“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”—Albert Einstein
February is full of love, pride, historical connection, celebration, and the annual observation of a precognitive weather-forecasting rodent—but it’s also the birth month of a storytelling legend. Whilem Carl Grimm, the younger of the Brothers Grimm, was born on February 24, 1786. The Brothers Grimm wrote the fairy tales that inspired many Disney movies—but the Cinderella you see on the screen is not the same as the one from folklore. The Grimms did not intend to write children’s stories, but rather to collect and preserve the rich German oral tradition of stories “about children and families and . . . the difficult conditions under which they lived” (as described by Jack Zipes for the National Endowment for the Humanities). This preservation of language and history through stories was the most natural way for the brothers to maintain German Volk culture, which was threatened by society’s progress. These stories are more than just fairy tales; they are moral lessons that shape a culture and teach us to persevere and overcome hardships. Sometimes we don’t live happily ever after, and that is an important lesson.
In honor of Whilem Grimm’s birthday, let’s bring fairy tales, fables, and myths into our English and literature classrooms! These three types of stories are often interchanged. Let’s clarify the distinctions:
- Fairy tale: Short stories that fall under the folklore genre that entertain children with fantastical worlds, magic, and battles between good and evil.
- Fable: Short stories that use personified animals to teach moral lessons with the intention to promote good social behaviors.
- Myth: Stories that explain the natural world or teach larger societal lessons and generally pertain to gods and/or epic heroes. Generally, these stories have a religious ideology and help readers understand the “why” of the world.
One thing that these three have in common is that they stem from the oral tradition.
How can we use these stories in our classes? Let’s look at some practical integration ideas for each story type.
Fairy Tales:
- Fairy tales and fables tend to lend themselves to the elementary realm, as younger children are the intended audience. Use fairy tales to excite students with highly engaging stories of magical curses, dragons, and royal families. Use resources such as Classic Fairy Tales (reviewed here) and Andersen Fairy Tales (reviewed here) to provide students with visual representations of the stories. Students may already know the basics of the story, so use that familiarity to discuss different representations of the stories and characters (Disney’s Frozen versus Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” for example). Get students reading the fairy tales aloud—they’re from the oral tradition after all, so have fun with it!
- For the middle level, kick the foundation laid in elementary school up a notch. Fairy tales follow a formula, making them ideal for teaching students about the narrative arc. Have students identify the exposition, inciting incident, conflict, and other story elements. Fairy tales are also character and setting-rich. Analyze character development throughout the story. Introduce the idea of the setting being a form of a literary character—it’s so much more than just a place and time.
- For high school, have students examine the cultural lessons in the stories (this is why the Grimms collected them in the first place!). Little Red Riding Hood is more than a story of a little girl bringing treats to grandma. Have students analyze the symbols and their meanings to reveal the true intention of the story (check out this article from Owlcation for an example of this type of analysis). You could also have students compare and contrast fairy tales from other cultures. The American Library Association has a great resource by Mary Northrup called “Multicultural Cinderella Stories”, which highlights some of the 500 worldwide variations of a Cinderella story. The beauty of fairy tales is that they are accessible to most high school readers because they’re written for a younger audience; older students can dig deeper with the analysis without navigating a complicated text. Be mindful to read the stories all the way through and encourage students to make no assumptions; some of the original fairy tales are pretty dark and gruesome—that’s why I love the Brothers Grimm!
Fables:
- Fables are tailor-made for elementary readers and are super engaging. Who doesn’t love it when the cocky hare is put in his place by the tenacious tortoise? Fables are not just for teaching moral lessons; you can also use them to cultivate critical thinking skills. Read this article from Edutopia by Vincent Mastro, “Common Core, Critical Thinking and Aesop’s Fables,” for ideas. For engaging visuals, try using the Aesop’s Fables site (reviewed here), where Professor Copper Golith has her Computing in Fine Arts students create visual representations of the fables. Students can read the stories and draw their own representations.
- For middle school, you could use Professor Golith’s Labyrinth of Fables, where students can experience the fables in virtual reality. Students are asked to identify the morals to continue, which helps them understand the text’s central meaning. Students can also work on making inferences. Give them the first part of the fable and have them infer the ending.
- High school students can use fables to improve their creative writing skills. Have students listen to Flyest Fables (reviewed here), an interconnected podcast of modernized fables. Students can then use this as inspiration to create their own modern fable and work together to create a podcast series with a shared frame tale that connects each student’s story.
Myths:
- Myths at the elementary level tend to be watered-down versions, which is not necessarily a bad idea. Readers need a lot of nuanced understanding of culture, religion, and people to grasp myths, but it’s important to connect younger learners with these stories. When Lunar New Year comes around, teach students about Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess. When teaching about the days of the week, sneak in tales of the Norse gods they are named for. As autumn gives way to winter, tell the story of Demeter, who mourns her daughter, Persephone, every time she returns to the underworld.
- Mythweb (reviewed here) is a great resource for Greek myths. Assign students a specific god or hero to research and then teach the class about. Students can play the interactive web game “The Wrath of the Gods,” created by the Mythweb team.
- At the high school level, myths can be used as cultural portals. Crash Course World Mythology (reviewed here) is a great resource for teaching myths from around the world. Create a major project in which students pick a culture to investigate and watch the Pantheon videos for that culture. Students can research stories using Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts (reviewed here) and go further with their chosen culture. Herbel Santiago wrote “Retelling Myths to Foster Creativity and Cultural Identity” for Edutopia, which offers a wonderful project that allows students to share their cultural identity. You could also use the oral tradition to experiment with analyzing how transcription affects the stories. Aimee Gish-Meier, American Indian Education Coordinator of the White Earth Nation, reminds us that, “When oral history is written, that which has been passed down from generation to generation through storytelling, the words lose something, seemingly dulling their spirit, leaving the reader to attach emotion, determine meaning, and find understanding”. Having students look at texts under this lens leads to rich analysis that deepens their understanding of the story’s cultural connections.
Whilem Grimm would rather we use his work for cultural exploration and understanding than mere children’s stories. Let’s honor his true work this year by leveraging fairy tales, fables, and myths to their true potential.