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Tales With a Twist

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Return to By the Book -- Activities for Book Week!

 

Subjects Arts & Humanities
 
Grades
  • 3-5
  • 6-8

Brief Description

Create news stories that share a familiar fairy tale from a new perspective!

Objectives

Students
  • review a familiar fairy tale.
  • select a character to "interview."
  • write original news stories from the perspective of the character.
  • create an illustration to accompany the article.

Keywords

writing, tales, interview, point-of-view, Book Week, library, author, fairy tale, news

Materials Needed

Lesson Plan

In his new take on the favorite fairy tale "The Three Little Pigs," Jon Scieszka tells the "true" story from the perspective of A. (Alexander) Wolf. The book called The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! suggests that the wolf was innocently seeking a cup of sugar to make his granny a birthday cake when he visited the homes of the pigs and inadvertently blew them down with sneezes from a dreadful cold. And who could blame him for not leaving a ham dinner just lying there...twice?

Read the story or discuss some of the ideas it presents with your students. Have the students name a few fairy tales and talk about how these stories would change if told from a new perspective. Were Cinderella's stepsisters really so mean? Did Little Red Riding Hood's conniving grandmother orchestrate the entire "What big teeth you have?" episode? Was the giant an innocent victim of Jack's thievery via the beanstalk? Ask the students to choose a story and think about a character who would have a unique perspective on the events within it.

Hand out copies of the Tales With a Twist work sheet. Instruct students to take on the role of a reporter and "interview" the character they have chosen from a familiar fairy tale. They should tell the story of this character through a news article written on the work sheet. This handout includes a line for the headline of the story, lines for the article text, a line for the author's name, and a box for an illustration with a caption.

Students should be cautioned to use appropriate punctuation marks, especially quotation marks, with "quotes" from the character. At least three direct quotes are recommended. When students have finished their articles, invite them to share their work or put the stories on display in the classroom.

Quotation Marks from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab has a simple guide to using this form of punctuation accurately.

Assessment

Collect student handouts and evaluate writing with grade-level standards. All parts of the work sheet must be complete, and every submission should contain at least three "direct quotes" from the fairy tale character.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Cara Bafile

National Standards

LANGUAGE ARTS: English

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Originally published 11/15/2002
Last updated 10/31/2007