Teacher: Mrs. Mary Ellen Hogan-Balliet

School: Main Street Elementary School

Subject: Language Arts

Grade: 2nd Grade

Lesson Number: 1 of 1

Lesson Topic: Cinderella around the World

Objective(s):

Standards:

Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards

Materials and Resources (10 points):

1.) Books

Annotated Bibliography

Coburn, J.R. (2004). Domitila: A Cinderella Tale from the Mexican Tradition. Fremont, CA: Shen's Books.
Domitila is a very talented and loving girl, able to cook, work leather, or make adobe. When forced to look for work because of torrential rains and her mother's illness, she finds employment as a cook at the governor's mansion. Her culinary expertise gains her the attention of the governor's selfish son, Timoteo, who is distressed when she is called home to witness her mother's death. Timoteo sets out to find her, determined to eat her cooking again. As the story progresses, a subplot tells of the girl's malicious and manipulative new stepmother, who plans to marry her own daughter to the eligible young man. In a twist on more traditional versions, the fairy godmother here is the protagonist's memory of her mother, and the real transformation is not hers, but Timoteo's, who becomes loving and kind in the process of his search. The text is bordered by proverbs rendered in both Spanish and English.
Ages 8-12

 

Daly, J. (2000). Fair, Brown & Trembling: An Irish Cinderella Story. Great Britain: Francis Lincoln Limited.                                                                                                                                                                        Trembling is the overworked and shunned younger sister of Fair and Brown. The event were all the ladies try to find a husband is Sunday mass instead of a ball. With the help of an old henwife, as the role of fairy godmother, Trembling is soon the gorgeous and mysterious woman standing outside the church that everyone in the congregation longs to meet. Though anonymous Trembling flees on her brilliant steed, a smitten Prince Emania manages to snatch her tiny blue slipper as she rides away. A search for the slipper's owner ensues, but in a feisty twist, Prince Emania must also fight off competing suitors. Kindergarten-Grade 4

 

Disney, W. (2005). Walt Disney’s Cinderella. New York: Disney Press.

Cinderella has a mean stepmother and two stepsisters for whom she must do all the household chores. Her only friends are two little mice, two birds, a dog and a horse.
One day, the prince held a ball at which time he was going to choose a wife. The stepsisters were going to the ball hoping to be chosen by the prince. Cinderella also wanted to go but the stepmother told her that she could not go because she did not have a gown to wear. However, Cinderella's friends, the mice and birds sew ribbons and bows to her dress, making it look pretty. When the stepsisters saw this, they tore it to pieces. Then Cinderella's fairy godmother appeared and used her magic wand to make a coach drawn by horses, with a coachman and footman. So Cinderella went to the ball. The prince saw Cinderella and fell in love and they danced together. However, Cinderella had to leave before midnight.
As the clock struck midnight, Cinderella runs away and one of her glass slippers falls off her foot. The prince looks for her and on finding the shoe, declares that any girl whose foot fitted the shoe would be his wife. Since only Cinderella can fit it, she is eventually found and she marries the prince and they live happily ever after.
Age 4-12

 

Jaffe, N. (1998). The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition. New York: Henry Holt & Company, Inc.

It begins when a father asks each of his three daughters to declare how much she loves him. The older two answer in obvious ways, "as much as diamonds" and "as much as gold and silver".  The third says, "I love you the way meat loves salt." The father here, a rabbi, misunderstands and exiles the youngest daughter, who, in this case, receives a magic stick from a stranger (Prophet Elijah). She takes refuge in the house of a faraway rabbi with a handsome son.  There is a wedding instead of a ball and the story becomes the main character uses the magic stick to conjure up a pretty dress, shoes and transportation. A missing slipper soon leads to the girl's own wedding with the rabbi’s handsome son. She invites her family to the wedding supper where the food is made tasteless from lack of salt. This prompts sudden understanding from the bride's father. At last, the rabbi realizes how much his daughter loves him and the families are reunited to live happily ever after. This retelling is shows the place of the story by fluid language that will make it a fine read-aloud book and by illustrations showing simple faces, embroidered clothing, and rustic homes. The words and music to the traditional Eastern European wedding song, "Mazel Tov," are appended.

Kindergarten – Grade 4

 

 

Steptoe, J. (1987). Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc.

An African villager named Mufaro had two beautiful daughters.  However, their dispositions were very different. Manyara had a bad temper and was selfish (although not in front of Mufaro) and Nyasha was always kind and considerate both to people and to animals. When Mufaro receives word that the Great King is inviting all of the most beautiful and worthy women to appear before him so that he might choose a wife, Mufaro decides that both of his daughters should go. Manyara, believing herself more worthy and beautiful than her sister, sets out alone so that she can be presented to the king before her sister. What happens to each girl along the way depends on her response to the strange people whom she encounters. The vivid drawings of people and events enhance the story and serve to help the reader to become more familiar with traditional African culture. Ages 4-8

 

2.) Websites

Cinderella

 http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html

This website provides online versions of the Cinderella fairytale from different parts of the world.

SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/

This site provides different versions of the Cinderella story, essays, illustrations, annotated texts, links to outside sites, and a discussion bulletin board. It is an well-organized site maintained by Heidi Anne Heiner.  

Scholastic  

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/fractured_fairy_publish.asp

This website will allow students to publish their very on fairytales.

Google Shared Documents

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginAuth

This site allows you to collaborate on-line to create word documents or excel spreadsheets.

ePals

http://www.epalscorp.com//index.html

This website helps teachers and students around the world to connect and foster a global learning community.

Introduction: approximately 15 minutes

Guiding Questions:

What is a fairy tale? What are some special characteristics of fairy tales? What kinds of plots, characters, and settings do we expect to find in these stories? What makes each fairy tale unique? Why are fairy tales so prevalent as a form of storytelling throughout the world? How have illustrations been used to make fairy tales more enjoyable?

Create a KWL Chart.

Procedures:

1.) Defining the Fairy Tale

Teacher preparation: Read aloud several variation of the Cinderella fairy tales with the students.  Have students browse the following websites, http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html and http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ to find two more versions of the Cinderella Story.

Activity: Introducing and Defining the Fairy Tale

 approximately 15 minutes a day for three days

Begin by simply reading some of the above fairy tales to the students so that they can start to develop an intuitive awareness of this type of literature.

Have students repeat the definition of a fairy tale at the beginning of each lesson: "Folk tales and fairy tales are old, old stories, passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years, and nobody knows who the original author was."

Every time you read or share a fairy tale with the students, have a child place a pin on a large wall map. Keep a list of each country from where each story comes. By the end of this series of activities, you should have a wall map of the world covered with pins and a long list of countries on a poster. Ask the students what conclusions they would draw from these visual aids. Elicit from the students a recognition that fairy tales are told by many different cultures and countries throughout the world.

2.) Identifying Fairy Tale Characteristics: Character, Setting, and Plot

Teacher Preparation: Fairy tales usually feature one-dimensional iconic characters and settings such as peasants, witches, royalty, villages, forests, and castles. While fairy tales often pit good characters against evil ones, moral teaching is not necessarily inherent in the stories. Peasants, abandoned children, and simpletons attain wealth and happy marriages as often through sheer luck and the fortuitous intervention of magic as through cleverness or good actions.

Activity: approximately 30-45 minutes

Create a shared Google excel spreadsheet that each student will complete.

After reading a version of the fairy tale students will enter data for the literary terms listed below.

Characters:

Brainstorm a list of characters that occur in fairy tales. Create a shared Google spreadsheet. On the left, list each story by title and along the top list the various character types such as king, princess, peasant, youngest sister, cruel older sisters, simpleton, cruel stepmother, giant, and witch. Let students take turns putting checkmarks in the appropriate boxes with each new story you read to them. Make another similar chart for settings and keep track of the settings in each story.

Settings:

Show students pictures from books and magazines of a variety of settings including those that are typical of fairy tales (castles, cottages, mountains, rivers, and forests) and those that are not typical of fairy tales (apartment buildings and city streets). Have students add information collected from the fairy tale to their spreadsheet.

Plot:

Hold a brainstorming session in which the class will complete a concept web about common plots encountered in fairy tales.

           Examples:

Fairy tale plot elements might include:

Hero (or heroine) heroine has bad luck

Hero (or heroine) must perform impossible tasks

Hero (or heroine) must fight a villain

Hero (or heroine) meets magical helpers

Hero (or heroine) is treated badly

Hero (or heroine) is in danger

Magic spells

Villain is punished

Hero (or heroine) is rewarded with wealth

Hero (or heroine) is rewarded with a happy marriage

Things happen in threes (three battles, three tasks)

Small group work:

Divide students in small groups.  Have students work as a team to discuss the information they have collected on the characters, setting, and typical plot elements that they find in their fairy tales. You may wish to do this activity several times, with groups focusing only on character one day, only on setting another day, and only on plot on a third day.

3.) Understanding the Concept of Versions

 approximately 25 minutes a day for 3 days

Teacher Preparation: One of the most fascinating aspects of the fairy tale is the way in which recognizable plots and story elements reappear in slightly different guises in many different cultures and time periods. For example, the motif of the abused youngest sister achieving wealth and happiness-best known as the "Cinderella" tale type-appears in hundreds of versions from African, Asian, American, and European countries and as far back in written sources as 850 A.D.

Activity:

Re-read some the "Cinderella" stories listed above and ask the students what is the same in each story. Create a Cinderella-Type Tale Venn Diagram, and as a group fill out similarities and differences between two different versions of the Cinderella tale type. Students may use their information from the spreadsheet to assist them in filling out the Venn Diagram.  Once you have discuss similarities and differences among the stories, begin to discuss the different cultures found in each story.  Have small groups of students further research the various cultures discussed throughout the lesson.  The class will use ePals to further enhance their learning by communicating with students from another country.

Closure: Have students write their own fairy tale.  Encourage them to create a rich tale utilizing all that they have learned from other cultures.  Have students publish their fairy tale on-line with the Scholastic website, http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/fractured_fairy_publish.asp.

Formal Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate the products that are produced during each section of the lesson.

Summative Evaluation: The teacher will use a rubrics to assess students at the completion of the lesson. 

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