Monday morning dawned, and with the first rays of sun, Ox opened his eyes. He stretched his mighty legs, ready for a long day of work, just like every day before
I want to write a fable to teach both the genre and a lesson about teamwork and cooperation. My characters are: Characters Goat: Stubborn and independent; wants to do things on his own without help from anyone else Ox: Hardworking; keeps his head down and does his job without complaint Pig: Lazy; wants to reap the rewards without doing any of the work Chicken: Perfectionist; so focused on doing one task perfectly that all others go undone Dog: Energetic; opposite from chicken; wants to do everything all at once with no planning at all Owl: Wise; watches the farm animals struggle to work together and offers advice My general plot outline is: 1. Monday morning, Ox wakes up and stretches 2. Goat, Chicken, and Dog also wake up, while Pig remains sleeping 3. Goat tries to wake Pig, but no luck 4. Ox, Goat, Chicken, and Dog get to work 5. Ox keeps his head down and does the same thing he's done every day 6. Goat refuses all help from anyone, even when he needs it 7. Chicken gets so zoomed in on one task, he forgets to do anything else. 8. Dog runs around trying to help everyone, but lack of planning only makes things worse 9. At the end of the day, Pig wants to know where his share of food is, even though he did no work 10. This goes on for a few days, with Owl sitting in a tree nearby and taking notice 11. The animals argue about the best way to work together. Ox says they should each do the task the way it has always been done because it has always worked. Goat says they should each do the task the way they want to, and everyone should mind their own work. Chicken argues that what they really need to do is sit down and plan each task out in detail. Dog says it doesn't matter how they do the task, as long as they help each other. Finally, Owl speaks. She tells them that they should listen to each other's ideas and then decide if they should do things a new way or stick with the old way. She also validates that Dog is right about working together, but that Chicken is correct about needing some amount of planning. This will be a picture book used as a model for 9th and 10th grade ELA students who will then be tasked with writing and illustrating their own fables. I want to keep the fable under 400 words, if possible.
