Writing is a means to understand theme and symbolism in fairy tales. Students can write a journal to analyze the titles of popular tales, such as "Snow White," "Little Red Riding Hood" or "Cinderella." Discuss each title and consider the colors or names associated with the main characters, leading students to understand how these could be symbolic. To uncover theme, students can rewrite a fairy tale from the antagonist's point of view, helping them speculate about how morals change based on perspective. Another method is to have students write their own tales with conflicts and morals, as Patricia Schulze does in her elementary school classes. This lesson can be transferred to higher grade levels by increasing the criteria and complexity of the stories.
Graphic organizers help students visualize techniques taking place in stories. For example, Connecticut teacher Meagan Berkowitz developed the S.I.F.T. method to teach symbolism, imagery, figurative language, tone and theme. Using highlighters to mark important words and charts to break down each of these concepts, students learn how to discuss a text and analyze it for key ideas. After a class reads a fairy tale, they can make a chart looking at the important items used. Creating a chart that identifies an item, how it's used in the story and what it represents makes an organized system for discussing symbols.
Group discussion sessions allow opportunities to create meaning and comprehend complex ideas. Have students prepare for a mock talk show by assigning them to portray different fairy tale characters. The student interviewer asks leading questions to deepen understandings of characters, morals and themes. Anticipation guides are also useful prereading strategies to get students into the topic surrounding fairy tales, which could springboard into discussions of themes. Finally, students can read fairy tales in groups and come up with items that represent the characters to create a creative puppet show for a lesson on symbolism.
Using a mixture of individual and group methods provides differentiated instruction for diverse learners. Sara Kaviar and Megan O'Keefe devised a leveled approach to teach theme in middle school classes. Students begin with a writing activity where they pair themes with quotations from various stories. Then, working in groups, students discuss character, conflict and resolution in famous fairy tales to uncover themes. To include the idea of how theme is tied to plot, students can write a different ending to their stories and analyze how changing the ending changes the themes. Finally, students again work in groups to write their own fairy tales based on a universal theme. By scaffolding these concepts, instructors can build on students' prior skills to help them master the content standards.