Unit Table of Contents

LESSON 2: DRAGON POWER

One 40 minute session

Materials Needed:
1. Completed homework assignment: Describing Dragons
2. Overhead transparencies and pens
3. Overhead Projector and wall or screen
4. Copies of Chinese Dragon Folk Tales (at least 3 but more preferable) for each student. Your librarian should be able to help you locate stories from the folk collections listed in the Bibliography or use the spiral bound collection at Primary Source Library.
5. Story Comparison Sheet (Attached)

1. Teacher will divide group into pairs; each pair is assigned one of the categories from the previous week’s homework to present to the class.

2. Each pair will prepare a presentation for the overhead on their assigned question. They will have approximately 10 minutes preparation. Teacher will cover “Interesting Facts” section using Background information.

3. Teacher will ask for additions to the “Dragon Vocabulary List.”

3. After homework is collected, teacher and students will engage in a brief session to explore why dragonlore has persisted through 4000 years of Chinese history. What about the geography and culture make the mythical figure so believable to the Chinese people.

4. If time allows, share a group of Chinese dragon proverbs (see Bibliography) with the group. Discuss their meaning.

5. Teacher will review the elements of a folk tale, emphasizing setting and circumstance. Urge students to question what it is about the circumstances in the assigned tales which necessitates the appearance of a dragon.

6. Assignment: Each student must read at least three folk tales from the collection distributed and fill out a Story Comparison Sheet comparing the elements in the stories chosen.

• View and print the worksheet as a PDF file.
  
  
• Download Acrobat Reader to view PDF files.

STUDENT ASSIGNMENT
STORY COMPARISON SHEET

Using the Venn diagram below, compare three of the dragon folktales from your reading as follows:

• Let each circle represent one of the stories. Label each circle with the title of one of the stories you have read.
  
• List the items which all three stories share in the area which all three circles share.
  
• List items which only two stories share in the area where their circles meet
  
• List items which are unique to each story in the area which touches no other circle.