Programme 1

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 1 will require some access to 4Learning’s 3-part Cinderella television drama. The exercise forms useful preparation for viewing the documentary The Many Cinderellas (programme 4).

Before and during viewing

1. Write the traditional version of the Cinderella story (below), before viewing the television programme.
2. While viewing, make notes in the space provided of any differences from the printed story.

   Traditional Cinderella story	Television version of Cinderella story
   The Beginning Once upon a time... there lived an unhappy young girl. Her mother was dead...
   The Middle A grand ball was to be held at Court and the stepsisters were determined to attend. Of course, Cinderella couldn’t go...
   The Ending The Prince, who had fallen madly in love, decided to find and marry the girl who had lost her slipper.
   ...and Cinderella lived happily ever after with her Prince.

3. When your notes are complete, discuss the similarities and differences that you notice and your opinions of these.

Keep this worksheet in a safe place so that you can add to it during all three parts of the television drama.

Activity 2

Identify some of the main characteristics of fairy tales; some are listed below and you may decide to add others. Enter these as fields in a database or, if a database is not accessible, as a graph, or use the table below. For each fairy tale enter some notes about each characteristic.

Characteristics	Cinderella	Sleeping Beauty	Snow White
The heroine
The villain
The setting(s)
Role of animals or birds
Role of magic
How main problem is solved
Main idea or message of story

1. Can you find two or three similarities and two or three differences between the fairy tales?
2. What do these similarities and differences reveal about how fairy tales are written?
3. In writing, or as an oral presentation, after a general introduction to identify the tales you have considered, discuss your findings to question 1, using your answer to question 2 for your conclusion.

Activity 3

Activity 3 requires either access to the Internet or to print copies of the recommended web page.

Fairy tales such as ‘Cinderella’ ask us to fill our minds with wonder, believe in dreams coming true, wishes being granted, fairy godmothers, etc.

‘Cinderella fits my life pretty well’, writes an adult on a very simple but quite beautiful and thoughtful web page.

For this writer, the magic of fairy tales once filled our minds with wonder, and encouraged us to believe in dreams coming true or wishes being granted. ‘If you think you’ve lost that magic, if you think you’ve lost those dreams’, she writes, ‘think again!’

Read her web page or a printed copy of it for ideas that will help you to create your own poster or web page about:

Activity 4

Stereotypical characterisation

Question the pupils about their opinions of fairy tales and note any differences of attitude. When they have viewed the first part of the television drama Cinderella, ask for reviews of the programme (orally or written). ‘How good was this production?’ is a loaded question to ask. No matter how much of a class consensus there may be, there will always be individual ideas and opinions. (How any text is received has much to do with what the reader brings to the text.)

Invite pupils to draw (quickly) a range of characters: a doctor, teacher, an Australian, a receptionist and an alien. Allow only a few minutes for this activity. Subsequent discussion of comparisons of their drawings should focus on the nature of stereotyping. This exercise leads naturally and valuably into consideration of the value and importance of employing stereotypical characterisations in narrative.

Prediction exercise

If the class has viewed the first part of the television drama Cinderella, attention can be drawn to the expectations created in the audience by any stereotypical representations. A revealing investigation of the important contribution of personal response is to conduct a prediction exercise. Although pupils should be aware of the basic narrative of Cinderella, they will have noticed some unfamiliar elements in the first part they viewed. Consideration might be given as to how and why parts 2 and 3 of the drama should satisfy or challenge audience expectations.