Class Description

By viewing a series of stories adapted for television, students learn exactly what makes one story more compelling, exciting, or enjoyable than another and how to tell one story several different ways. Participants will then experiment with a variety of imaginative approaches, zany techniques, and hilarious devices to transform traditional fairy tales into something completely different, but just as enjoyable.

All classes are interactive, with guided discussion designed to encourage active observation and critical thinking.

Vocabulary

As a group, provide definitions for the following words and concepts, which will be referenced during the class.

CHARACTER: A person or an individual

FAIRY TALE: A narrative of adventures involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards and goblins)

FOLK TALE: A characteristically anonymous, timeless, and placeless tale circulated among a people

MYTH: A traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon

PLOT: The plan or main story (as of a movie or literary work)

SETTING: The time and place of the action of a literary, dramatic, or cinematic work

Pre-Visit and Post-Visit Information

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Pre-Visit Activity | Post-Visit Activity

Website

This website is a good source of fairy tales that can be read or studied in the classroom.  The SurLaLune Fairy Tales Site has annotated fairy tales, including information about their histories, similarities with various tales, alternate tales, bibliographies, illustrations and art work).