An improvised fairy tale...

Today we had about fairy tales yet again. But this time we had to - in groups - write our own fairy tales from some pictures. In our group (jacob, Anja, Henrik and me) we put the pictures down on the table, the backside up, and in turns we picked a picture and had to continue on our fairy tale talking out from the picture. It turned out quite funny;

The Mix-up

Once upon a time there was a prince. His horse was white. He also had a green dragon which spat fire and he was called "Shrek". On his way on an adventure the prince met an old man, sitting on a chair. "Hello," the old man said. "Could you help me find my lost ring? It got stolen by a man flying on a magic carpet."

Meanwhile, in the forest, a carriage was running wild - the horses had been spooked by a witch and her wolf. The witch was flying on her broomstick and the princess was sitting behind her.

The prince and the old man started chasing the thief on the carpent and suddenly they saw the witch, and the prince drew his sword.

The witch got so scared, she hit a tree, and her and the princess flew down - head first - on an deserted island.

The wolf jumped onto to the island and started growling at the prince.

The prince took forth his magic ring, and jumped to the island as well.

And all of a sudden a lightning appeared!

A magic house appeared, where the lightning hit.

Out from the house came a frog. "Hello," he said, and then he started to sing.

When the frog sang, the house turned into a large tower.

Back in the forest the thief was flying on his carpet, and crashed into the tower, which had suddenly appeared.

The Princess turned into a big eagle, and captured the thief with her claws, so he wouldn't fall to his death.

The princess aka the eagle flew to her fathers castle with the thief, because she thought it was her knight in shining armor.

The King was so happy, that he gave the thief all of his treasure and half the kingdom, for returning the princess.

The knight, the dragon, the wolf, the frog and the witch lived happily ever after on the island.

The old man is still lost in the forest, and missing his ring. This story is dedicated to him. 

Later we listened to a CD "From Scary Tale to Fairy Tale", where the tale "The Frog Prince - continued" was read out loud. It was a quite funny story, about the frog prince and his "happily ever after" which wasn't so happy as you might think. He wants to become a frog again, but he has no luck. After a series of events, where we hear some references to other Fairy Tales (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella), he has an ephiphany, where he realizes he loves the princess. When he gets home, he kisses her, and then they both turn into frogs, and live happily ever after - together. 

This Fary tale is both funny, and very useful in the Folk School, I think, because you can work with it in many ways. Besides the traditionally work with this genre (analyzing it and so on), you can focus on the references and have the pupils find those. We also looked at some examples of what you could do with the pupils, some different tasks. 

The we had to work in groups, and my group worked with the text "Fagligheden i Storyline forløb".

I was in group with Pernille, Tina and Maja.

A little too comprehensive for one teacher.

Cross curricular (tværfaglig udervisning) for storyline - maybe two weeks.

Motivating also for the older pupils (tired of going to school) - they don't have to sit in their seats all day, listening to a teacher.

Motivating because of the co management. The pupils get to be a part of the deciding process.

The teacher has to keep the story open, so the pupils can decide, and it doesn't get boring after an hour. But it is still the teachers task to keep rack of everything and close it up in the end.

There has to be some specifics for instance: problem: "we have to do something for the environment. How will you handle this?"

What would the project evolve into?

It has to have some elements of surprise. Some of it is planned in advance, some of it just happens.

Would English lessons be enough time? I would worry about it being enough time for the pupils to "get into character" between Danish class and math and so on.

Classics storylines (most common) >< making your own storyline

A lot of preparation. Maybe a teacher who did it before can help.

The ugly duckling for bullying. New age versus fairy tale age. Internet bullying - Facebook etc. 

Maja: great exercise about bullying. Tell the students to get up and they have to go around each other and say "hello" and hi" and such. And then they had to sit down, and they got two pieces of paper. On the first piece of paper, they have to write down the worst insult they could think of, and they had to give it to the person next to them. And then they had to get up again, and every time they met someone, instead of "hello" they had to read aloud the insult. When they got back to their seats the teacher asked: "How did that feel" and so on.

Then they had to do the same exercise, but instead of an insult, they had to write down the nicest thing they could think of to say to someone.

Very interesting. Focus on bullying and how it feels to be insulted.

Maja also told me about a "Tænk før du poster" campaign about digital bullying on Facebook. Everytime the girl gets an insult on facebook you hear the facebook sound, and someone puts a post-it note on her, with the insult. Very interesting and shows how it's probably "easier" to bully online, because you can't see the reaction, and thus can't feel the shame or the bad conscience. STOP DIGITAL BULLYING!