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Teacher's Notes: The Cinderella story has a long history and many variations. A comparison of Cinderella stories leads students to explore the ways values change over time and the ways archetypal stories are appropriated into modern culture. In this task students explore a range of Cinderella stories online. As usual the task works well if the workload is divided. Allocate a story to each student and then ask students to work with a team of 4 students, each with a different story to compare and contrast. This task works well if students are given  some areas to note: characters, plot, theme, setting, values and then use a matrix to summarise the similarities and differences. (You can find an annotated version of Cinderella at Sur La Lune Fairytales) This lesson may be useful when year 9 get their laptops!

Expectations:

• read different versions of Cinderella.

• compare different versions in a matrix or table.

• determine the qualities of women/girls valued in the version of the story.

1. Open the table Compare and Contrast. Save a copy to your files.

2. Complete Column 1 on the Cinderella story.

2. Complete Column 2 on the story you have been allocated.

4. Save and print a copy

5. Meet with your team and compare the four versions of the story.

• List the similarities and differences.

• Describe the different qualities girls need, according to the stories.

• Consider the qualities boys need. Are they similar in each story?

Share your ideas with the class. If you are looking for a visual and interesting way to show what you have discovered: Try creating a 'poster' in Glogster, a 'living graph' from Classtools.net, a visual discussion with Sketchcast or create a word cloud at wordle.net.

 Four versions of Cinderella

1.Tattercoats

2. The Princess and the Golden Shoes

3. Rushen Coatie (also known as Cap O'Rushes)

4. The Twelve Months