Educators aspire to teach skills that will expand the way their students think and act, not just in the classroom but throughout their lives. Centered on fairy tales, this pedagogical resource contains educational theories and classroom techniques contributed by scholars from around the world. Students' worldviews will be expanded along with their critical thinking, reading, writing, creative, and expressive skills. Each teaching technique provided uses the familiarity of fairy tales as a non-threatening base to explore complex concepts and practices while encouraging students to examine the origins and assumptions of their own society.
This collection of lessons is primarily designed for use in post-secondary classes, but it is an invaluable resource for any educator. The book is organized into five parts with two to three lessons in each section, each presenting detailed theories and learning goals behind the classroom activities. Practical advice for adapting these class plans for various education levels, class lengths, and subjects of coursework is also included. These practices for teaching fairy tales provide a firm foundation for creating lessons that will give students and instructors a greater understanding of our world and the promise of a better future.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Heather Powers
Part I. Tell Me a Story: The Craft of Writing
Fires that blaze brightly: The Language of the Tale
Michael Jones
Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Paper: Teaching Fairy Tales in the
Composition Classroom
Theodora Goss and Amy Bennett-Zendzian
The Use of Fairy Tales in Second Language Learning: From Grammar Acquisition
to Intercultural Competence
Catalina Millán-Scheiding
Part II. More Than Words Can Say: The Importance of Visual Literacy
Picture This: The Pedagogical Value of Picture Books
Gabrielle Stecher
Tales for Today: A Fairy-Tale Collaboration Between English and
Daniel J. Weinstein and Nathan Heuer
Part III. Decolonizing the Narrative: Going Beyond Students Expectations
The Value of the African Dilemma Tales as a Pedagogical Resource
Ayub Sheik, Martha Khosa, Nicholus Nyika, and Bheki Mthembu
Empowerment Through Language: Code-Mixing in Salman Rushdies Haroun and the
Sea of Stories
Sarah Victor
Part IV. And They Lived Happily Ever After: Challenging Patriarchal Norms
Teaching Little Red Riding Hood Through a Feminist Lens
Jade Dillon Craig
Mystery, Magic, and Enchantment: The Uses of Fairy Tale in Teaching Womens
Literature
Tanya Heflin
Disenchanting the Romantic Ideal: Workshop Activities for Feminist
Fairy-Tale Restorying
Ka Yan Lam
Part V. Weaving Yarns: A Big Ball of Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff
Tale[ s] as old as time: Teaching Adaptation Criticism Using Fairy Tales
Melodie Roschman
Old and New Magic: The Grimm Brothers and Cornelia Funkes Mirrorworld
Susanne Even
About the Contributors
Index
Heather Powers is a professor emerita of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has taught writing classes for more than 30 years. Her research focuses on transformative works about Harry Potter, Star Trek, and Sherlock Holmes.
