Big & Bad or Just Misunderstood: The Trial of Fairy Tale Characters

• Introduction
• Task
• Process
• Evaluation
• Conclusion
• Credits


• Teacher Page

Process

The Class Goal

To introduce elementary students to classic fairy tales while learning persuasive argument writing skills, the concept of different perspectives, skills of debate, and critical thinking. Students will achieve an indepth knowledge of that fairy tale, especially its characters, including its history and influences. 

Choose your fairy tale!

Cinderella	Faithful John	Hanzel & Gretel	The Wolf and Seven Little Kids
The Bremen Town Musicians	Rumplestiltskin	The Leaping Match	Snow White

What are the Charges, Officer?             

Cinderella

Accused: Cinderella

Accuser: The Two Stepsisters

The two stepsisters are charging Cinderella with theft for stealing their thunder at the ball.

Hansel and Gretel

Accused: The birds

Accuser: Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel are charging the birds with theft for eating their trail of bread.

Rumplestiltskin

Accused: Princess

Accuser: Rumplestiltskin

Rumplestiltskin is charging the Princess with scheming and trickery in order to discover his name and to get back her child that was rightfully his.

Snow White

Accused: The Mirror

Accuser: Snow White

Snow White is charging The Mirror with being an instigator by revealing her whereabouts and provoking the Queen.

Faithful John

Accused: The King

Accuser: Faithful John

Faithful John is charging the King with failure to maintain his faith therefore causing John to turn to stone.

The Wolf and the Seven Kids

Accused: The Sheep

Accuser: The Kid's mother

The Kid's mother is charging the sheep with conspiracy for giving the wolf white feet.

The Leaping Match

Accused: The Leaping Match Contestants

Accuser: The Crowd

The crowd is charging the leaping match contestants with not putting on a good show and they want their money back.

 The Bremen-town Musicians

Accused: The animal musicians

Accuser: The robbers

 The robbers are charging the animals for imitating ghosts and foiling their plans to rob the farmhouse.

Your Resources

Use the web and attached resources listed in the categories in which your roles belong. Make sure you read the background information about fairy tales as evidence for your arguments and web resources on creating persuasive writing pieces or steps in problem solving. REMEMBER: the more background information you have the better you will be able to defend your point! The brainstorming sheets on either creating an argument or the problem solving process may be really beneficial in planning for your final piece.

 Your Whole Group Can Benefit From These Websites

 Websites to Benefit the Role of Defense/Prosecutor

 *The brainstorming pages are useful for recording and organizing notes*

Websites to Benefit the Role of the Judge

*The brainstorming pages are useful for recording and organizing notes*

Once you are finished your individual reseach and planning

The whole group should meet together to discuss your arguments and the compromise. It is not a compromise until everyone in the group agrees with what is going to happen!

Complete your final write-ups and pass them into your teacher with a completed certificate for each group member. The teacher will sign the certificate when you have completed your task.

Prosecuter's Final Write-Up Page             

Defender's Final Write-Up Page

Judge's Final Write-Up Page

Completion Certificate

Your teacher will decide whether you will be asked to present your arguments to the class, participate in a mock trial, or pass them in without presentation.

 Click HERE to View Important Points for Evaluation