Using Fairy Tales to Build Student Understanding and Classroom Community

Leanna Vitti

This unit focuses on building student understanding of dramatic structure through fairy tales, more specifically, Cinderella tales. The students will be exposed to Cinderella stories from different cultures. They will determine the dramatic structure of each of four versions of the story and then compare them to one another. Following the comparison of the stories, the students will choose a country of interest to research in a small group, and then use the information learned to create an outline of a new version of Cinderella from the country they have researched. They will later turn their outline into a dramatic performance. The students will plan, rehearse, and perform their stories for their peers and other students, while offering and receiving positive feedback. This will help to build a sense of community within the classroom and school building.