Telling The Flip Side of a Tale

One of the books I bought at our Book Fair was "A Troll's Eye View:  A Book of Villainous Tales" by Ellen Datlow. It is a collection of short stories. They are from the "villains" point of view.  The one I read to my fifth graders was "Up the Down Beanstalk:  A Wife Remembers" by Peter S. Beagle.  I used it as my mentor text for this lesson.

After reading the story I asked if they thought Jack was innocent or guilty of theft and murder.  We had a thoughtful discussion.  I was surprised how many thought he was guilty.

I followed the discussion with this writing exercise.  They had a choice - (1) They could write about a court case involving a fairy tale character (2) they could write about a fairy tale from another character's point of view (3) they could write a sequel to the fairy tale.  I gave them 15 minutes to write.  Almost all of them wrote furiously.

When the time was up I had them get into groups of 3 or 4 to share their stories.  Each teammate was to tell the writer something they liked about their writing.  They also were to make one suggestion they had for the story.  Once everyone had shared, they went back to their seat and began revising.  I also gave them the option of writing about a different fairy tale.

My students really were excited about today's class.

  

Have You Heard About the Wii Bear?

Yesterday I read the "Three Bears" by Galdone to my third graders. This was a new story for about three quarters of my class. One youngster had heard the story before and proclaimed it "Awesome".

The edition I read calls the cub a "wee" bear. After several repitions of the word wee, one student asked "Where is the Wii Game? When do we get to play it? I laughed to myself as I realized I was in the presence of "digital natiives". They even explained that Wii was spelled w - i - i.

I ran through the story mentally applying modern meanings to this traditional story. It certainly painted a different picture in my mind. As I explained the contextual meaning my students nodded their understanding, but looked around hoping to see a Wii Bear.