Reading Fairy Tales in Reading Fairy Tales in the Classroomthe Classroom

Reading Fairy Tales in Reading Fairy Tales in the Classroomthe Classroom

A Teacher’s Guide to Understanding the Importance A Teacher’s Guide to Understanding the Importance of Using Fairy Tales in the Classroomof Using Fairy Tales in the Classroom

By By John BrannanJohn Brannan

EDU 291 Section 1979EDU 291 Section 1979

Genre of Children’s Literature Fairy Tales

What about fairy tales?

Let’s look at• misconceptions concerning fairy tales

• three primary examples of fairy tales: Snow White, Cinderella, and Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters

• misconceptions concerning fairy tales

• examples of fairy tales to use in the classroom

• alignment of fairy tales with the state standards

Childhood Memories

Think about a Fairy Tale that you remember most vividly from your childhood. – Why do you think you remember it?

– Did the characters teach you anything?

– Did you want to be like a character from the Fairy Tale?

– Did the Fairy Tale become part of a daydream for you?

Reasons to use Fairy Tales in the classroom

Fairy tales – help children gain a feeling of

self-worth– foster a sense of succeeding

when choosing good over evil• suggest images that help children

to direct their daydreams • allow children the opportunity to

master life’s difficulties and to succeed

The Misconceptions Concerning Fairy Tales

• Fairy Tales introduce children to images and themes that are dark and scary.

• Fairy Tales are too difficult for children to understand.

• Fairy Tales impose morality upon children too young to understand.

1. Fairy Tales help Children to gain a feeling of Self-

Worth

• Fairy Tales offer children a choice to identify with a character.

• This choice is not based on who is right or who is wrong.

• The choice is based on who arouses the child’s sympathy.

Examples of Choices From the Fairy Tale Snow White

• The Queen is evil and powerful but her power is temporary.

• Snow White is good and sweet.• Snow White usurps the Queen’s power.• Snow White becomes the hero of the

story.• Children identify with the hero.

Good and Evil in Cinderella

• The Wicked Step-Mother and Step-Sisters are powerful in the beginning of the story.

• Cinderella’s goodness of character is demonstrated throughout the story.

• Cinderella becomes the powerful hero in the end.

• Children identify with the hero of the story.

Fairy Tales present the polarities of character, such as good and evil,

and this allows the child to comprehend easily the differences between the

two.

Learning Self-Worth from Fairy Tales

• Children learn to identify with a hero and to emulate that hero’s goodness.

• Children learn from the hero’s conflicts and dilemmas.

• Children encounter their own needs to be loved and their fear of being thought worthless.

2. Choosing Good over Evil

• Fairy Tales are not moral tales but rather tales of succeeding in life.

• Children learn to meet life with a belief in the possibility that they can succeed.

• Fairy Tales present the triumph of good over evil.

Examples from Snow White

• Snow White is isolated and lonely due to the evil queen.

• Snow White goes out into the world and becomes surrounded by friends.

• Snow White is loved and, in the end, succeeds by gaining a life partner.

Examples from Cinderella

• Cinderella is lonely and isolated in the beginning of the story.

• The evil step-mother and step-sisters are powerful.

• Cinderella is surrounded by friends and has a fairy god-mother to help her succeed over evil.

Examples from Mufaro’s Beautiful

Daughters

• Nyasha has an evil sister who wishes to make Nyasha a servant.

• Nyasha remains true to her sense of goodness and is confident in herself.

• Nyasha’s goodness overcomes her sister’s evil ways.

• Nyasha marries the Prince.

3. Fairy Tales Guide and Shape Children’s

Daydreams

• Fairy Tales express feelings of loneliness, isolation, and fear.

• Fairy Tales give children an example of a hero who overcomes these feelings.

• Fairy Tales shape children’s daydreams by helping children to sympathize with the hero.

Examples From Fairy Tales

• Children see that in the beginning of the story the evil character has power.

• However, the good character is able to overcome the trickery and bad treatment in order to succeed.

4. From Daydreaming to Success

• Fairy Tales allow the imagination to deal with and overcome fears.

• Fairy Tales show the evolution of an ordinary person.

• From isolation and loneliness to happiness and belonging in the world.

• The Fairy Tale hero is successful out in the world.

Examples From Fairy Tales

• Snow White, Cinderella, and Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters show how characters overcome isolation and loneliness.

• Each character succeeds and becomes an example to the reader that goodness can triumph over evil.

Dispelling Misconceptions of Fairy

Tales

• Fairy Tales help children to deal with fear and anxieties by offering compelling stories of success.

• Fairy Tales offer characters who are clearly drawn as either good or evil.

• Fairy Tales are not moral tales, but rather tales that assure the reader that they can succeed in life.

Using Fairy Tales in the Classroom

• Fairy Tales are excellent stories to share with children.

• Fairy Tales help teach children how to overcome their own fears and anxieties.

• Fairy Tales can be used in lesson plans to reinforce the State Standards.

Listing of Fairy Tales to read in the classroom

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs• Cinderella• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters• Little Red Riding Hood• Lon Po Po

Aligning Fairy Tales with State Standards

• Fairy Tales help students understand plot, setting, and character.

• Fairy Tales help students understand beginning, middle and ending in stories.

• Fairy Tales can be used to develop critical thinking skills.

Conclusion:

• Fairy Tales are excellent stories to read to students.

• Fairy Tales are easily used in lesson plans and can teach state standards.

• Fairy Tales help children to learn about themselves.

Works Cited

• Gruppen, Egmont. Snow White. Danbury: Grolier Enterprises, 1995.

• Gruppen, Egmont. Cinderella. Danbury: Grolier Enterprises, 1995.

• Steptoe, John. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. New York: Scholastic, 1987.

Web Sites and Teacher Resources about Fairy

Tales

• http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html

• http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/myths.htm

• http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html

• http://www.bsu.edu/classes/vancamp/genres.html