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Folk tales around the world (using country and regional domains)

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You're probably familiar with popular folk tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. But do you know that different countries, regions, and cultures have their own unique folk tales? Let’s discover some folk tales from around the world.

Learning outcomes:

  • Use domain filters to limit results to specific geographies around the world
  • Explore the diversity of folk tales in different locations
  • Consider what makes a story a folk tale

Questions to think about:

  • How might a culture's history or geography affect its folk tales?
  • Is the purpose of folk tales the same everywhere? How might they differ?

Try it

  1. Open Search Coach.
  2. Type [folk tales] in the search bar and run your search.
    • What results do you get?
    • Do they seem focused on certain locations? What might this be?
  3. Now try to search for resources from specific locations.
    • Search for Japanese websites by selecting the Domain menu and checking the box next to Japan. What effect does this have on the text in your search bar?
    • Using this method, try to find three folk tales from a few countries that you haven't been to. Which folk tale is your favorite?

Bonus exercise: Lateral reading is the practice of looking at multiple sources that cover the same topic to verify accuracy and understand different perspectives. Many folk tales were originally passed along by word of mouth, so even in one location, the same story may have different details.

  1. Select one folk tale, enter its title into the search bar, and run your search.
  2. Open multiple results for this search.
    • Are the story details exactly the same in each result? If not, how do they differ?
    • What does this tell you about how the story was passed along in a culture?
    • Think about other topics you'd search on the web. When else would it be helpful to read multiple sources on the same topic?

Think about it

  • When is it helpful to filter by location in your searches?
  • Did you find any stories from different places that are similar? What could this tell you about people in those locations?

Teacher resources