Fairy Tales Gone Wild: 10 Creative Ways to Teach Fairy Tales

written by  : |by Erin Macpherson

Apr 30, 2013 - 

it is taken from : http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog/blog-wat/2013/04/30/fairy-tales-gone-wild-10-creative-ways-to-teach-fairy-tales

Fractured fairy tales are a great way to help students see how story elements—like character, plot, setting—shape the stories we read and write. 

What do we call it when an author takes a classic fairy tale and changes it into something completely different? It's called a fractured fairy tale. And kids love them.  “It’s by far my students' favorite language arts unit every year,” writes teacher Jessie Averson, a second grade teacher in Tennessee. We asked teachers across the country for their favorite tips on teaching fractured fairy tales. Here are the top 11 ideas. (Plus, see our list of fractured fairy tales at the bottom of the page!)

1.  “Start off by asking students to share their favorite fairy tales. Record the list on a piece of chart paper.  Then ask the class: ‘What makes a fairy tale a fairy tale? You’ll be amazed at their answers and it will lay the ground work for all the work that follows.”—Jessie Averson

2. “Choose a fairy tale that you know well and TELL the story—no props, no pictures—just tell it. Storytelling is becoming a lost art. You will be amazed at how your students respond, as they paint pictures in their minds while listening to your words. My students become instantly quiet and focused when I begin to tell a story.” —Linda Joyce

3. “Read three, or four, or five traditional fairy tales aloud. If your students are familiar enough with the stories, tell the stories collaboratively as a class at circle time. As they relate the tale together, your students may discover that they do not all remember the story the same way.”—Ellen Ivory 

4.  “Readers theater is essential.  Choose a fairy tale or two and have groups of three or four students each take a different version and perform it as readers theater ! My second graders loved it and they made their own props too!—Mallory Wintercorn

5.  Fractured fairy tales are great for teaching about point of view. Read titles such asBelieve Me, Goldilocks Rocks!; The Story of the Three Bears as Told by Baby Bear by Nancy Jean Loewen and talk about how different characters might have a different perspective. Loewen also has versions of Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs.—Karen Griffin

6.  As a side STEM activity for Three Little Pigs, gather building materials such as straws, popsicle sticks, Legos etc., and explore how effective they are as building materials!—April JW

7. “We make our fairy tale unit cross-curricular. We plant beans after reading Jack and the Beanstalk. We also build castles with recyclable items. After reading Cinderella, we do an activity where we measure Cinderella’s, her sisters’ and her godmother's shoes. We do problem solving with the characters from fairy tales. It all ends with Fairy Tale Day when kids dress up as princesses, knights, and dragons. Such a fun celebration for everyone!”—Mylene Arseneau

8. I like the idea of a creative writing assignment or— for younger kids—a story-telling assignment. Swap the bad guys in the stories. The Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood chases Hansel and Gretel. What would happen? How would the stories be different?—Phil Weber

9. In drama class, I would choose a fairy tale and then change three objects in the story and the students would have to come up with ways to keep the story line but still include the objects. For Snow White, instead of apple use a tissue box, instead of a mirror use a computer. The kids loved it! —Laurie Elliot

10. “There are so many versions of Cinderella from different cultures. When I taught second grade, we did a unit called Around the World with Cinderella. Students made passports and read versions of Cinderella from several continents. They had to compare and contrast a few stories and then they wrote their own.”—Kenya Brown

11.  “After my second graders study fairy tales, we read The End by David Rochelle. It starts with  ‘and they all lived happily ever after,’ and it ends as you can imagine with ‘once upon a time.’ My students think it’s so funny!”—April Ralph

10 Video Projects Every Teacher Should Try

10 Video Projects Every Teacher Should Try
| May 15, 2013 - by Hannah Hudson |

Making classroom movies has gotten much easier now that cell phones, tablets and other devices feature video capabilities that are high quality and simple to use. And happily, we’ve found that students love to use video—it’s a format that they understand and that sparks their creativity. Here are ten ideas to try in your classroom today.

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Make a Book Trailer: Challenge students to design a movie-style trailer that excites their classmates about a must-read novel or nonfiction book.

Try Digital Storytelling: Digital storytelling is a great format for students to share more about their lives or to present about a person in history.

Film a Thank You Note: If you need to thank a visitor to your class or an awesome parent volunteer, try filming rather than writing a thank you note. Your students’ smiles will be a memorable token of appreciation!

Keep Parents Informed: Have small groups take turns writing a brief summary of what you learned on a weekly or monthly basis and then filming it, news report-style, to share with families.

Make a How-To Video: Invite kids to practice their informative writing skills by making short videos that explain how to bake a cake, ride a skateboard or shoot a soccer goal.

Take a Stand: If your students are fired up about an issue at your school (like the length of their passing periods, for example), have them make videos sharing their opinions and/or asking for change.

Recreate a Favorite Story: As a class, film your own version of “Chrysanthemum” or “The Tale of Despereaux”—it’s a great way to practice key reading skills like summarizing and comprehension.

Make a Commercial: Commercials are persuasive writing at their most distilled—have students make one for your school playground or a local attraction.

Try Stop-Action: Stop-action movies are a fun way to document a science experiment, whether it’s cell meiosis or growing a bean sprout in a paper cup.

Tour Your School: A student-led tour of your school, from the cafeteria to the library to the front office, is a nice resource for sharing with new students and visitors.

What’s the best video project you’ve ever done?

taken from www.weareteachers.com

As I have intimated, speaking comes first. That's why we refer to related words like 'speech' and 'speaker' in the way we do. Speech is the origin of how language is expressed and a speaker is someone who delivers a speech often to an assembled audience. There is a place in London where every Sunday people stand up on a wooden box and proceed to speak about any issue they choose and if they get a crowd to listen to them or in some cases laugh or jeer at them, they are quite happy to get a reaction.

This particular spot is called appropriately enough: Speakers' Corner. 'Speak' is therefore the starting point suggesting putting words in some coherent order and then saying them out loud. We say: I understand she speaks several foreign languages. Have you noticed that he speaks with an Australian accent? People were booing while the minister was speaking at the meeting. There is a sense of formality, if you like, about 'speak' It's the starting point of making intelligible noises that other people can understand.

'Talk' on the other hand is the informal one. This suggests an open two way method of communication. Let's contrast these two one with another: I want to speak to you and I want to talk to you. When someone addresses you with the former, it's probably something formal and serious -- The boss wants to say something about your work and it's probably not favourable. On the other hand the latter is much friendlier because the indication is that someone wants to have a conversation with you.

Similarly you would go to listen to a speech delivered in a hall at a seminar in a college but you would go to the local village hall to listen to a talk (with possibly picture slides) given by a local birdwatcher about some of the birds that you can see in the area. When someone doesn't like the way you say things either in the type of language or the topics, do they say: I wish you wouldn't speak like that in front of your old aunt or I wish you wouldn't talk like that in front of your old aunt? I have to tell you in all honesty, and I bet auntie would agree with me, you can say either. Talk to you soon.

to read more about this article, please click here.
written by ,
Alan Townend

from http://www.english-test.net