From the Brothers Grimm. A Teacher's Guide, free pdf

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From
the Brothers
Grimm
A Teacher's Guide
Produced by Tom Davenport
Other Davenport Films
From the Brothers Grimm
Making Grimm Movies (3 Part Series)
American Traditional Culture
Being a Joines
Born for Hard Luck (B&W)
The Shakers
Singing Stream
American Music
It Ain’t City Music
Equestrian Sports
Thoughts on Foxhunting
From
the Brothers
Grimm
A Teacher’s Guide
Produced by Tom Davenport
©Tom Davenport, 1993
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of
this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,
or stored in a database or retrieval system, with the prior written permission of
the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of Ameri­
can National Standard for Information Science — Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Material. ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1984.
ISBN 0-917846-22-2
Table o f Contents
Using the Guide 1
About Folktales 4
The Frog King, Or Faithful Henry 7
11
Bearskin
Hansel and Gretel 15
Rapunzel, Rapunzel 19
Bristlelip 23
The Goose Girl 27
Jack and the Dentist’s Daughter 31
Soldier Jack 35
Ashpet 39
Mutzmag 45
iii

Using the Guide
The Guide is intended for teachers who use either the Frog King in American settings, offering class­
the book From the Brothers Grimm: A Contemporary room audiences themes which have survived for gen­
Retelling of American Folktales and Classic Stories, by erations.
Tom Davenport and Gary Carden (Ft. Atkinson, Folktales evolved as family and community stories—
WI: Highsmith Press, 1992) or the ten films or vid­ narratives told and retold by nonprofessionals to
eos that comprise the series From the Brothers Grimm: audiences composed of children, young people, their
American Versions of Folktale Classics (Delaplane, VA: parents, and other adults. Perhaps because of these
Davenport Films). Titles in this series include Ashpet; communal origins, folktales by their very nature
Bearskin; Bristlelip; Frog King; Goose Girl; Ftansel and appeal to audiences of all ages.
Gretel; Jack and the Dentist’s Daughter; Mutzmag;
In addition, the tales are adaptable to more than one
Rapunzel, Rapunzel; and Soldier Jack. The Guide is
curriculum area. Because the stories were transmitted
divided into eleven parts. The first part is an intro­
orally, they have strong skeletons in terms of their lit­
ductory section intended to provide background for
erary structure, and are thus apt subjects for a lan­
all teachers who use the Guide, book or the films and
guage arts curriculum. They also deal in an unusually
videos in the series.
compact and meaningful way with “life issues,” or
Following the introduction, the Guide is divided critical life stages, and therefore lend themselves to
into ten separate sections for each of the stories in the discussions in the context of a social studies curricu­
book and each film or video. Each of these sections lum.
opens with general background on the story, and fol­
These factors help explain why the stories can be
lowing are sets of lesson plans suggested for use with
used for teaching at a number of grade levels. While a
the book, film or video. The lesson plans for each of
second-grade teacher might use “The Frog King” to
four grade levels (grades 2-3, grades 4-6, grades 7-9,
help students learn what “point of view” is, the
and grades 10-12).
teacher of a twelfth-grade literature class could use
ABOUT THE BOOK AND FILM/VIDEO the same program to explore how acknowledging
SERIES other people’s points of view contributes to growth
From the Brothers Grimm: American Versions of Folk­ and development. The lesson plans contained in this
tale Classics is a series of ten live-action programs guide are designed to enable teachers to address the
directed by Tom Davenport and produced by Daven­ stories and films at levels appropriate to their own
port Films. The programs range from fifteen to fifty- students.
three minutes in length. Each is a dramatic interpre­ The stories and films in this series serve two pur­
tation of a folktale from the classic early-nineteenth- poses, then. They bring young audiences into contact
century collection by the Grimm brothers or an with classic folktales—part of our universal heri­
adaptation of an American folktale. The book From tage—and show the relevance of the tales. The series
the Brothers Grimm: A Contemporary Retelling of also provides a way for students to examine essential
American Folktales and Classic Stories was adapted elements of critical thinking and literature.
from the films by Tom Davenport and playwright
These tales all end happily. But it should be empha­
Gary Carden. The book and films are designed to
sized that they do not necessarily have easily-stated
stimulate students’ and teachers’ interest in the rich
morals as do, for example, Aesop’s fables. They are
cultural heritage of folktales. The series brings to life
concerned with individual growth, and for that rea­
such universal characters as Hansel and Gretel and
son some of the tales touch on sensitive subjects.
1
Through their plots, the tales give recognition to the teachers to see how the suggested lesson plans in the
fact that life is sometimes difficult and growth some­ Guide fit into an overall curriculum.
times painful. This may make it clearer to secondary
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
students that folktales are not “just for children.”
This guide was prepared by K. Deborah Taub and
ABOUT THE GUIDE Laura Robb with assistance from Laura Colker,
This Guide is provided as an aid to teachers who Ph.D. and Charles Flatter, Ph. D. Additional assis­
wish to use the book or series in an instructional set­ tance came from Nancy Kaufman, Sydney Manley,
ting. The first part contains general information, Maureen Gaffney, Barbara F. Geyger, Janice Morrill,
including background on the Brothers Grimm and and Jack Zipes, Ph.D.
on the nature of folktales. Suggestions for further
Funding for the film adaptations was provided by the
folktale readings for both teachers and students are
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National
also included.
Endowment for the Humanities, the Virginia Foun­
The main part of the Guide is divided into ten sec­ dation for the Humanities, The Virginia Commis­
tions on each story or film/video, containing further sion for the Arts, and the Arthur Vining Davis
background on the specific story and suggested les­ Foundations.
son plans, one set for each of four grade-level group­
NOTE: The filmmaker welcomes reactions on the
ings.
series and the curriculum, and further curriculum
The lesson plans are made available for two reasons. suggestions, from both students and teachers.
First, they provide a curriculum that can be usefully Though every letter may not be answered, all will be
incorporated into other classroom work. appreciated. Comments should be addressed to Tom
Second, the subject matter of the tales in this book Davenport, Davenport Films, Inc., 11324 Pearlstone
and film/video series is sometimes strong and in a Lane, Delaplane, Virginia 22025.
few cases somewhat controversial. In an indirect,
symbolic fashion, the stories deal with issues that are
sensitive, but also vital to children and adolescents. A
few examples are family dynamics, assuming respon­
sibility, and physical growth. As a balance, the stories
also bring a collective wisdom to bear on these issues.
This may help students feel that difficult experiences
can lead to growth and independence. It is hoped
that the lesson plans will provide a framework for
addressing such issues (through general discussions
or additional reading and writing assignments).
Included in the lesson plan for each story and film/
video is a short section (“INTERPRETING THE
STORY”) which may help teachers and students
relate the tales to modern life. Teachers are encour­
aged not only to read these interpretive sections
themselves before they introduce the stories in the
book or see the films, but also to read them again
after seeing the films—and even to use copies of
them as classroom handouts for upper grades.
The lesson plans are intended to be somewhat flexi­
ble. Nevertheless, teachers are encouraged to adjust
the lesson plans for their own students. In addition,
the series will support learning objectives other than
those developed in this Guide. Teachers with differ­
ent instructional objectives may wish to create their
own lesson plans to suit those objectives.
On the next page, a chart sets out the purpose of
each lesson at each grade level. This will enable
2 From the Brothers Grimm: A Teacher’s Guide
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3
About Folktales
FOLKTALES ARE FOR EVERYONE The stories take place in a kind of never-never land
In our culture, folktales are often classified as “chil­ where anything is possible. Humble heroes can kill
dren’s stories.” But folktales have always been an giants and become kings, young people can be
important part of our universal heritage, and they are bewitched into animal shapes, and castles can vanish
meant for everyone. It has even been said that the overnight or reappear in an instant.
Grimms’ folktales rank next to the Bible or Shakes­
INTERPRETATION
peare’s plays in importance.
There is no single “right” interpretation of the tales.
The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm first pub­ Folktales have been compared to many-faceted jew­
lished Kinder und Hausmaerchen in German in two els, which show different meanings as they are turned
volumes between 1812 and 1815. Tales for Children this way and that. Each storyteller, in fact, will retell
and the Home subsequently went through seven edi­ a folktale differently. A folktale can even change to
tions in which the brothers added tales and made become more “relevant” for a particular group in a
changes in the text of their original publication. They particular time and place, but still keep its basic ele­
collected these tales from storytellers among ordinary ments intact. In the end, the meaning of a folktale
people and from books. There is some disagreement does not lie in the story itself, but in the minds of the
about how much the Grimms reworked the tales. audience. A tale may have different meanings for dif­
But in general, folklore scholars feel that their collec­ ferent people—and all of those meanings may be
tion (more than 200 tales) faithfully retells the stories true.
as they were handed down among the folk, even
Because it is difficult to show complicated characters
though the Grimms stylized them. Some of the vid­
in a story that is told out loud, folktale characters
eos in the From the Brothers Grimm series are based
tend to be one-dimensional types. Good characters
on tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. Others
are innocent and/or clever, while bad characters are
like Jack and the Dentist’s Daughter, Soldier Jack, Ash-
bad. The important thing in a folktale is the clash of
pet, and Mutzmag are American folktales that are
opposing forces, how they interact during the story.
related to ones in the Grimms’ collection.
There is usually little need for dialogue. Through the
DEFINITION growth and development of the main character, good
In English, the brothers’ collection is popularly almost always triumphs in a folktale. Justice is very
known as Grimms Fairy Tales, but the title is mislead­ predictable. The bad characters usually get exactly
ing because few of the stories are about fairies. A what they deserve—nothing more and nothing less.
more accurate description of these tales would be
“TYPES” AND “MOTIFS”
“Folktales” because these stories came from “the peo­
The fact that a whole society “creates” its folktales
ple” as a whole. They were told out loud over and
means that the symbols, characters and actions in the
over again, usually by older people who handed them
stories usually have a particular cultural significance.
down to younger generations.
At the same time, the story “types” transcend politi­
There are folktales all over the world; every culture cal and ethnic boundaries. For example, there are
has stories that its people repeat to each other in hundreds of variations of the popular “Cinderella”
homes, villages, and towns. And because they were tale found in cultures from China to America. Folk­
originally told out loud (transmitted orally), the tales have been classified into recurring types, or tradi­
Grimms’ tales and other folktales are different from tional plots. Within these plot types, many motif—
stories “written” by one person. the building blocks of plots—recur.
4