Lesson Title: Who's Being Framed?: An Examination of The Fables of Bidpai

Teacher: Lesley Choy

Program: Montgomery County Public Schools Department of Alternative Programs

Facilities: Caithness; Karma Academy

Grades Taught: 9 through 12

Targeted Audience: The lesson, as written, targets Grades 9 and 10; it can be adapted as desired for any grade from Grade 5 through Grade 10.

Discipline Taught: English/Language Arts

Appropriate Discipline: English/Language Arts

Approximate Length of Time Required: 90 minutes (Specific details are undetermined at this time.)

Big Idea: "A Balanced Life." The hope is that this lesson and others will help students recognize the importance of studying the humanities to achieve balanced and fulfilled lives.

Targeted Essential Learner Outcome: English/Language Arts; Literature 2.9.3.2. -- The student will identify terms, styles, and movements in world literature.

Lesson Objectives:

• Students will demonstrate recognition and understanding of the following names/terms and their relationships: Ibn al-Mugaffa, fable, framed tale, Islam, humanism/Humanism, the Renaissance.
• Students will identify the structure, plot, and central themes of an excerpt from "Zirac and Friends" in The Fables of Bidpai.

Abstract: The study of the humanities facilitates the achievement of a balanced and fulfilled life. Ideas born in Eastern Humanism and transmitted West infinitely enriched the European Renaissance. One such idea, a literary structure known as the "framed" tale, spread to Europe largely due to the popularity of Ibn al-Mugaffa's brilliant translation of The Fables of Bidpai, from Persian to Arabic. (During the Renaissance classic works in Arabic, the language of Islam, were especially sought for translation to Latin.) In the "Zirac and Friends" stories, which appear in The Fables of Bidpai, "Friendship" is a most central theme.

Lesson Components:

Activator -- Think about "friendship." On your own paper list at least three (3) factors/circumstances that might help create/cement a friendship. Find a partner. Compare your lists. Share your findings with the class.

Brief Lecture/Discussion -- A glossary for the lesson is distributed. The following questions are discussed and answered:

What is humanism/Humanism? (When the word is uncapitalized, it denotes, among other definitions, the study of the humanities in general, subjects such as literature, philosophy, the fine arts, history, etc. When the word is capitalized, it denotes the intellectual and secular cultural movement that stemmed from the study of classical, or ancient Greek and Roman, literature and culture during the Middle Ages; Humanism was one of the factors giving rise to the Renaissance.)

What was the Renaissance? (The Renaissance was the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, based on classical sources; it began in Italy and spread gradually to other countries and marked the transition from the medieval world to the modern. Islamic influence on the Renaissance was profound, with Islam providing important contributions in literature, music, architecture and art.)

What is Islam? (Islam is the Muslim religion, a monotheistic religion in which the supreme deity is Allah and the chief prophet and founder is Mohammed. "Islam" also denotes Muslims collectively and all the lands in which the Muslim religion predominates.)

Who was Ibn al-Mugaffa? (He was the Persian who translated an ancient Persian rendition of The Fables of Bidpai into Arabic, thereby making it accessible to Renaissance scholars.)

What is a fable? (A fable is a fictitious story meant to teach a moral lesson: the characters are usually talking animals.)

What is a framed tale? (A framed tale is a story within a story. Some literature features several layers of framing -- stories within stories, within stories.)

Reading -- Excerpt from "Zirac and Friends," pp. 184-195, Tales of Kalila and Dimna, Copyright 1980, 1986, 2000 by Ramsay Wood, published by Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont. (Abstract: The scholar Bidpai tells King Dabschelm the story of noble Pigeon-King Sharpeyes and the good rat Zirac, Sharpeyes's true friend; Bidpai hopes that, from the tale, Dabschelm may draw valuable lessons in leadership and the nature of friendship. As the story goes, Sharpeyes unwittingly leads his flock into a hunter's net. Refusing, however, to succumb to despair, he exhorts every pigeon to flap its wings mightily at the count of three. The ensnared pigeons rise up, net and all, and, under the direction of Sharpeyes, find their way to the home of Zirac, who with sharp teeth liberates the flock. At his own insistence, Sharpeyes is the last to be freed. He offers to step down from his throne in light of the near-fatal blunder he committed, but the flock, acknowledging his selflessness and resourcefulness, insists that he remain its king.)

Discussion on the Reading -- How is the story framed? What is its plot? In your opinion what is its central theme? Why? What are some additions that you now may wish to make to your list of factors that lead to forming/cementing a friendship?

Summary

Homework Assignment (Assessment) -- Write a short "framed" fable of your own. Be sure that your "frame" is clearly established and that the characters in the fable feature talking animals. Follow the model of "Zirac and Friends" in establishing a theme or moral that can benefit a character in the story's frame.

Text Source -- Wood, Ramsay. Kalila and Dimna: Classic Fables from India. (Rochester VT: Inner Traditions, 2000). Cautionary Note: Some language and many depicted situations render the source inappropriate for student use. Teachers should adapt text as needed, judiciously conforming to the standards of propriety.

Plans for Formal Assessment: Quiz on lecture content and glossary terms; creation of original fable featuring modeled components

Keywords: fables; Fables of Bidpai; framing, literary; humanism; Ibn al-Mugaffa; Islam; Kalila and Dimna; Renaissance, Islamic influence