1. Oral Traditions the sharing of stories, cultures, and ideas by word of mouth

2. THEME Is a central idea, message, or insight that is revealed within a story.

3. Storytelling Techniques Hyperbole: exaggeration or overstatement for either comic effect or express heightened emotion. Personification: giving human characteristics to non-human subjects. Allusion: reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

4. Myths are tales that explain the actions of gods, goddesses, and the heroes who interact with them.

5. Legends are traditional stories about the past. They are based on real-life events but over generations of retellings, legends often twist fact into fiction and feature larger- than-life people.

6. Folk Tales tell stories about ordinary people. These stories reveal the traditions and values of a culture and teach a lesson.

7. Tall Tales Tall tales often focus on a central hero who performs impossible feats using hyperbole.

8. Fables are brief stories featuring animals that speak and act like humans. Fables often end with a moral that is directly stated.

9. Moral is a lesson about life that is taught by a story

10. Epics are long narrative poems about a larger- than-life hero who engages in a dangerous journey, or quest, that is important to the history of a nation or culture.