Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: What Are Fairy Tales?
A 60 minute lesson in which students will explore the key features of the fairy tale genre.
This lesson plan includes the following resources:
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 discussย slides 5-6 of theย 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’.ย 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’),ย 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 groupโs paper will be passed to the next group. They must read the ideas already on the page, then attempt to add new suggestions.ย 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 assumeย a more active role in group work e.g. writer, discussion leader or reporter.
Supporting Students
- Allowย 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.
NSW Curriculum alignment
Victorian Curriculum alignment
- VCELT208
Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and compare some features of characters in different texts
Australian Curriculum alignment
- ACELT1584
Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and explore some features of characters in different textsElaborationsexamining different types of literature including traditional tales, humorous stories and poetry (...
- ACELT1591
Discuss the characters and settings of different texts and explore how language is used to present these features in different waysElaborationsdescribing features of text settings including time, colours used to portray year, season, and place (count...
Find more resources for these topics
EnglishWritingText TypesImaginative WritingNarrative WritingFairy Tales
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I love this!!!
Sophie ยท Apr 7th, 2020
Thank you, Sophie! I’m glad you found this lesson plan helpful. Have a wonderful day!
Stephanie (Teach Starter) ยท Apr 7th, 2020