Using Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Vorbereitet von Mary Ashcraft maryashcraft@adelphia.net

Brüder Grimm

Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm wurde am 4.1.1785 in Hanau geboren, sein Bruder Wilhelm Karl Grimm am 24.2.1786 am gleichen Ort. Der Vater war Jurist. Die Kinder lebten die ersten Jahrer ihrer Jugend in Steinau und sie besuchten das Lyceum im Kassel. Seit 1829 bzw. 1839 waren sie Professoren in Kassel. Aufgrund ihrer Teilnahme am Protest der "Göttinger Sieben" wurden sie des Landes verwiesen. Seit etwa 1840 lebten beide in Berlin. Jakob Grimm starb am 20.9.1863 in Berlin, sein Bruder am 16.12.1859 am gleichen Ort.

Gutenberg Site (http://www.gutenberg2000.de/autoren/grimm.htm)

I. Background Information – Pre-Reading

A. Start with brainstorming of what students already know.

B. Facts on the stories and the Brothers Grimm http://www.hanauonline.de/grimm2.html and selection from Interessantes, Kurioses und Wissenswertes

C. Typical story elements, motifs, and structure of fairy tales (Handouts)

D. Make a chart of motifs such as magical objects, wishes, trickery, long sleeps, etc. with German vocabulary (Handout)

II. Reading / Listening to the Fairy Tales

A. Choose well known, relatively short stories to begin with. The version of Rotkäppchen and accompanying exercises in Lesebogen make for an easy start.

B. Assign students texts with comprehension questions or the Kurzfassung summary sheet (Handout).

C. Have students use Venn diagrams to compare elements of two different fairy tales. (Handout)

III. Speaking

A. Have students prepare interview questions for a character and pair interviewer with the character. (Dave Jones, FLTeach) Do this in a talk show format.

B. Have students perform scenes from fairy tales in a Readers’ Theater setting.

C. Conduct a press conference with a detective (student or teacher) who comes to ask questions about the events of the story. (Dave Jones, FLTeach) Interviewees have the option of giving untrue responses.

IV. Listening

A. Read quotations and have students identify speakers. (Dave Jones, FLTeach)

B. Use audio quizzes from the VCU department site.

C. Use children’s tapes with comprehension questions. (Handout)

V. Writing

A. Have students keep a Fairy Tale booklet with information from the unit and student-created products.

B. Provide students with the beginning lines of a fairy tale and have the class compose a progressive story.

C. Assign students to write an alternate ending.

D. Rewrite a fairy tale with a modern setting or social mores (http://www.goethe.de/z/50/maerchen/)

E. Write a fractured tale.

F. Pretend you are a character and write diary/journal entries describing events from the story.

G. Write a character sketch.

H. Have students create their own Kinderbuch or comic book, writing and illustrating the text, and including a verb list and vocabulary list. Have students “label” items in the illustrations Richard Scary style.

VI. Expansion Activities and Culminating Projects

A. Introduce students to modern fairy tales. (http://www.floribell.com/deutsch/maerchen.html, http://www.ika.com/maerchen/menu.html, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/germ/courses/german201/rotkaeppchen.html, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/dvanhand/germ201/, Das moderne Rotkäppchen aus Mitlesen-Mitteilen)

B. Have students perform improv scenes based on character situations described by teacher prompts.

C. Assign groups of students to stage or make a videotaped production of a fairy tale complete with costumes, props and “Academy Awards” as a follow-up.

D. Make puppets and perform fairy tales in a puppet theater.

E. Use internet for fairy tale fun. (http://members.aol.com/TFBFritz/private/ma1.htm,

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/e-daf/sbnn/la4203gr/Märchen2c.htm,

http://www.learnetix.de/learnetix/fun_action/games/games_dd_maerchen.html

VII. Evaluation

A. Speaking – students tell fairy tale from sequence of pictures or read fairy tale on their own and retell using pictures – make graded cassette.

B. Listening – students complete comprehension questions after listening to taped or read fairy tale. (Handout)

C. Writing – complete a tale using typical elements and motifs. (Handout)

Adapting assignments to writing types:

Narrative (Description, Storytelling) – write the end of the fairy tale, write a modern fairy tale, retell the story, keep a character diary

Expository (Explanation, Process, Cause-Effect, Compare/Contrast) – which fairy tale character would you like to be and why, what is your favorite tale and why, compare and contrast the main characters in Aschenputtel and Rotkäppchen

Persuasive (Taking a Stance, Convincing Others, Making an Argument) – write a dialog in which you explain to the Fischer’s wife why she should be happy in a common house, convince Rumpelstilzchen that he should reveal his name to the queen, make want ads, personals or wanted posters for characters

Texts and Exercises

The wealth of information is staggering. The following sites have been most helpful:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html The Grimm Brothers’ Home Page compiled by D.L. Ashliman. An extensive chronology of the Grimms’ lives plus English versions and links German versions of many of the tales.

http://www.bayswaterps.vic.edu.au/lote/maerchen/project.htm Wow! You won’t even believe this one. Part of the Global Classroom Project, Doris Frank has done it all for us—Märchen of the Month, activities, a Malbuch, Lieder, and links along the fairy tale road.

http://www.fln.vcu.edu/grimm/grimm_menu.html The web edition of Kinder-und Hausmärchen with dual language English and German versions, illustrations, individual glossaries and many neat quizzes.

http://www.gutenberg2000.de/ One or more texts of any fairy tale or legend you might want, some with illustrations.

http://www.uq.net.au/~zzkmunr1/german/exercises/a-lit-mar.htm Katherine Munro’s site with over 60 links to exercises and projects.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/ Twelve tales translated from a 1914 edition, this site is useful for students with little German knowledge.

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/ Another collection of translated tales – this one has 209.

http://www.internet-maerchen.de/index800.htm Another source of texts in German, this site includes 381 international fairy tales and links for children.

Support Materials

Danckert, Birgit. Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten: A Fairy Tale for the German Classroom (Teacher’s Annotated Edition, Student Handbook, Audio Cassette, Video Tape). Goethe—Institut Inter Nationes, 2001. (Item #6410. Additional student handbook: #6410S.)

Literarische Texte im Unterricht: Märchen. Ed. Karlhans Frank. Goethe Institut München, 1985.

Richter, Gabriele and Manfred Richter. Interessantes, Kurioses und Wissenswertes; ein landeskundliches Lese-und Übungsbuch (mit Kassette). Munich: Verlag für Deutsch, 1994. (ISBN 3-88532-775-9)

van Eunen, Kees et al. Lesebogen: Fiktionale Texte mit Aufgaben, Antwortblättern und Lösungsschlüsseln für den Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin: Langenscheidt, 1990. (ISBN 3-468-49476-9)

Wells, Larry D. Mitlesen – Mitteilen: Literary Texts for Reading, Speaking, Writing, and Listening. 2^nd ed. Florida: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1995. (ISBN 0-03-72471-6)

Children’s tapes from Europa –Märchenbox and Kiosk Grimms-Märchen Series.