I always loved teaching with Fairy Tales. As a Special Education Teacher, I had many ways to teach Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, and Vocabulary. But comprehension deficits? Those were more difficult to remedy. It seems obvious, you just need to understand what you are reading - but how?
Students of all ages love to read fairy tales. Fairy Tales are the best way to begin to teach the important comprehension skills that students need to automatically think about when they read.
Fairy Tales are familiar, predictable, and have clear story elements. Students don't have to struggle to figure out what the story is saying, so they can concentrate on what skill they need to work on.
When you do a fairy tale unit, concentrate on one fairy tale every few days.
1- Start with the Setting and Characters - where, when, and who? Take Goldilocks and the Three Bears, for example - it took place in the woods, once upon a time, and the characters were Goldilocks, the Three Bears, Mother, Grandmother, and the woodcutter.
2 - Sequencing - What happened first (Goldilocks went off to bring her grandmother a basket of goodies), next (Goldilocks met the wolf), then (the wolf got into Grandmother's clothes and bed), etc.
3 - Main Idea and Details - The main idea: a wolf tried to trick Grandmother and Goldilocks and eat them, but they were saved by a woodcutter. The details - Goldilocks went to bring Grandmother a basket of goodies, she met a wolf, etc.
4 - Summarizing - Tell what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
5 - Cause and Effect - This happened because ... Goldilocks told the wolf/grandmother that she had a big nose because it was really the wolf. The wolf found the grandmother's house because Goldilocks didn't listen when her mom told her not to talk to strangers.
7 - Fairy Tales are also good to promote discussion about moral dilemmas, right and wrong and learning life lessons.
Keep doing this over and over for many different fairy tales, and it will become easier and easier for students to begin thinking about this as they read. Another great comprehension strategy you can use when reading fairy tales (or other stories) is to use the Think Aloud method. While you read the story aloud to the students, say things like "Oh, so the setting is in the woods." Hopefully your students will begin to do this when they are reading.
Fairy Tales are so much fun - there are a lot of fractured fairy tales out there to compare points of view. You could also put one of the characters "on trial" and let your students decide if they are guilty or innocent. The ideas are endless - your students will love it!
