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Cinderella as a cross-age and cross-culture material for grades K-8 |
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The project I have started was developed to show students and teachers that Cinderella is not just a simple childhood story to be put away once we have reached school age. Cinderella and all of its variants involve culture, gender values, morals, and the magic that makes it a fairy tale. Sometimes hearing the story from the step-sister, step-mother, or even the prince’s perspective can help readers understand critical reasoning, fairness in their interactions with others, and forming judgments based on positive values or at least the whole story rather than just one, possibly skewed, point of view (Granowsky). Cross-cultural comparisons are not difficult for a story as well known as Cinderella (Rodriguez-Price) The fairy tale genre can be used as the content base for teaching reading, writing, and thinking skills and offers techniques that promote critical thinking and creative problem solving. (Jerry Flack). My suggestion is to use Cinderella, and its variants to find age appropriate books for all levels. There are many variations of Cinderella that lend themselves to the depth needed for eighth graders, and other variations that are well suited to beginning readers. The story is the same classic we all know, but the variety of authors and illustrators will make the project exciting for teachers as well as students. |
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The main data source was the internet, used to access ERIC and the library as well as sites like Barnes and Noble to look for variations of Cinderella available today. I also searched the Internet for lesson plans that I could easily alter or use to show how adaptable Cinderella stories are to cross age teaching; a variation for every level of reader. The site is organized by category; home is this page which explains why this site exists, activities takes you to a site that lists activities for grades first through eighth, research includes more ideas about the project, variations is a list of all the Cinderella books I could find that are available today (I will be adding to this list constantly), links is a page of Internet addresses that I found useful, and of course bibliography is where I have cited my sources. Because the story is so familiar to all cultures, I believe it can break down walls and open up an understanding of different cultures for the readers. The decision to create a website was an easy one. So many teachers are using the internet today to search for information they can use in the classroom, having my information available on the internet makes it accessible |