Have you ever tried to be someone you're not? Aesop's "The Donkey in the Lion's Skin" features a donkey who dresses up as a frightening predator—but whose loud bray betrays his identity. Learners stop reading before they reach the ending to see if they can draw a conclusion about the moral, and then write a similar fable using a different theme.

Concepts

aesop's fables, literary themes, story writing, annotation, drawing conclusions, reading comprehension

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Before assigning the activity, have a mini-lesson on literary themes
• Apply the same activity to another fable

Classroom Considerations

• Flesch-Kincaid readability score is 5.7
• Audio recording is 0:54 long

Pros

• Moral is relatable and easy to apply to a real-life situation

Cons

• Task may be difficult for readers who struggle to think abstractly

Common Core

RL.5.2 W.5.3.a RL.6.2 RL.7.2 RL.8.2 W.6.3.a W.7.3.a W.8.3.a