Using Fairy Tales in a Teaching Situation

By Vegard Melum

In this blogpost we will be looking at pros and cons with fairy tales, the structure of the tales and an activity we can use in class to further our knowledge about fairy tales in general.

A traditional fairy tale has certain pros and cons. According to Anna Birketveit and Gweno Williams (“Literature for the English classroom – Theory into Practice”, 2014:93-) a traditional fairy tale has certain pros and cons. Here are two lists of pros and cons mentioned in the book, that answers the question, “Why use fairy tales in a teaching situation?”:

The Grimm Brothers

Pros

·        The plot and characters of the tales are often familiar

·        The tales follow a fixed pattern

·        By reading fairy tales the pupils can deal with longer texts

·        The vocabulary is simple (everyday language)

·        Actions, situations and phrases are repeated

By following a fixed pattern the story enabled the learners to guess meaning of unfamiliar words. By repeating actions, situations and phrases, it will re-inforce language learning. Also, because the stories are pretty much the same in Norwegian and English, fairy tales makes it easier to compare the two languages and to guess meanings.

Cons

·        Many of the tales has outdated values and morals

·        They may promote stereotypical gender roles

Ever since Charles Perault (1697), the Grimm Brothers (1858) and Asbjørnsen and Moe (1871) started writing and collecting fairy tales, they have been changed and adapted to the new culture and society. Take for example “Sleeping Beauty”. In the original fairy tale by Charles Perault, Sleeping Beauty was raped while being asleep, and woke up giving birth. Now a days the tales aren’t that grotesque. This is because they are changing along with the society we live in. You can’t just tell a kid today about a princess being raped. That is why Birketveit and Williams states that many fairy 

tales has outdated values and morals.

To make the pupils work with both the old and the adapted versions of the common fairy tales, they need to do some activities. A fun activity you can do with pupils in the lower secondary is having the students make two versions of the same fairy tale. First, they will write a “modern” fairy tale, as the ones we read and use today. Second, they will use the fairy tale they wrote and then write a more grotesque version of it. Like the ones the Grimm Brothers collected and wrote in the 1800s.

To write a fairy tale, the pupils has to follow a narrative structure used in the fairy tale genre:

·        Opening: “Once upon a time”

Sleeping Beauty

·        The focus should be on a leading character

·        Contrast: The characters are either good or bad

·        Twins: Some characters share the same traits

·        Magic numbers, such as 3, 7 and 12

·        Final stress: The act that brings a solution

·        Closing: “They lived happily ever after”

The fairy tale should have a fast moving plot, where the telling is simplified and details are eliminated. Stock characters are common, and the tale should have a principal massage with an optimistic worldview. This could be for example: life involves a struggle, but be good and you will be rewarded.

Happy story writing!

Birketveit, Williams, 2014, Literature for the English Classroom, Fagbok Forlaget, Bergen