Lesson 1: What Are Fairy Tales?

 Lesson Plan

Tuning In

• Watch the Living In a Fairytale video on YouTube. After watching, ask the students:
  • Who were some of the characters mentioned in the song?
  • Are fairy tales factual texts or make-believe texts? How do you know?
  • What are some of the fairy tales that you are familiar with?
• Explain to the students that fairy tales are narrative texts. Ensure that the students understand that narrative is another word for story.

Teacher Instruction

• Display and discuss slides 5-6 of the Exploring Narrative Texts PowerPoint. Ensure that the students understand the meaning of the setting, characters and plot in a narrative text.
• Discuss some of the most common features of fairy tales, as outlined on slide 7. Encourage the students to suggest any additional features of fairy tales they can think of.
• As a class, complete the activity on slide 7. Encourage the students to think of at least three fairy tales for each category.

Guided/Independent Learning

• Divide the class into three groups. Ideally, an adult helper would be available to support each group. Provide each group with a large piece of poster paper and some markers. One piece of paper should be titled ‘Who’, one titled ‘Where’ and one titled ‘What’. Explain to the students that each group will need a writer, a discussion leader and a reporter.
• Explain to the students that they will be brainstorming possible characters (the ‘who’), possible settings (the ‘where’) and possible plots (the ‘what’) for a fairy tale. The ‘whats’ should be kept fairly broad at this stage e.g. something is lost, someone is captured, a magical object is found. After a few minutes brainstorming, each group’s paper will be passed to the next group. They must read the ideas already on the page, then attempt to add new suggestions. Ideas cannot be repeated once they have already been added to a previous sheet.
• Monitor and support the students as they conduct their group brainstorm. Once the students have finished, collect the posters and display them on the board.

Wrapping Up

• Review the students’ ideas as a class. Play around with some possible fairy tale storylines by combining different ideas from each of the posters e.g. a fairy tale about a dragon who lives in a forest who is looking for a friend. Make this activity as fun and light-hearted as possible by creating humorous combinations of the students’ ideas.

 Differentiation

Extending Students

• Encourage more confident students to assume a more active role in group work e.g. writer, discussion leader or reporter.

Supporting Students

• Allow less confident students to participate in group work at a level at which they feel comfortable.

 Assessment Strategies

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• used strategic whole class or individual questioning
• observed student participation during learning activities
• recorded student progress on a checklist
• annotated student work samples
• collected and reviewed student work samples
• facilitated whole class or peer feedback sessions
• encouraged student self-reflection
• administered formal assessment tasks.

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I love this!!!

Sophie · Apr 7th, 2020

Thank you, Sophie! I’m glad you found this lesson plan helpful. Have a wonderful day!

Stephanie (Teach Starter) · Apr 7th, 2020

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