How Turtle Cracked His Back Is a Folktale

How Turtle Cracked his back is a folktale about a friendly possum, a dishonest turtle, and a pack of foolish wolves. When possum kills a mean wolf who is stealing persimmons turtle cuts off the wolves ears and deceives everyone into thinking he killed the wolf. His bragging gets the attention of the wolves pack and they decide that they will get turtle back for killing their friend. The wolves catch Turtle and take him to the waters edge, not sure what to do with Turtle they began to make plans. One by one Turtle tricks the wolves into believe he will survive the different punishments they have in store. Being a good swimmer Turtle finds his chance escape when one suggest throwing Turtle in the water. The foolish wolves decide that is exactly what they will do. When they throw Turtle in the water Turtle cracks his shell on a rock . Eventually Turtles shell is healed and this is how Turtle cracked his shell.

A synopsis is a short summary or overview of a selection. The students in this classroom worked together to create this synopsis from a story we read in class. When writing a synopsis the students need to know how to use setting, character traits. They also need to understand the main characters in the story and how they play their part in the plot. Once the students grasp this concept they are ready to put together their own synopsis. Students in our classroom had to pick stories to read and create their own synopsis when we were done. The process to teach this was about a week.