The Cinderella Project

ePALS would like to welcome you to our collaborative writing project and comparison study of the different stories of Cinderella from around the world; and there are many!

Cinderella is a fairy tale that is told throughout the world. It comes in many disguises - different characters, different settings and different problems, but the theme of the story and its message is the same the world over. ePALS would like to introduce the Cinderella Project as a way of having students learn about a familiar story that has different cultural elements depending on where you live.

Grade levels: 4-7 (ages 9-12)

This project supports the following subjects: Language Arts, Research Skills, Writing, Social Studies, Second Language Skills, Storytelling, Group skills, Computer and Techology skills.

Time frame for completion: 4 weeks

Objectives:

  1. To communicate and share cultural impressions of the themes and ideals in the fairy tale of Cinderella.
  2. To develop writing and comprehension skills by corresponding with peers on the following topics:
    • Compare and contrast the common themes of Cinderella within a chart format
    • Exchange opinions and points of view based on the reading of online versions of Cinderella
    • Collaborate with their partners on their own new written version of Cinderella
  3. To develop online communication and technological skills via
    • Emails
    • Surveys, questionnaires and quizzes
    • Search Engines
    • Copying and pasting images

This project works best with classroom partners from two different countries in order to make the cultural comparisons. Teachers can decide whether this project will be done between classes or between individual students in each class. Teachers can choose from the activities listed, and it is recommended that you start with Activity 1.

Activities: This section comprises a list of 7 different activites designed to help the students get the most out of The Cinderella Project.

Before you begin any of these activities with your classroom, have your students find an online version of the story of Cinderella that is similar to the version that your students know ( see our "Suggested resources" section at the end of this project description), or have them type out their story on a word processor to be used as an attachment to send to your partner classroom before these activities begin. Here, you may have to use our "Instant Translation" tool to help you.

Suggested resources:

· Download a printable PDF version of this project
· In order to print or view PDF files, you must have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Learn more about Acrobat Reader here

Teacher to Teacher Guide   Tips for Successful Telecollaboration

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