Reading and Role Playing: Fiction, Folktales, and Fairy Tale

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Reading Curricular Calendar, Second Grade, 2012-201310Will she win or will she lose? Children can pay attention to the pattern, and ask and answer,“Why is this happening? What will happen next?” They can also think about whether a characteris the one who is teaching a lesson or learning one. You’ll return to this in greater detail in thefinal bend of the unit. For now, it’s enough to nudge children to read with an eye toward it.Now is the perfect time to spotlight the antecedents of the character types they will encounter intheir modern-day stories—fairy tales, folktales, and fables. These short moralistic tales areparticularly powerful teaching texts in part because they feature characters who have such clearlydefined, often exaggerated traits. Children will have an easy time identifying the good guy andthe bad guy in these stories—and eventually, other archetypes too. These tales are full of drama,so when you read them aloud—as we suggest you do—be sure to throw some gestures into yourperformance and give characters distinguishable voices to spotlight the role each one plays.Cackle and act crotchety as the wicked old witch, make your voice light and sweet when you arethe hero or the heroine. Meanwhile, encourage your kids to ham it up too as they step into theseroles. “Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum!” demands to be spoken in a loud, mean voice. “Mirror, Mirror on thewall, who’s the fairest of them all?” will sound more cunning and coy—and will have a singsongquality. Fairy tales and folktales (which originated as oral stories) are full of repetitive chantsthat students will love to perform. Meanwhile, these repeated lines “supply rhythm and meaningin a story...” (CCSS RL 2.4).There’s another reason to introduce fairy tales and folktales at this stage in the unit. Your secondgrade readers are nearing the end of the grade, and not one but two of the Common Core’sexpectations of second graders touch on the ability to read—and dissect—these old tales.Specifically, the Standards expect that second graders will be able to “recount stories, includingfables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral”and “compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) bydifferent authors or from different cultures.” This means that beyond simply enjoying the dramaand aurally pleasing nature of these tales, your students will need to read them critically, thinkingacross messages, across authorial intent—that is, they will need to do some sophisticatedthinking work. You’ll therefore want to angle your instruction so that from the start, childrennotice the elements these tales were intended to convey.For example, after children have heard several tales, they may start to notice that the books theyhave been reading have similar characters—a bad wolf, a wise old man, an evil step relation—and that these characters have similar traits. The wise old man has all the answers but makes themain character work to get them; the stepmother in these tales is often evil and goes out of herway to harm the heroine. Readers may also notice that these archetypes sometimes differsomewhat from story to story. For example, the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood and The ThreeLittle Pigs is the villain in both stories, but the wolf in the first story seems smarter than the wolfin the latter. This is the perfect opportunity for you to teach children that fairy tales and folktalesare archetypes for modern stories, that characters who play similar roles will pop up again andagain, not only in these old tales but in more modern stories, too. Children might say, “Instead ofa wolf, this book has a mean old dragon! Reminds me a little bit of Mean Jean the RecessQueen.” The hope is that children take note of not just the magic in fairy tales and folktales(though of course, that’s part of the fun!), but also the ways in which archetypes from thesegenres repeat themselves over and over in modern literature, albeit in non magical forms. This isUnit Six – Reading and Role Playing: Fiction, Folktales, and Fairy TalesReading and Writing Project, 2012 ©DRAFT

Reading Curricular Calendar, Second Grade, 2012-201311the case not only with characters but also with plots, imagery, themes, but for now it’s enoughthat children recognize similar roles across books.The Common Core spotlights how important it is that children develop cultural literacy, definedin part as ensuring that children have a common core of knowledge, both about the genre offolktales and fairy tales—that is, about how these texts tend to go—and the folktale and fairy talearchetypes that underlie more modern stories. The notions that there is both good and evil in theworld, that people act out of vengeance and jealousy, that a person must struggle to overcomethings, that stories contain morals and lessons, are all rooted in these genres. Kids will encounterversions of these storylines and archetypes again and again in their modern-day reading. Theywill meet characters who are treated unfairly—or who treat others unfairly—humoroussidekicks, wise advisers, admirable heroes, and despicable villains. And, as their books becomemore complex, they will come across characters who aren’t strictly good or bad but a blend ofboth: heroes who begin weak and end up strong, kids who are sometimes nice and sometimesmean, villains who redeem themselves by book’s end. The characters in modern-day children’sliterature face obstacles and learn lessons, just as the three pigs and Cinderella and countlessother characters in these age-old folktales and fairy tales do. As children study the classics tounderstand these archetypes, therefore, they will benefit on any given day as they read almostany book. This means that introducing your children to these tales will provide a basis forstudying plot structure and character types and for searching for morals and lessons in anystory—as they will do in the next bend of the unit.If you have enough fairy tales, folktales, and fables to supplement children’s independentreading of fiction, by all means nudge children to read some during reading workshop. Thesetales offer a crystal clear view of the various archetypes that live in modern-day stories, so theywill help children think more categorically about characters. What’s more, reading fairy tales andfolktales alongside modern-day stories will allow your children to compare and contrast, a skillthat the Common Core State Standards spotlight and that we believe is essential to becoming amore sophisticated reader and thinker. So dust off your old copies of the Brothers Grimm andHans Christian Andersen and bring out the wicked witches, enchanted princesses, talkinganimals. Read aloud your favorites to children, and throw in the drama as you do!If you worry that fairy tales and folktales send antiquated messages to children, use thisopportunity to bring in a little critical literacy. Ask children what they think about the way girlsare featured in Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty—and then read The Paper Bag Princess tointroduce an entirely different kind of princess and story (CCSS RL 2.9). Or you might askchildren how they would have played out a particular fairy tale differently if they were theauthor, and let them imagine what that would look and sound like, maybe acting out a scene witha partner. There are many wonderful modern-day fairy tales and new versions of old tales thatpresent different viewpoints. Lots of countries have their own version of the same story. Some ofthe many titles we recommend are Princess Smartypants and Prince Cinders (Babette Cole),Little Red Riding Hood (Lisa Campbell Erns), Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Storyfrom Africa (Niki Daly), Cinder Edna (Ellen Jackson), Cinder-Elly (G. Brian Karas), The TrueStory of the 3 Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheeseman (Jon Scieszka), The Princess Knight(Cornelia Funke), The Duchess of Whimsy: An Absolutely Delicious Fairy Tale (Randall de Sèveand Peter de Sève), Clever Jack Takes the Cake (Candace Fleming), Mabela the CleverUnit Six – Reading and Role Playing: Fiction, Folktales, and Fairy TalesReading and Writing Project, 2012 ©DRAFT

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