fracturing a fairy tale by putting its characters on a talk show
This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Corbett Harrison. Check out all of Corbett's on-line lessons by clicking here.
The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Cindy Ellen: a Wild Western Cinderella by Susan Lowell. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:
Step one (sharing the published model): First, I must give credit where credit is due. My friend and mentor Kay Henjum inspired the creation of this lesson. She used to do a marvelous demonstration lesson where she would put the three little pigs (and various minor characters from that fairy tale) on the Oprah Winfrey show.
When I first heard the book Cindy Ellen, I immediately remembered Kay's original idea, and I built this lesson.
Try this. Read the book Cindy Ellen by Susan Lowell aloud to your class. Don't tell them it is a Cinderella re-telling. You might even keep the book's title a secret from them, just to see how long it takes them to make the connection. They'll get it eventually, but it's interesting to see how long it takes when a story is re-told uniquely...and re-told well.
Ask students to imagine that Cindy Ellen, her Cowboy Prince, and her embittered family are all guests on Oprah Winfrey's talk show on a day she is discussing the topic of "True Love." Have each student come up with a question that Oprah might ask the couple or the family. Read several questions aloud. Call on students act out (with their best wild West dialects) how they think the characters would answer. Use their characterizations as an opportunity to talk about voice.
By the way: the Northern Nevada Writing Project's awesome print guide, The Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide, features a story re-telling lesson based on Cindy Ellen. This lesson was created by first-grade teacher, Sonia Joy, and it can be found on page 34 of the guide. Just one more reason why you should get a copy of the guide!
After sharing the book, talk about how even stories that we are very familiar with (like fairy tales) can always be retold in a unique way. You might show or talk about other versions of the Cinderella story, or you might cite John Scieszka's The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.
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 voice, since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
Okay, here's the deal. We want a great example of a student-created script to post here for other students to read and be inspired by. We're looking for one great teacher to teach this lesson, choose one voice-filled script from a student group, type up the script, digitally photograph the students as they perform it, and send us the pictures and the script to post. We will reward the contributing teacher with a classroom copy of the three free classroom books from our Picture Book Lessons Page . Interested? Contact us at publish@writingfix.com. Write "Cindy Ellen Assignment" in your e-mail's subject line.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing):The interactive button choices on the Student Instructions Page can certainly inspire your students to begin generating ideas for this assignment, but you can certainly create a class brainstorm that accomplishes the same without being on the computer.
We suggest groups of four to six students write these scripts together. The worksheet below has room to brainstorm eight characters though, but students can have less than eight characters. All students should have a speaking part, unless you want to assign one student to serve as the skit's director...it's a good leadership opportunity, we suppose.
Many groups will want questions to come from the "studio audience" as part of their skits. Suggest to your groups that if they write the questions on notebook cards, they can actually use students who are not a part of their group to ask those questions when prompted during the skit.
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.
