The Grimm brothers are the most famous fairytale writers in the world – but they actually didn´t come up with any of their stories them selves – they travelled around in Europe and  wrote down the stories that people had been telling each other for many, many years. . But they are famous for their work, and most certainly your have read one or two of their stories.

  1. Can you name any famous Grimm brothers fairytale?

 

2. Now – we will start by listening to a Grimm fairytale together, and talk about our understanding and the story. The fairytale is called ” The Golden Fish”, or sometimes ”The Fisherman and his wife”, and you find the audio track HERE

After listening – TALK IN GROUPS ABOUT THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

  1. Why does the fisherman put the fish back in the sea the first time he catches it?
  2. Why does the wife keep sending the fisherman back down to the sea and the fish?
  3. What was the Fisherman’s wife like? What in the text makes you think so?
  4. Did the Fisherman think that asking for more was wrong? If he did think asking for more was wrong, why did he keep returning?
  5. If asking for more was wrong, why was the fisherman’s request granted each time until the last?
  6. What do you think the moral of the story is? What is the text telling us?
  7. Look back at the text and focus on how the water and the wind changes with each new request from the fisherman. Make a list on paper of these changes!

 

3. Now – listen to The Golden Goose on you own. It is 15 minutes long and it has text. Try not to read along, but rather just listen if you can, so that you practise your listening skills. After listening – write a summery of the text IN SWEDISH and hand into Vklass!

 

4. You are now going to read a fairytale of your choice. You have a choice of two texts:

  • If you want to boost your English, read Bord duka dig which is a great story with some difficult language and words.    Also – practice these words – they will be your homework!
  • If you feel that reading texts can be a bit challenging, read Rumpelstiltskin which is a classic. Also – practice these words – they will be your homework!
  1. READ the text. Read it more than once if you need to.
  2. Translate 10 cm of the text in to Swedish. Make it SOUND Swedish. We will talk about what that means in class.
  3. Translate your Swedish text back to English. Check your English text with the original.

 

5. You are to listen to a fairytale of your choice and after retell it to your friend. You need to keep notes as you listen, and maybe you need to listen to the fairytale twice in order to be able to retell it. You find the fairytales to choose from HERE

NOTE: Retell means…. to reTELL. Not reREAD…. reTELL. 

 

6. You will all write your own fairytale now. We will go through the assignment together in class.

Instructions

  1. Step 1

Decide what lesson your fairy tale is going to teach before you write it. At their core, fairy tales are morality tales from the horror of stepmothers to not talking to strangers. They are generally teaching something and yours should do the same.

  1. Step 2

Create a good character. A fairy tale needs someone to root for. They don’t have to be perfect. Just think Jack in “Jack and the Beanstalk” or Red in “Little Red Riding Hood” but your readers should like them and want them to succeed.

  1. Step 3

Devise an evil character. A fairy tale must have an evil character that works as an antagonist to the good character. The evil character usually has special powers of some sort and they must use those powers in a way to cause the good character pain.

  1. Step 4

Design a magical character or object to write into the fairy tale. The magical character can be the evil character but many fairy tales have both good and evil magical characters that work to off-set the other’s influence. Use the numbers 3 and 7 to create a fairylike, repetitive feeling to your text.

  1. Step 5

Identify what obstacles your good character is going to have to face. Whatever the obstacle, it should seem insurmountable and genuinely require a bit of creativity by your good character and a little magical assistance.

  1. Step 6

Write a happy ending. A fairytale isn’t a fairytale unless it has a happy ending. Your good character must succeed and your evil character must lose and lose in a big way so you can write your “happily ever after.”