task completion.

Engage

1. Share a true story with students from a personal experience. As you tell the story record a general outline and key details on the board or chart paper. Ask the students: Which details from the story are realistic or unrealistic? 

2. Have students analyze the key details from the story. Ask students: How can we make the story a little more unrealistic? Write down the student’s ideas on the outline.  

3. Tell students that you are now going to tell the same story, but as a tall tale. Share the definition of a tall tale with students: A humorous tale told in a straightforward, believable tone but relating absolutely impossible events or feats of the characters. These tales were commonly told of frontier adventures during the settlement of the western United States.

4. Add exaggerations throughout the tale. For example, if the story is about seeing a squirrel on the way to school, say that it was a giant squirrel with special abilities. Use simile and metaphor to create more vivid descriptions of people, places, and things. Make the story funny, silly, or suspenseful. Encourage students to join in during the process.

5. Review the definitions with students. Have students connect a definition with an example from the story they just heard or another one they know. 

6. When you have modeled and discussed the rewriting process for students, have students repeat the exercise in pairs. Allow students to share personal stories and suggest ways to enhance these stories through exaggeration. Instruct students to make their exaggerations specific, and to use similes and metaphors to create vivid and memorable descriptions.

Build

1. Explain to students that in the warm-up activity, they created a type of story that was very popular among American settlers in the early 1800s. The stories were known as tall tales. People liked to tell tales about “larger-than-life” characters that had extraordinary abilities, such as super-human strength or speed. Stories were invented about the adventures and challenges faced by these characters. As the stories were repeated, the details became more and more exaggerated. (Note that in some cases, the heroes and heroines of the stories seem to have been based on real people, but that after many retellings, these characters and events were exaggerated beyond the limits of possibility. Teachers should also be cognizant that tall tales are an exaggerated and fictional representation of the American West settlement and the experience of indigenous peoples.)

2. Point out that people liked to invent heroes that were particular to the region in which they lived. These heroes and heroines often used their extraordinary qualities to help resolve problems faced by people in the area. For example, in Minnesota—with its vast forests and a harsh, cold climate—people told stories about Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack who could chop down a whole forest with one strike of his ax. In Texas, settlers told the story of Pecos Bill, the best cowboy in the west, who wrestled a threatening tornado. Point out to students that the main characters often had impossible solutions to dangerous or daunting situations to the real-life pioneers. Real people would need to exert hard labor to clear a forest; pioneers would not be able to control or prevent the devastation of a tornado.

3. Read several tall tales from different regions as a class. Some tales to consider are: 

Paul Bunyan (Minnesota)

Pecos Bill (Texas)

Sally Ann Crockett (Kentucky)

Captain Stormalong (Maine)

4. Discuss pantomiming with students. Show one or more of the pantomiming video with students, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Anything! with Donna Washington, Mime and Pantomime with Keith Berger and Sharon Diskin, 1-2-3 Pantomime with Jamie Hipp. Have students practice the art of pantomime. 

5. Ask for a few volunteers to pantomime the action of the tall tales they read. Assign the main parts to two or three students, and have them act out the action as you read the story. 

6. After you complete the story, ask the other students to identify the ways that the students portrayed the larger-than-life qualities of the tall tale characters. Ask the students: How did the characters use their bodies to make the audience believe that they were very tall, very strong, etc.?

Apply

1. Ask students what they think of the main characters in the tall tales that they have heard. Are they “good guys?” Why or why not? Discuss with students the differences and similarities between the folk heroes in the tall tales and superheroes like Spider-Man and Wonder Woman. Have students list the qualities and characteristics of tall tale heroes and heroines (strength, bravery, helpfulness, humor, bravery, perseverance, etc.).

2. Brainstorm with the class a list of qualities that make someone admirable. (These might be sports stars, entertainment figures, people belonging to a certain profession, etc.). Record examples on the board. Compare these qualities with those shared by superheroes and the heroes of tall tales.

3. Explain to students that they will be writing an original tall tale, set in their present-day community and focusing on a current issue. In their tale, they will invent a new folk hero or heroine who will solve a problem or issue that is affecting their community. Explain to students that they will need to research a current event or issue that is being debated in their community (a zoning restriction, expansion of a school district, damming a river, lengthening the school day, etc.). You may choose to give the students a list of topics or have the entire class write about the same issue.

4. Have students form groups and review the elements of tall tales from the resource.

5. Provide students with local newspaper articles or editorials that explain both sides of the issue, and tell them that they will need to take a position on the issue and decide what they would like the outcome to be. The main character in their tall tale will need to perform impossible feats in order to produce this outcome. Students should brainstorm several exaggerations that they could use in their story.

6. Review the writing process with students. Remind them that the tale should include all of the elements listed in the . 

7. Have students perform their tall tale for the class, with several students miming the action as one or two narrate the story. Go over the components that make up a successful dramatic delivery from the . 

Reflect 

1. Have students present their tall tales to the class. If desired, record or live-stream the performances for parents or peers.