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Fairy Tales and Fractured Fairy Tales
Time to use your Imagination for this Unit!
Genre Study: GRADE 7
*This unit is 3 weeks long, and focuses on
General Outcomes 2, 4 & 5 from the Alberta Program of Studies*
Outcomes covered during this unit:
Specific Outcomes Used
General Outcome 2: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts.
2.1- Use Strategies and Cues
Use prior knowledge
• select and focus relevant ideas from personal experiences and prior knowledge to understand new ideas and information
• use expectations and preferences developed during previous reading experiences to select and read new texts with purpose
Use comprehension strategies
• identify, connect and summarize in own words the main ideas from two or more sources on the same topic
. Use concept mapping and mental rehearsal to remember main ideas and relevant details
• adjust reading rate and strategies to account for changes in structural features of texts and complexity of content
Use textual cues
• identify and use visual and textual cues, such as numbers, bullets and words; for example, first/then/next, before/after, on the one hand/on the other hand and if/then, that signal organizational patterns in print and other media texts, to enhance understanding of ideas and information
• identify and use, effectively and efficiently, structural features of textbooks, such as tables of contents and indices, to access ideas and information and to read with purpose
Use phonics and structural analysis
• apply, flexibly, knowledge of phonics, sight vocabulary, structural analysis, language and context clues, depending on the purpose and rate of reading
2.2- Respond to Text
Construct meaning from texts
• Compare the choices and behaviours of characters portrayed in oral, print and other media texts with those of self and others
• analyze how plot develops; the connection between plot and subplot; and the interrelationship of plot, setting and characters
• identify and explain conflict, and discuss how it develops and may be resolved
• develop, clarify and defend own interpretation, based on evidence from the text with support from own experiences
Appreciate the artistry of texts
• discuss how techniques, such as colour, shape, composition, suspense, foreshadowing and flashback, are used to communicate meaning and enhance effects in oral, print and other media texts
Appreciate the artistry of texts
• reflect on, revise and elaborate on initial impressions of oral, print and other media texts, through subsequent reading, listening and viewing activities
2.3 Understand Forms, Elements and Techniques
Understand forms and genres
• identify various forms and genres of oral, print and other media texts, and describe key characteristics of each
Understand techniques and elements
• discuss connections among plot and subplot, main and supporting characters, main idea and theme in a variety of oral, print and other media texts
• identify the narrator’s perspective, and explain how it affects the overall meaning of a text
• identify and explain how narrative hooks, foreshadowing, flashback, suspense and surprise endings contribute to the effectiveness of plot development.
• explain how sound and image work together to create effects in media texts
Experiment with language
• explore surprising and playful uses of language and visuals in popular culture, such as cartoons, animated films and limericks; explain ways in which imagery and figurative language, such as simile, convey meaning.
2.4- Create Original Texts
Generate ideas
• choose appropriate strategies for generating ideas and focusing topics for oral, print and other media texts
Elaborate on the expression of ideas
• use suspense, exaggeration, foreshadowing, dialogue anddescription to show rising action and develop conflict
Structure texts
• create oral, print and other media texts that are unified by point of view, carefully developed plot and endings consistent with previous events.
• create a variety of oral, print and other media texts to explore ideas related to particular topics or themes.
General Outcome 4: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and artistry of communication.
4.1- Enhance and Improve
Appraise own and others’ work
• identify particular content features that enhance the effectiveness of published oral, print and other media texts
• Incorporate particular content features of effective texts into own oral, print and other media texts.
Revise and edit
• revise introductions, conclusions and the order of ideas andinformation to add coherence and clarify meaning
• revise to eliminate unnecessary repetition of words and ideas
• use paragraphs, appropriately, to organize narrative and expository texts
Expand knowledge of language
• identify and explain figurative and metaphorical use of language in context
Enhance artistry
• experiment with figurative language, illustrations and videoeffects to create visual images, provide emphasis or expressemotion
4.2 Attend to Conventions
Attend to grammar and usage
• use a variety of subordinate clauses, correctly and appropriately in own writing
• Students use subordinate clauses to enhance description and to link ideas that show such things as time, relationships, and cause and effect.
• use correct subject–verb agreement in sentences with compound subjects
• distinguish between formal and informal conventions of oral and written language, and use each appropriately, depending on the context, audience and purpose
Attend to spelling
• use reference materials to confirm spellings and to solve spelling problems when editing and proofreading
• apply specific and effective strategies for learning andremembering the correct spelling of words in own writing
4.3- Present and Share
Enhance presentation
• clarify and support ideas or opinions with details, visuals or media techniques
Use effective oral and visual communication
• identify and use explicit techniques to arouse and maintain interest and to convince the audience
Demonstrate attentive listening and viewing
• listen and view attentively to organize and classify information and to carry out multi step instructions
• ask questions or make comments that elicit additional information; probe different aspects of ideas, and clarify understanding
General Outcome 5
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support and collaborate with others.
5.1- Respect Others and Strengthen Community
Appreciate diversity
• discuss how ideas, people, experiences and cultural traditions are portrayed in various oral, print and other media texts
• explain how differing perspectives and unique reactions expand understanding
Relate texts to culture
• identify and discuss recurring themes in oral, print and other media texts from diverse cultures and communities
Use language to show respect
• demonstrate respect for diverse ideas, cultures and traditions portrayed in oral, print and other media texts
5.2- Work in groups
Cooperate with others
• contribute collaboratively in group situations, by asking questions and building on the ideas of others
• take responsibility for assuming a variety of roles in a group, depending on changing contexts and needs
Work in groups
• contribute ideas, knowledge and questions to establish an information base for research or investigations
• assist in setting and achieving group goals by inviting others to speak, suggesting alternatives, assigning tasks, sharing resources, following up on others’ ideas and listening to a variety of points of view
Evaluate group process
• evaluate group process and personal contributions according to pre-established criteria to determine strengths and areas
This unit is perfect for students to explore their imagination, and have fun during language arts class. They will experience and explore fairy tales and fractured fairy tales through a variety of activities, before writing their own fractured fairy tale. This unit would be perfect to start off the year, because it is light and fun. It gets students back into reading and writing, as well as introduces a lot of skills that they will need later in the year. At the beginning of the year you are just getting to know your students, and it is a safe way to demonstrate their writing ability and to interact and learn more about their peers/classmates!
Fractured Fairy Tales to Use:
Story: Rapunzel's Revenge written by Shannon and Dean Hale; illustrated by Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury, 2008)
Picture it…a rough n’ ride ’em Rapunzel living in the Old West escapes the tower with no help from a prince. She meets up with other fairy tale characters and sets out on a mission to save her real mother from her evil step mother Gothel’s slave mine. All of that adventure plus more set this Rapunzel apart from the version you thought you knew. (Best for grades 3 to 8, ages 8 to 14)
Book: Sleeping Ugly, By: Jane Yolen (Author), Diane Stanley (Illustrator) A clever twist on Sleeping Beauty.
Princess Miserella is very beautiful outside, but inside she's the meanest, wickedest princess around. Plain Jane, on the other hand, has a face to match her name but a sweet and loving nature that earns her three wishes from a fairy. Miserella's horrible manners make the fairy so angry that her magic throws them all into a deep sleep. Will the handsome prince kiss the right girl?
Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut (Ages 8-up)
By: Margaret Atwood
A very clever and alliterative fractured fairy tale.
Snow White in New York. By: Fiona French
(Ages 8-9) Grade 4-5 or ESL and Struggling Readers
A Snow White story set in the 1920s. The jealous stepmother tries to get rid of Snow, who becomes the toast of New York.
The Paper Bag Princess: By Robert Munsch
A tale about a Princess named Elizabeth who overcomes a dragon to save a rather un-princely prince.
The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales (Ages 9 up)
Ridiculous retellings of fairy tales, whose sophisticated humour would probably be appreciated by parents and older siblings!
UNIT ACTIVITIES
I wanted the activities to focus specifically around General Outcomes 2, 4 and 5 from the Program of Studies. This entire unit is used to give students the skills and creativity to create their own stories and fairy tales as well as to be sure they understand plot development. Students will first look at fairy tales and do some activities related to those. Next they will go on to completely change their favorite fairy tales and how they remembered them by studying fractured fairy tales. Fractured fairy tales are a great way to help students see how story elements such as: characters, plot, setting, shape the stories we read and write.
STRANDS INCORPORATED:Throughout this unit, the students will engage in activities which will enhance the language arts processes of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and representing. By using these strands students will extend their abilities, learn new skills and become more creative by participating in a lot of interactive and new activities.
**Each activity has multiple outcomes that it meets, however I have highlighted the main outcome met for each. **
ACTIVITIESActivity 1: Your favorite fairy tales! What are the characteristics of fairy tales?
Step 1: Gather a collection of fairy tale books that includes your student’s favorites. Share some titles and let students talk in groups about their favorite fairy tales and what they know about fairy tales.
Step 2: Invite students to identify some common characteristics of fairy tales. They might offer such ideas as:
- Fairy tales often begin with the words Once upon a time or Long, long ago.
- They usually include a good character and a bad character (evil).
- They can include magic or something enchanted.
- They frequently include a forest or castle in a fairy tale.
- The plot usually involves some kind of problem that once solved the good people live happily ever after.
Step 3: When students have a good grasp of the elements of a fairy tale, arrange them in groups of three. Have each student read aloud one fairy tale to his or her group. Then invite the group to use a 3-circle Venn diagram to compare and contrast the fairy tales.
Step 4: When the diagrams are completed, have groups share their diagrams with their classmates and explain what conclusions they drew about fairy tales. Students might even write a brief paragraph or two comparing and contrasting the fairy tales they analyzed.
Lesson Idea from: / Outcomes Used
Use prior knowledge
• select and focus relevant ideas from personal experiences and prior knowledge to understand new ideas and information
Understand forms and genres
• identify various forms and genres of oral, print and other media texts, and describe key characteristics of each
• identify the characteristics of different types of media texts
Appreciate the artistry of texts
• reflect on, revise and elaborate on initial impressions of oral, print and other media texts, through subsequent reading, listening and viewing activities
Generate ideas
• choose appropriate strategies for generating ideas and focusing topics for oral, print and other media texts
Demonstrate attentive listening and viewing
• listen and view attentively to organize and classify information and to carry out multi step instructions
• ask questions or make comments that elicit additional information; probe different aspects of ideas, and clarify understanding
Present information
• present ideas and opinions confidently, but without dominating the discussion, during small group activities and short, whole class sessions
Cooperate with others
• contribute collaboratively in group situations, by asking questions and building on the ideas of others
Work in groups
• contribute ideas, knowledge and questions to establish an information base for research or investigations
/ LA STRANDS/SKILLS
Multiple Intelligences
-Speaking/Discussion
-Writing
-Reading
-Viewing fairy tale stories
-Listening
-Identifying
-Brainstorming
-Organizing ideas
-Understanding
-Communicating
-Applying prior knowledge
-Comparing and Contrasting
-Sharing
-Explaining
-Drawing Conclusions
Multiple Intelligences
-Visual
-Bodily/Kinesthetic
-Verbal/Linguistic
-Interpersonal (group work/discussion)
-Intrapersonal (writing paragraph to summarize ideas)
-Logical/Mathematical
Activity 2: Around the world Cinderella:
"There are so many versions of 'Cinderella' from different cultures. Students will make passports and then will try and get stamps from as many countries and continents as possible. Students will read a variety of versions of Cinderella and get their passport stamped for that country, after completing the reading. Once student have read all the versions for a continent they will receive a continent stamp. The student’s goal is to collect as many stamps as possible by the end of the unit. If any student reads all the versions and collects all 7 continents they will receive a prize. As students complete readings they will also write in a travel journal. They will write about how that particular countries version is different to the one they know, and what traditions and information about culture they learned from reading other countries versions of the fairy tale. / Use prior knowledge
• select and focus relevant ideas from personal experiences and prior knowledge to understand new ideas and information
• use expectations and preferences developed during previous reading experiences to select and read new texts with purpose
• adjust reading rate and strategies to account for changes in structural features of texts and complexity of content
Appreciate the artistry of texts
• reflect on, revise and elaborate on initial impressions of oral, print and other media texts, through subsequent reading, listening and viewing activities
2.3 Understand Forms, Elements and Techniques
Understand forms and genres
• identify the characteristics of different types of media texts
Appreciate diversity
• discuss how ideas, people, experiences and cultural traditions are portrayed in various oral, print and other media texts
• explain how differing perspectives and unique reactions expand understanding
Relate texts to culture
• identify and discuss recurring themes in oral, print and other media texts from diverse cultures and communities
Use language to show respect
• demonstrate respect for diverse ideas, cultures and traditions portrayed in oral, print and other media texts / -Listening
-Reading
-Viewing
-Writing
-Representing
-Understanding
-Comparing and Contrasting
-Analyzing features of fairy tales
-Applying knowledge
-Expressing thoughts and opinions
Multiple Intelligences
-Visual (passports, travel journal)
-Intrapersonal
-Verbal/Linguistic
-Logical/Mathematical
-Existential: learning about other cultures traditions/values/religions
Activity 3: Fairy Tales Gone Wrong: Introducing a Fractured Fairy Tale Unit
Students will come up with a definition for a fractured fairy tale and will be able to answer the following questions:
What is a fractured fairy tale?
Why is it considered “broken?”
Students will be asked to reflect and think about their initial impressions and how those impressions change as they view more fractured fairy tales.
1st read them: "The Gingerbread Man" by Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock and then "The Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett.
Ask the students what they may have noticed about the second story and why it may be considered a "broken" version of the original.