Archive for the 'Cinderella' Category

After listening to me read aloud Moss Gown (retold by William Hooks), a different Cinderella from most you read, we did the following analysis.

Cinderella Character – Candace/Moss Gown

Physical Traits:

youngest daughter, red hair, beautiful

Personality Traits:

loves her father, kind, doesn’t judge, caring esp. towards father, gentle, hardworking

Other Significant Characters

father, sisters Retha & Grenadine, Grise Grise woman/witch woman w/ green eyes, Young Master, First Cook

Setting

long ago in the Old South, plantation, tidewater of South Carolina

Initial Situation

father asks daughters who loves him most, will give land to that daughter, Moss Gown says she “loves him as much as meat loves salt,”  she is banished & sisters get the land, after leaving Moss Gown sleeps in moss bed and a witch woman gives her a moss gown which she wears, during day gown is rags, gets work in another fancy house

Special Event – 3 frolics/balls
Main character can’t go — why?

has no dress to wear

Main character gets to go to event — how?

special chant calls Grise Grise woman who helps with gown

Event and what happens there

Moss Gown meets Young Master and he falls in love with her

Main character leaves event suddenly — why?

has to leave before the morning star shines or gown will be moss & rags again

Loses something –what?

does not lose anything (someone says a girl in rags left)

Rest of family returns from event(s) — what is that like?

servants discuss the lovely girl at the ball

Identity Test

Young Master sees Moss Gown and watches gown change & still loves her

With father, Moss Gown serves saltless food and says as much as meat loves salt – gives him salt & he recognizes her & is sorry for his treatment of her

Resolution

marriage of Candace/Moss Gown & Young Master, daughters spent all their money,  Candace reunited with her father

1) Review the Cinderella stories you have read so far. Pick three that you like because of their use of language, vocabulary and how they tell the Cinderella story. (One of these will be assigned to you)

2) Reread your assigned story. Take notes and look for:
_ setting

_ vocabulary

_ plot

_ use of magic

_ characters

_ the way the author uses the Cinderella structure

3) Write the first draft of your letter.

4) Edit your draft for content. Does it fit with the plot, words, setting and characters in your story?

5) Final edit. Check for spelling, punctuation and capitalization.

6) Write your final copy. Decorate the border in the style of your book!

Yesterday we began a new Language Arts unit on Cinderella. I have been teaching this unit for a long time and still love it. (I’ve written about it in a book, in articles, and last summer taught a graduate course on fairy tales featuring Cindy!).

We began by telling the story we knew as a class. It turned out that we all have slightly different ideas of what it is, understandable because there are so many different versions floating around out there.

I then read Ugh by Arthur Yorinks with illustrations by Richard Egielski. No one knew it, but everyone seemed to like it. ‘Woe was Ugh.” is my favorite line in the book. What is yours?

Now everyone has to read five tales in common. Three of them are in the Cindypack I gave you: Charles Perrault’s Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper, (here’s an online annotated version) The Grimm Brothers’ Aschenputtel, and Virginia Hamilton’s Catskinella (from Her Stories). The other two are Louie’s Yeh-Shen and Steptoe’s Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. If you finish these early, go ahead and read as many of the others in the classroom as you like. Just be sure to record every one that you read in the data sheets. (There are plenty of extra ones on the bookcase under the white board.)