fracturing fairy tales by moving their times and places
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Kathleen Marshall at an SBC-sponsored inservice class.
The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Bubba, the Cowboy Prince by Helen Ketteman. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.
Washoe County teachers, click here to search for this book at the county library.
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Pre-step (before sharing the published model): Most kids are familiar with fairy tales. Take some time to discuss the ones they know and write them on the board. Ask any students from different cultures about the stories they grew up with. Discuss how these stories are known all over the world and are the basis of a wide variety of art, music and literature. Talk about the many stories that have been made into movies or longer novels. Discuss and give some examples.
Step one (sharing the published model): Tell your students you will be reading a story based on the story of Cinderella. See if anyone can tell the story quickly. Be sure they differentiate between the story and the popular animated movie. Ask students to give the names of the characters and write them on the board. Also write the major events. Have this list up when you read the story, telling them to watch for these characters and events as you read Bubba the Cowboy Prince.
Read the story Bubba the Cowboy Prince. This is a story with a great opportunity to read with expression and fun voices. After reading, have the students correlate the characters and events they identified in the original version of Cinderella with the ones in Bubba the Cowboy Prince.
Step two (introducing models of writing): In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. The groups will certainly talk about the idea development, because of the discussion tool that has been included with each model. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's organization as well.
We're looking for student samples for other grade levels for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing):Tell your students it is now their turn to write original stories based on a fairy tale of their choice. Have them play with the interactive buttons, or just brainstorm, to come up with fairy tales they like and different settings where they might tell the stories. If your writers have chosen a story from which a popular movie has been made, be sure to check to see that they are using the original version of the story to adapt and not the movie. Explain that the movie is already an adaptation. Have students read an original, non-illustrated version of their chosen story from a book or an online source. A good source for fairy and folk tales online is: http://www.rickwalton.com/folktale/folktale.htm
Once students have decided on a story and a setting, hand out the organizer. Have the students list the main characters from the original story and the main events on one side of the organizer. On the other side, have them list the characters and events from their new version, noting how they will change. Have them tell their stories in a small group setting and get feedback from other students about their ideas. Then have them write the story, using lots of details to show how original their new version is.
Step four (revising with specific trait language): Two tools for revision are provided below. You can use one or both, depending on how much time you have to spend on this assignment.
To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts. Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5." Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings. For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.
Step five (editing for conventions): After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it. The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.
Step six (publishing for the portfolio): When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here. Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.
Interested in publishing student work on-line? We invite student writers to post final drafts of their original at WritingFix's Community of Student Writers. This is a safe-to-use blog for students and teachers. No writing is posted until it is approved by the moderator. Contact us at publish@writingfix.com if you have questions about getting your students published.
Learn more about author Helen Ketteman by clicking here.
