A Cooperative Learning Fractured Fairy Tale Project
Now that the students have spent four days learning about fractured fairy tales (see the Fractured Fairy Tale series below), it is a good idea to bring the fairy tales to life. By making fractured fairy tales fun, the students will be motivated to learn.
This part of the fractured fairy tale unit will involve a group project that will help promote cooperation, responsibility, and fairness through cooperative learning. The students will also be given a sense of ownership over their project by being allowed to choose the project they would like to complete and then completing a self-assessment when they are finished. The length of this fairy tale project will be dependent on the detail the students put into finishing their projects.
Materials Needed for the Project
- The Three Bears by Paul Galdone
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall
- Goldilocks Has Chicken Pox by Erin Dealey and Hanako Wakiyama
- List of project options
- Grading rubrics for each project
- White, blank copy paper
- Large white pieces of construction paper
- Crayons or markers
- Staples and stapler for picture books
Directions for Project
Begin by explaining to the students that now that they have learned about fractured fairy tales, they will be completing a group project. Tell the students that they will be placed in groups. They must work together to choose which project they want to complete and work together to finish the project in the allotted amount of time. Tell the students that they will not only be learning to work as a team, they will also be learning to assess themselves. They will be required to complete a self-assessment at the end of the project to rate themselves on how well they feel they cooperated with their team and worked to help accomplish the team goal.
Next, hand each student a list of the project options their group will have. Have your exact directions listed on the sheet also. Let the students know how many of the projects (preferably one) they must complete with their group, how much time they will have to complete the assignment, and the date they must turn in their project. You may also want to include what they will be required to present to the class. In addition, provide the students with a scoring rubric for each project. This will show the students your expectations and exactly what they will be graded on.
Now, go over each project with the students. Explain what the project will entail and allow the students to ask any questions they may have about each project. Three suggested fairy tale projects include:
- Make a collage with pictures of things that relate to the fractured fairy tale. They may use magazines to cut out pictures or draw their own pictures. Also, they must be prepared to explain why they chose the pictures when preparing for their presentation.
- Write a newspaper article about the main character's story. Use a catchy title for both the name of the newspaper and the article. Also, add a picture with a caption to your story. They may want to use large construction paper to allow plenty of room.
- Make a picture book. Retell the fractured fairy tale through a series of drawings. You will also want to require a minimum number of pages. Eight to ten is recommended.
For the last part, read two fractured fairy tales. First, read Goldilocks and the Three Bears, followed by Goldilocks Has Chicken Pox. The students will be able to choose to do their project on either of the fractured fairy tales you have read. Now divide the students into groups of three or four. Allow the students two or three days to complete their project before having each group present their fractured fairy tale project to the class.
Have Students Do Self-Assessments
Once the students have all presented their projects, hand each student a self-assessment. Have the students think critically about their performance in their group. You may choose to use their responses toward their grade or not. You may also want to compare their opinions with what you noticed as the groups were working. Some of the things you may want to ask the students on their self-assessment may include:
- Do you feel that you listened to your group members' opinions?
- Did you make your feelings known to your group members?
- How well did you work with your group to achieve success?
- How much of the work do you feel you did for your group?
- What is the best thing you did for your group?
- What do you most need to improve on?
Although working with people of differing opinions may not always be an easy task, it is a good life skill to have. Working together on a cooperative learning project provides real life experiences for the students on teamwork, leadership, cooperation, and fairness. However, this type of fairy tale project also provides the students with a very fun way to show their understanding of the fractured fairy tales they have spent so much time learning about.