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Cinderella in the Language Arts |
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| Cinderella Vs. Cinderella |
| 3rd - 6th grade (for younger students this exercise can be made an out-loud activity and for older students a comparison between more than two stories or the genre of Cinderella stories). |
| Objectives: The learner will write a compare/contrast paper. |
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On-Line Resources: Children's Literature Web Guide's Cinderella Contains a number of links to other Cinderella sites, including a number of teaching ideas. Fairy Tale Encyclopedia - Cinderella A brief overview of the story, along with a little history and discussion of variations. There are a number of good links from this site, as well. This site describes the elements of a Cinderella story, and contains a link called "In Search of Cinderella," which offers a list of countries, leading to Cinderella versions from those countries. Cinderella Books from Around the World A list of various Cinderella books, although this list is not categorized by country. |
| Other Resources: various versions of Cinderella, Cinderella: Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series by Judy Sierra (optional, but very useful!). |
| Procedures: Use the on-line resources to identify and obtain various versions of Cinderella. As a class, decide on the characteristics to compare. As the students read the books, have them identify major characteristics of the story on a database (or on a graph on paper, if no database is accessible). Possible fields are listed below - use whichever items are appropriate for your students. |
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Story |
The Brothers Grimm's Cinderella |
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Main Character |
Cinderella |
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Family |
father, cruel step-mother, two wicked step-sisters |
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Main Character's Wish |
to go to the ball |
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Impossible Tasks |
pick out lentils from ashes |
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How She Attains Wish |
birds do as Cinderella bids, magic bird (spirit of her mother?) gives her gowns and slippers |
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Where They Meet |
3-day festival |
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Animals? |
birds who help Cinderella |
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Proof of Identity |
the golden slipper fits |
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Magic |
birds help Cinderella & speak to the Prince |
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Important Person |
Prince (some discussion may be necessary here) |
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What Happens to Evil Characters |
step-sisters are blinded by birds (plus they ALREADY cut off part of their feet, so they have to live with that, too!) |
After the information is gathered, go over the format for a compare/contrast paper. A four paragraph format is easiest: Introduction
General overview of similarities and differences
